Help again from the Car Guys!

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Hi Folks,
Spent the morning on line trying to find wiring diagrams for a Bendix Ford Mustang stereo radio that my son got at a garage sale, and wants me to sell it on e-bay for him. I wanted to test it to see if it works but am stumped as to which wires I need to put 12 volts to?
Some guys online say that the unit grounds to the dashboard by its case.
I spent hours looking for wiring and looking at photos of old mustang radios but none that I have found that look like this unit have the color wires coming out of the radio that look like these.
Also it has a sticker on the side that is marked 1974 however I do not think Bendix was making radios then. This unit actually looks like a 1967 mustang radio.

Anyway, I have photos of the plugs coming out of the radio below.
Anyone venture which wires or wire I have to energize to see if it turns on?

IMG_1442.jpgIMG_1443.jpg
 

bruce381

Active Member
not wanting to fry it get a wireing manual for the car and start there otherwise maybe use a conductivity meter?
Ian do you know?
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure the radio grounds through the bolt on the back of the carriage too.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I had a '66 hard top but the original radio had already been replaced.
 

bruce381

Active Member
"I had a '66 hard top but the original radio had already been replaced."

?? I had a 65 but had no radio when I got it but had good tires. LOL

Take cover off and follow wires?
 

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
Had a 71 But its been 35 years if i remember right it had 3 positives the main hot ran to an internal fuse so take the top off should see it right off. Every pre 80 Ford I owned grounded the speakers thru the chassis
 
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Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Hi Folks,
Spent the morning on line trying to find wiring diagrams for a Bendix Ford Mustang stereo radio that my son got at a garage sale, and wants me to sell it on e-bay for him. I wanted to test it to see if it works but am stumped as to which wires I need to put 12 volts to?
Some guys online say that the unit grounds to the dashboard by its case.
I spent hours looking for wiring and looking at photos of old mustang radios but none that I have found that look like this unit have the color wires coming out of the radio that look like these.
Also it has a sticker on the side that is marked 1974 however I do not think Bendix was making radios then. This unit actually looks like a 1967 mustang radio.

Anyway, I have photos of the plugs coming out of the radio below.
Anyone venture which wires or wire I have to energize to see if it turns on?

View attachment 23006

Anything from that era I've ever seen has one power wire and one ground and they are uniformly along the "red =power, black=ground" idea. I've never seen anything like that. You may be able to pull the case apart and trace out the power and ground. Same for speakers.
 

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
Blue wire on Most aftermarket radios was the power antenna wire or remote wire to turn on an amplifier. Those plugs sure don't look factory. But it is a Ford so............
 

Petrol & Powder

Well-Known Member
If it is truly a stereo radio (meaning it outputs a left & right channel to a left and right speaker) it will have at least two speaker wires, one for each channel (left & right) and either a common ground or a separate ground for each speaker. While Ford did often ground the speaker via the chassis, I think the stereo systems, as opposed to the mono systems, had a dedicated ground wire for each speaker.

Some radios of that era had a lighted dial that just illuminated at one level of brightness when the radio was on, and some had illuminated dials that could be dimmed with the instrument panel lights. If the dial illumination changes with the instrument panel lights, that requires a dedicated wire just for the lights in the dial. MOST American manufactures paired the radio power wire and the dial illumination wire in the same plug together. All of those old radios grounded via the metal radio chassis, but some had an extra dedicated ground wire, and some didn’t.

Some radios of that era had a 12-volt output lead that controlled a power antenna. Not every car had a power antenna, but it was cheaper to make all of the radios with that output and only connect that lead when required. That lead was often, but not always, a standalone plug with a single wire.

In your example, without seeing the actual radio, I think the lower photo with the black/yellow wire and the white/red – wires going to the plug with the unused bullet connector; are possibly the speaker outputs. Ford liked to use those types of bullet connectors for speaker outputs. HOWEVER, it looks backwards to me. That plug with the lone male bullet connector should be on the radio side, not the speaker side???? Like someone cut that connector off a different radio ????

The red wire should be the power wire and the yellow/black wire should be the panel lights/dial lights. Those are usually paired together. AGAIN – it looks backwards in your photo. Not sure what I’m looking at there.

I think you have a radio that has been swapped from car to car to car over a long life.
 
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JWFilips

Well-Known Member
OK Just reading you suggestions this morning and I had a real DUUUUH! moment!
Just popped the case top off and traced the wires! ( I'm getting old)
Turns out The bottom photo ( Radio side) The Black/red is the power in & it grounds on the case! The Red White is the radio lamp
The top photo is the Speaker wires Red & white are the hot audio and the lavender center one is the common ground

Thank you guys for getting my brain working!
 

Petrol & Powder

Well-Known Member
THAT MAKES A LOT MORE SENSE.

Ignore what I sent you in the private message, I was assuming the two wire lead was the speaker output based on the plugs that were attached.
Now that I can see the radio itself, it clearly shows the wire for the dial lamp going to the two pin connector, which makes the other half of that the main power feed for the radio.
 

glassparman

"OK, OK, I'm going as fast as I don't want to go!"
Let me run out to what is left of my shop, I think the radio manual for my '62 Fairlane survived