Nightmare to me- how do you pull the radio?

[tommyg29]

72 Roadrunner.
After almost 3 hours contorting my self like a circus freak, Im about to take a hammer to the chaepo freakin wood grain panel.
There seems to be some fastener holding it against the panel, attached from behind and I cant get to it. Its an am-fm unit with the tape connector, and I of course removed the outer two nuts and disconnected the nut on the side to the bracket. What else is there?
Im removing it because Im trying to get the whole panel out. What a nightmare so far
Thanks for any advice.

 

[idrivemopar]

If its like 73 then remove the entire radio before removing the cluster. There is a hidden bolt on the right side front of the radio, you have to remove your ash tray assembly to get at it.

 

[tommyg29]

Thank you
I figured it out though, but my am-fm is similar. That little bolt hole about 1.5" to the right of the right most station button, on the side was it. Only accessible through a hole in the ash tray opening. I also removed one of the ventilation ducts which was kind of in the way too.
Cleaning up 40 years of dust and dirt, cleaning it all up, and tomorrow I will tackle the panel again. Hard part is the ventilation control area now. I want to take the panel out to paint the wood grain, and clean up the inside of the lenses, etc.


PS
Picked up a new dixco 3 wire hood tach. Going to paint it black and wire it in this weekend maybe. Hope it doesnt need an adaptor. Im running the oem ignition system.

 

[Lionized]

That hood tach is awesome!
Did it come with any literature/is it a NOS piece? It should say whether or not it's for electronic ignition. It being three wire makes sense: NEG coil, IGN power and ground.

 

[Bruzilla]

The one in my 74 had a brace that mounts to the back of the radio that I had to disconnect.

One note of warning though. When I pulled my radio, I found my turn signals no longer worked! I spent weeks troubleshooting this and got nowhere. Then I read on another forum that power for the turn signals is routed through the radio and I had to cut and splice the two power wires going to the radio to get my signals working again. I've been told time and again by some folks on this forum that this is not the case, but I know what I did and what I had to do to get the signals working again, and I'm not the only one who's had this problem.

 

[tommyg29]

Thanks guys.
Bruzilla, in my radio trouble searches, I saw your exchanges with some of the other members. I will keep that in mind.
As for the dixco hood tach, its a brand new ebay unit I bought. It should be a lot more reliable than the originals, and it should look cool. Ive always wanted one.
In cleaning out my radio, there was probably a spoonfull of dirt and sand that came out of it. I hope it still works after all the shaking I did to it when "cleaning"
Now to get back to trying to get the panel out.

 

[72RoadrunnerGTX]

In the interest of only accurate information being posted here, the power to the turn signals does not run through the radio. Simply disconnecting the original radio connector form an intact dash harness will not cause the turn signals not to function. As stated before, the turn signal power source runs through the radio power connector in the dash harness, not the radio. If this connector is cut off, or disturbed in some way, the two wires (black & red with white trace) that were crimped together in one female Packard connector originally, will need to be re-connected together again to restore turn signal function. Referring to any of the wiring diagrams will verify this as FACT.

 

[tommyg29]

So, the connector you can see at the bottom of my picture above, which only has the one orange and one red wire, should connect to a 4 wire receptor, and the signal connection turns back within the connection.
OK, thanks