05 apr 2020
Sometimes six ancient transistors, or four of them plus a few even older electron tubes, are more interesting than the billion transistors in modern electronics. I know that I went through some effort to install a/the radio in my 1968 Rambler American, filling the ruined hole in the panel with a restored AM/FM radio from a Gremlin.
Car radios were options, often expensive, and nearly always lowly AM. By the 1970's "we" demanded FM and cassette (or the unfortunate 8-track) and I hacked large holes in the panels of cars to install them so that theives could pry open my vent window and steal them.
Today I have stealth high power stereo with low-passed separate subwoofer and built-in bluetooth that is literally velcro'd onto the heater box. My phone today has more storage than the NSA had in 1980 plus streaming.
Today the boring old AM radios of the past are a lot more interesting than they had been then and lots of us are sticking back in.
If we can find them.
Well, you might try this site called... Identifying Car Radios. Many Rambler/AMC radios are here. This person has done such a good job I'm not bothering to seek out photos etc, and will concentrate on the "official" Rambler/AMC data instead. There's more model and visual information here than in the factory documentation!
Also try the clutterly and very 1990's Radio Museum. Somewhat hit and miss for american car radios, but a good site.
Below is a compilation of data gleaned from Factory Parts catalogs and Technical Service Manuals (TSM). Radios are a Group 15 (Accessories) part, specifically 15.320 across all years. The data recorded in these official documents is pretty sparse. Radios were clearly an afterthought.
This is in chronological order, with reference(s) to the appropriate parts catalog.
"No data" means that I have no catalog nor TSM for that year.
1957 TSM: No mention of radio found, other than drawing incidentally labelling radio knobs in Instrument Panel section.
No data.
No data.
No data.
1961 American TSM: Motorola Model 13 MAM (manual tuning), Motorola Model 13 MA (pushbutton tuning), [tomj 'hybrid' transistor and tube], No mention of speaker impedance.
Photo and info at RadioMuseum.org 13MAM
1961 Classic, Ambassador TSM: Motorola Model 04MA, [tomj 'hybrid' tube and transistor], Some ambiguity here. Spuriously mentions model 14MR ("All speakers used (Radio Model 14MR) are special and not interchangable...") Speaker impedance 20 ohms (only). [tomj 8 ohm or less speakers likely harm the antique output transistor]
1962 American TSM: Bendix Model 22 BAM (manual tuning), Bendix Model 22BA (pushbutton tuning), [tomj these are 'hybrid' radios -- transistors and tubes] 20 ohm speaker (only). [tomj 8 ohm or less speakers likely harm the antique output transistor] 1962 Classic, Ambassador TSM: Motorola Model 2TMR, "All speakers used (Model 2TMR) are special and not interchangable with types commonly available [tomj in 1962]." Ambiguous statement about a front speaker may be installed in rear if "full 8 ohm winding" is used.
1963 Classic, Ambassador TSM: Motorola Model 3TMR, Motorola product sheet, 8 ohm speaker (from Motorola specification). 1963 American TSM: Bendix 3TBAM (manual tuning), Bendix Model 3TBA (pushbutton tuning).
No data.
1965 American TSM: Bendix Model 5TBAM (manual tuning), Bendix 5TBA (pushbutton tuning),
1966 American TSM: Motorola Model 6SMAM (manual tuning), Motorola Model 6SMA (pushbutton)
1967 TSM: Motorola 7SMR pushbutton AM radio, Motorola AF7MRY pushbutton AM-FM.
No data.
1969 TSM: American AM Motorola C9SMA, Rebel, Ambassador AM Motorola C9SMR, Rebel, Ambassador AM-FM Motorola F9SMR, Javelin, AMX AM Motorola C9SMG, Javelin, AMX AM-FM Motorola F9SMG, Javelin AMX AM-tape Motorola A9SMG.
Javelin AMX 1970 TSM: No mention of radio models. "Transistorized pushbutton radios are available on all Series except the 30-70 Series radio-tape player combination which has manual tuning." All speakers are 8 ohms.
No data.
1972 TSM: "Transistorized pushbutton radios are available on all Series except the 70 Series radio-tape player combination which has manual tuning." Speakers are 8 or 3.2 ohms. AM/FM radios require 3.2 ohms, with a warning about not using the wrong impedence.
This Parts Catalog does not ever reference "radio" nor is there any illustration other than the antenna. "Radio" is not in the Alphebetic index but "Antenna" is. 15.320-1 is "Attaching parts, radio to instrument panel". There is no radio mentioned.
To complicate things even further, my copy of the this parts catalog is missing pages T7, T8, T9, T10 covering group 15 parts 15.320-7 through -42, radio parts. Antenna
No radio illustrations. Missing pages? IL3 is last illustrations page. Does not include radios! GR15 T1 GR15 T2 GR15 T5 GR15 T6
T7, T8, T9, T10 missing. GR15 T11 GR15 T12
No data.
No data.
('75 Hornet/Gremlin AM-FM radio is Motorola 5HT3510 or variant, from IdentifyingCarRadios site above. Mine has different knobs, and does not have the horizontal slider fader along the top; there is a front/rear fader concentric with the frequency knob.)
No TSM. The parts catalog states, only for year 1978: 01-40, AM, CB, 323-1847 01-40, AM, FM, CB, 323-1848 16-60-80, AM, CB, 323-1849 16-60-80, AM, FM, CB, 323-1850. No part numbers given for 1973 through 1977.
I have no catalogs for 1979 up.
No data. 1980 1980 TSM: "All radios are transistorized with pushbutton tuning and have an output impedance of 3.2 ohms." "Radio manufactured date, model, and serial number is stamped on the right side of the radio case (fig. 3-125)." 1981 TSM: "All radios are transistorized and have an output impedance of 3.2 ohms." "Radio manufactured date, model, and serial number is stamped on the right side of the radio case." 1982 TSM: "All radios are a solid state design and have 3.2 ohms impedance except for the electroncially tuned AM/FM/Cassette which has an impedance of 8.0 ohms." "Radio manufactured date, model, and serial number is stamped on the right side of the radio case."
No data.
No data.
No data.
No data.
No data.
No data.
