Re: Packard Radios

Posted by HH56 On 2015/3/5 16:34:11

Sounds like you've given it some thought. The gut part on a working radio is what I think most would object to and seems to be the only thing all the conversion places want to do. Those probably all use a generic commercially available radio in a chip setup. I guess I can understand getting rid of all the excess to avoid future problems -- but once done, it is done forever. If the place that did the conversion is gone or unknown, in some cases as we have found on the forum, the radio is inoperative and unrepairable because of the unknown work or components after a car changed hands.


The T taps or IMO, better would be a cut and reroute thru a relay is kind of what I was thinking. You could keep the relay off and use the N.C. contacts to maintain the original circuit and no one would be the wiser as to a mods existence. Plug your module in -- wherever you decide to place it -- and the relay would switch and bring the tuning signals etc out the N.O. contacts to your board while disconnecting the signals from the old radio. Hopefully those not immediately needed components would just sit there and do nothing until the module was unplugged -- then you magically have an original radio again.

If the module failed and was on a plug then just unplugging it should restore original operation. Leave a little sticker inside detailing what the relay is for and how it operates. If the module quit then at least someone could unplug it to kill the relay & restore the circuits and the radio shouldn't be a total loss. The unknown part of relays, aside from crosspickup would be possibly the need for a dual contact setup so that when signals are switched out on the first, is a second needed to tie down a floating input or output somewhere.