How I listen to my Ipod, Android or Iphone through the tube 53' Merc radio

[Merc Cruzer]

Nothing technical, no schematics to read, just follow the pictures. No drilling, I just used an existing hole in the cover. $3.12 total cost.

Remove the radio from the car

Picture #1
Remove the 4 screws form the top cover

Picture # 2
Remove the 2 screws from the top frame of the front of the radio

Picture # 3
Remove the screw from the back of the top cover

Picture # 4
Turn radio over and remove back bracket ( two nuts) ( upper right corner of picture) and then remove the cover.

Picture # 5
Turn radio back over. This is the Volume circuit. You will cut the green wire in the middle solder a 10" piece of wire to both ends of the green wire. I then put shrink tubeing over both wires just to make it cleaner.

Picture # 6
This is the jack you will be installing. You will solder a wire on to #1 (ground) and then to the cover. The other two wires will be solder to posts 2 & 3

Picture # 7 & # 8
Lace the wires down through the chassis of the radio and then install the jack in the hole already in the cover marked OSC (no drilling required.)

Picture # 9 & # 10
Bench test the radio to make sure the radio still plays and you can get a channel or at least hear the static. You will need to plug in an antenna.

Picture # 11
While the radio is playing, insert one end of the plug in to the output or head set jack of the CD player (in picture) and then the other end of the plug into the jack you installed on the radio. You should now hear what is playing on the CD player.

Picture # 12
The green wire that is the heart of the whole project.

If you did it correctly, when you insert the plug into the jack on the radio you will immediately hear what ever is playing on the CD player. The volume should be turned up on the CD player and then the volume will be controlled by the radio volume knob and the tone knob. When you remove the plug the radio will return to the station you were listening to on the radio.

This system simply uses the radios tube amplifier to power the input signal from the jack.

Roy

[34PKUP]

$3.12 total cost? Would have to buy a CD player which I threw away with the introduction of MP3 players. Would the MP3 player work (with plug adapter)?

[Merc Cruzer]

The MP3 player, ipod or old transistor radio with AM/FM should work. Anything with a earphone/headset jack. Be careful of voltage spikes on radios that have not had the capacitors replace. I am starting out with old stuff and moving up to the new stuff (ipod).

[Merc Cruzer]

I am currently using my android for music thorough the radio. Now when a call comes in and I am driving I can hear it on the speaker of the car, a big advantage in a convertible. If you put the phone on the dash, and set the phone to speaker it is now hands free. Safety first!. I was going to buy a 5th generation Ipod since it has a built in FM radio. When you are driving in the mountains, there are not too many AM stations.

[tubman]

I really like this idea, especially since the one good AM station in our area disappeared over the winter last year. I have no electronic expertise however, but I would expect this procedure would work on just about all post-war AM radios. I have a '51 deluxe radio with 6 buttons . Can I expect the green wire in my radio to be green as well? Who made that radio? I think mine is a Philco; I would expect that they would not have changed the color coding of the wiring through the years.

[Merc Cruzer]

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I spent a lot of time on the antique radio forum: "The 8 tube radios for 53/54 had the model number in ink on the center of the bottom of the radio. FoMoCo had at least 6 radios for 1953. 4 radios for Ford: 3SF-755 (Sylvania--may be 3CF Colonial) with 8 tubes, 3BF (Bendix) with 6 tubes, 3MF (Motorola) with 6 tubes, and 3MFT (2-piece Motorola-Truck) with 6 tubes. Lincoln/Mercury had 2: Lincoln was model 3SH-756, Mercury was 3SM-757, both basically the same 8 tube radio as the 3SF Ford radio made by Sylvania".

I would guess that if you open up the radio and there is a green wire in the same place, you are good to go. If you cut in in the middle and use alligator clip wires to test it with a external source and it doesn't work, all you need to do is solder the wire back together. If it works then just continue on with the installation of the jack. Maybe some of the other radio savvy members can chime in on this for clarification on the earlier models.

[flatheadmurre]

Whatever you do messing in a tube radio make sure you got a capacitor between your signal source and the amplifier.
If not you got a fair chance of frying your ipod and electrocuting yourself.
So be real sure you know what youre doing...i want you all to stay around.
And even if there is an old cap it might be leaky and the much more sensitive solidstate stuff wont like.

[Merc Cruzer]

That is why I chose to cut the middle of the green wire, as it is the first wire from the volume knob to the first capacitor in the circuit. A lot of the information during this project came from the guys on the antique radio forum, as they like to do this to the old floor model cabinet radios, that are plugged into the 120 V wall outlet.

