Am Radio Power Tie In, Stock 1964 CJ5

I have a stock 64 CJ5 with a recently repaired OE AM Radio. Where, in the original wiring/switches would that have been tied in to provide 12v power? Headlight circuit breaker? Or should I run a new fused wire to the battery?

 

AM radio are subject to ignition noise so better would be directly to the battery. If you are running a generator you need a suppressor for that and another on the coil.

 

If your ignition key switch has an "accessory" position, possibly there, with a inline fuse. Just my .02.

If it's only an AM radio what will you do for music in the PM?

 

Not sure I will even be able to hear it.
Where would the "accessory" position be? A terminal on the switch?
Thanks

 

There was a thread here recently about Jeep ignition switches. All depends on the year, apparently.

When I was a boy and Hector was a pup, auto key-switches had an ACC position (left of Off), so you could listen to the radio without the ignition circuit being hot. But when you set the key to OFF, the radio would not drain the battery overnight.

On the back of the switch an extra terminal often marked ACC. Or use trial and error.

 

I wonder how many people under 30 would even understand what this song is talking about...

 

Out of curiosity, could you post a picture of the radio, where did they mount it?
Wheres the the speaker and antenna located.
I ask because I have never seen an OE radio in a jeep that early.

 

AM is interesting, but in my experience, there is no longer any programming other than talk radio and specialty (ie Mariachi) music. Top 40 and other forms of mainstream music are pretty much gone from AM, moved to FM or satellite.

I looked at the '72 diagram, and I don't see any wire dedicated to a radio. If '72-73 did not have it, I expect earlier years did not either. We've been through the radio discussion before, and I believe we concluded that there's no official Jeep accessory radio prior to 1975. There may have been a Jeep special equipment radio, but we have not seen any evidence of it. My parts books don't show one.

If I wanted switched power, I'd probably tap off of the heater or cigar lighter circuit. Both of these are heavy enough to supply a radio in addition to their usual function.

 

We sure get a lot of AM stations around here, but they're all in spanish as they are broadcast from Cuba! I think we (USA) still broadcast our stuff to Cuba via the Radio Marti towers in Marathon, an hour south of me. Not much Mariachi music, but some real classic Cuban tunes!
-Donny

 

Here's a picture of the Radio. I mounts thru the dash just below the dash handle. We have discussed before and concluded it was dealer installed option.
There never was an antenna on the jeep that I could find. I bought one from jeepsterman which seems to be a good copy of early antennas.
The speaker, I bought one of the plastic enclosures from the fellow that seems to be no longer in business. Mounts against the right side kind of by your toe.

 

If you want to hear the radio.......and have a roll cage a speaker behind your head on both sides works OK.........and where ever you pick the 12 volts up from , of course a fuse and noise suppressor in line would be helpful. The other thing is most of those old radios did not like to get wet........I started putting in marine AM/FM radios that are sealed.

 

This is the same Bendix AM radio I have.

 

Nice radio! I remember being a kid and driving around with my Dad, born in 1925 (I was born in 1973) who never listened to FM. Always 910AM or AM590 (The Mighty 590!) WWII jazz, complete with excerpts from news stories of that era! If they had AM like that on today, I'd install a radio!

 

First station I ever heard that wasn't AM was WBCN in Boston, around 1968. Blew my mind with the relatively much less commercial format, and "radical" music playlists.
Nowadays AM is the "alternative."

Anyone remember Charles Laquidara and "the Big Mattress?"

 

WSBA 910 is still broadcasting here in southern PA,...... York. Talk radio. I can't listen to it much.

I like that old radio you have there. My JEEP had an AM radio in it when I got it, along with an FM converter. Both are long gone now. Wish I still had them.

 

When I grew up in the 60's AM was all we had.......and something unique for us in the West was a personality that rocked the air waves late at night from just over the boarder in Mexico call "Wolf Man Jack" who was further immortalized in the Film American Graffiti.

 

Jack was in Mexico? Didn't know that.

 

Any station with a call sign like XERB "the mighty 1090" is broadcasting from Mexico. IIRC locating across the border allowed the station to circumvent the FCCs limit of 50kW power... so-called "border blasters." Call signs starting with W are eastern US (there are a few exceptions), K is western US, and X is Mexico, with XE being AM and XH being FM.

Reaching all the west from Rosarita Beach BC is not surprising. I used to use my little AM table radio and a long wire to listen to east coast AM stations from Culver City CA when I was 8 or 9. Distance is the main advantage of AM over FM, although the fidelity (both in noise and audio bandwidth) of FM is way way better than AM.

 

Yep...........had to be ............as at night when most USA based radio stations were mandated to cut back there transmit wattage to 25k or less while in Mexico he would crank it up and broadcast at over a 100k.............blanketing the West selling Items and filling in with Rock Music.