Radio illumination bulb

[teachmz]

Can anyone tell me where the bulb for illuminating the radio is located? Will it be necessary to take the radio out in order to get to it? Thanks for the help.

[70 ranger]

I am pretty sure that It is on the top of the radio. Yes you have to take the thing out to get at it.

[couchcuts]

I used this thread as a good "how to" source to remove my radio...
http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =6&t=60251

Did your radio light up before and now the bulb needs to be replaced?

I am not sure if every radio has an illumination bulb.

I have had two radios pulled out lately, a '68 and 72' and did not see a bulb in either.

I hope I am wrong, my recently installed AM radio would look great lit up at night.

[Calfdemon]

I recently installed a bumpside radio as well and I do not believe there is a bulb in them. At least, there is no where for the dash lighting to connect to light up a bulb when the lights are turned on. They may have had an internal bulb that turned on every time you turned the radio on???? I guess that might be a possibility, but they definately did not have a bulb that lit with the dash lights. That I can say for certain.

I should be taking the radio apart soon to do the iPod connection upgrade that is documented here in these forums, so I will have to hunt for one then. Heck, maybe I can find a way to add one if one doesnt exist.

[couchcuts]

Heck, maybe I can find a way to add one if one doesnt exist.

I have been thinking about that, it would not be that hard to run a wire from the headlights to a small hole in the radio with a little bulb.
I would be helpful to know how the models with the backlight were done originally.
By the way, the Ipod wire is a great addition to the AM radio, I just finished the project and love it.

[70 ranger]

I just went to my shop and dug out my radio. I started to wonder if mine is stock or not? I assumed it was, but am not sure now. It says philco on it. Has the light in the top of the unit and the wire goes into the rest of the harness. It has the plug in for the stock speaker and came out of a 72.

[Calfdemon]

Well, I guess I cannot say "for certain" and I have not dealt with all years, but they did not have a light that attached to the dash harness for 67 or 69. Maybe by 72 they did?

[70 ranger]

Sorry I should have been more specific when I said "harness" I meant the one on the radio itself. There are the power, speaker and the light itself coming out of the side of the radio. The light wire comes up to the top of the radio where the bulb attaches. The reason I thought it was stock was that I got it out of a 72 and it fit in my 70 with the plug for the speaker. It also has the stock faceplate and knobs. The light comes on every time I turn it on, but is only visible at night
I always have a hard time loading pictures here but I guess I will have to take some pics.

[70 ranger]

O.K. I went on ebay and looked up radios. In the 1971 ford truck section I found the radio that is in my truck. It says philco on it, has the bulb in the top and you can see the plug for the speaker. I don't know but that guy thinks it's stock for a 71 and mine looks stock to me so maybe the 71-72 were different?
I don't know how to post that picture here or how to drag the link either. It's amazing that I can do anything on this dang computer!

[couchcuts]

Here is photo of my 1972 AM radio out of the dash.



Both the radios that I have say Ford on the bottom and only have two wires coming out of them, the speaker wire and the power.

I looked up Philco radios, they sure seem stock as well, maybe they were the ones that came with a bulb.

[70 ranger]

O.K. I am no good trying to load pictures (THEY ARE ALWAYS TO BIG). And I am so pathetic on the computer (cut and paste?). But this is driving me nuts! My radio looks stock but I got it out of a 40 year old truck that I know no history of. So it is my new mission to try to load a picture maybe from my phone? And cut and paste an ebay ad. So bear with me this may get messy! http://www.ebay.com/itm/1971-Ford-Truck ... es&vxp=mtr
Alright it worked!
This is what my radio looks like. you can see the wire to the bulb on the top of the unit.

[teachmz]

Hey thanks to everyone who posted with the information about my radio light. All the replies were very polite and is greatly appreciated. I will take a look at my radio this weekend and see what it leads me to. Will give an update later. Again, thanks!

[Calfdemon]

I need to update this thread as I took apart a 67 radio today to do the mp3 update. It ends up that there is a bulb in the 67 radio which leads me to believe that there is a bulb in all of them. The 67 did not have the exterior bulb as posted in one of the other pictures, but when i took the radio apart, there is a bulb inside the radio in the front, behind the selector dial. I had to take off the bront bezel and then the clear plastic lens with the station numbers on it, and once you do that, you can access the bulb by reaching down behind the black backplate.

It would appear that the bulb will come on whenever you turn the radio power on, as it is not hooked up to the dash lighting.

[70 ranger]

I need to update this thread as I took apart a 67 radio today to do the mp3 update. It ends up that there is a bulb in the 67 radio which leads me to believe that there is a bulb in all of them. The 67 did not have the exterior bulb as posted in one of the other pictures, but when i took the radio apart, there is a bulb inside the radio in the front, behind the selector dial. I had to take off the bront bezel and then the clear plastic lens with the station numbers on it, and once you do that, you can access the bulb by reaching down behind the black backplate.

It would appear that the bulb will come on whenever you turn the radio power on, as it is not hooked up to the dash lighting.

O.K. now I am wondering if your 67 radio was a "PHILCO" or a ford. And why do some trucks have a philco and others have a ford radio? These are the things that keep me awake at night!

[Calfdemon]

The 67 radio is stamped FoMoCo... so its a Ford.