I do agree with flatheadmurre in that you should "replace all the paper and electrolytic capacitors, and check all the resistors". This was done on my radio a few years back along with installing a solid state vibrator. If you get a chance pick up a tube tester. Found mine at a swap meet for $10.00, well worth the investment.

[jim1932]

I too listen to my iphone for music, but had a flash back driving my modern pick up the other night, was looking for the football game on AM, hit scan and pulled in a Cincinnati station, I am in DC. I remember growing up in Massachusetts and once in a while in pulling in Chicago at night on the AM.

[Merc Cruzer]

I grew up in Chelsea, MI and listened to WBZ in Boston and WLS in Chicago along with the local Detroit stations.

[Kahuna]

Where do you buy the jack? Never mind, just looked at the correct picture
Great idea

[Merc Cruzer]

I am currently using my android for music thorough the radio. Now when a call comes in and I am driving I can hear it on the speaker of the car, a big advantage in a convertible. If you put the phone on the dash, and set the phone to speaker it is now hands free. Safety first!.

[Ianrhall]

Is the radio going to be the same/similar in my 53 ford coupe?
Ian

[Chris]

Awesome!!


What is a voltage spike? Can it hurt the MP3 player?

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by Ianrhall

Is the radio going to be the same/similar in my 53 ford coupe?
Ian

I would guess yes but the channel selector buttons will be different. Once you open it up you will know for sure.

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by Chris

Awesome!!


What is a voltage spike? Can it hurt the MP3 player?

An old radio can always fail and you are dealing with high voltage in parts of the radio. Voltage leakage is always a concern, but I think I have it under control for now. The same reason you put a surge protector on you computer, TV etc in the house, or if you are using a generator to power TV's or computers. I am looking into a connector cable with a built in diode to act as a surge protector to the MP3 or in my case, my android phone (not cheap) hence the reason I thought about getting a Ipod, they are cheaper and the Ipod Nano 5 has a built in FM radio.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Merc Cruzer

An old radio can always fail and you are dealing with high voltage in parts of the radio. Voltage leakage is always a concern, but I think I have it under control for now. The same reason you put a surge protector on you computer, TV etc in the house, or if you are using a generator to power TV's or computers. I am looking into a connector cable with a built in diode to act as a surge protector to the MP3 or in my case, my android phone (not cheap) hence the reason I am getting a Ipod, they are cheaper and the Ipod Nano 5 has a built in FM radio.

Gotcha, thanks so much for the tech!

[Mike51Merc]

I did that to my '51 Merc Motorola after finding instructions online. The only difference was that I joined the left and right channels of the source with a resistor and then mated them to the mono input of the radio. Supposedly this prevents the two channels from causing a short in your source.

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by Mike51Merc

I did that to my '51 Merc Motorola after finding instructions online. The only difference was that I joined the left and right channels of the source with a resistor and then mated them to the mono input of the radio. Supposedly this prevents the two channels from causing a short in your source.

I saw that on the HAMB, Radio Joe did that to his radio, he used two resistors at the jack:

[url]http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-how-to-add-an-aux-input-to-your-stock-radio.300222/[/url

I can always add the modification to the jack by un-soldering the two leads and inserting the resistors. Thank you, I really hope people keep adding to the process of the project, since it does seem to be of interest to quite a few. My goal was to keep it as simple as possible, so that just about anybody could do it if they wanted.

[Merc Cruzer]

Earlier in this discussion there was mention that there was not many good AM radio stations anymore.

Now that you have all added the jack to your tube radios and are listing to your favorites in MP3 format on your phone, ipod etc, it is time to upgrade for "FREE'. Last weakened our daughter was home for Thanksgiving and I told her about my latest project. I also told her that I was going to buy a ipod gen 5 so that I could get FM radio in the car. She explained "very slowly" that I have to stop thinking radio stations and thing global music. She then asked to see my phone, and then proceeded to install a free app by the name for "iheartradio" It is in essence a free version of Sirus radio. You select the artist and or the type of music you like and it will continuously search all of the radio stations nationally to give you what you have requested. Check into it and give it try to see it works for you. All you need is a good cell phone signal.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...#q=iheartradio

I also have been converting all of my 45's from our jukebox over to MP3's to add to the phone. We have a fairly good collection around 300 +/-, so it was a good project. To do that I have been using:

https://www.google.com/search?q=auda...sm=93&ie=UTF-8

Some say I need to get out of the 50's to which I reply why?