I would like to get all functions on my berlinetta radio pod working again. Is there someone that rebuilds these things? I'm no spring chicken when it comes to electronics. I have soldered on many boards before to fix things. However, I don't really know how to trouble shoot a board. Currently the radio works but the right channel cuts out sometimes on bumps. I would assume that I may have a cold solder somewhere or something shorting. When the sound goes away from the right channel there is still a hiss from the speaker so that tells me it's not in the wire and it's not the connection from the radio. It has to be internal. Is there any way to wire an aux out into this radio? I just want to keep the original radio am I'm not interested in replacement. Maybe John in RI will chime in????

Thanks, Rod

 

Thats exactly how I feel about my radio, I don't want to replace it, but I want to service it, or do it myself. If you have the owners manual to the car, and you look in the back on the page where it gives you light bulb numbers, when you look at the radio it tells you if you need light bulbs replaced then you need to take it to an Authorized Delco Shop or something, so that would make me believe that they're were these shops at one time that would work on Delcom radios and other audio related stuff, but who knows what it meant or if they were talking about a dealer or if they did mean a shop if they still even exist.

 

I had an AM/FM 4 channel multi-plex from a '68 SS/RS repaired here about 10-12 years ago. They've been in business at least since the early 70's are an GM authorized repair center.

Downtown Radio Services
1705 Orr Industrial Court
Charlotte, NC 28213-6464
(704) 494-4090‎

Whatever you do stay away from an outfit called "Speckmans Classic Radio Repair" that show's up at a lot of the bigger car shows. They kept this unit for well over a year and it was finally returned after many, many phone calls. When they finally sent it back after 14-16 months they told me the repair was on them and there was no charge since it took them so long to fix it. That was BS, it was sent it back unrepaired. I figured they were trying to wait me out and see if I would forget about it since it was such a rare unit and they could repair it and resell it. Who knows!

 

I need to find a place like that around here to help me out when I tear mine apart.

 

usually with a delco all thats needed is a is an inspection
for,and repair of bad solder joints and a cleanup-very
rare to need any replacement parts other than light bulb
For the cassette players(matsushita and blaupunkt)
a cleanup and belts usually fixes,though blaupunkt will
sometimes need new pinch rollers as they will"eat"tapes
if the pinch rollers get hard.

 

Thats what I want to do to mine, clean it up and make sure that every things tight and not coming off one of the boards.

What about radio filters though?

 

I used these guys to rebuild my Delco UT4 (all push button unit) out of my Firebird. They do great work. The star wars dash in the Camaro certainly needs the pod radio to look right. Here's the link.

http://www.carradio.com/#FAQ

 

I'm looking into doing just that with my radio. I feel the same way; I like the unique character of the radio, and want to keep it, but want to hook my MP3 player to it.

I have the schematics (Thanks John!) and there is a way to feed an aux in to the pre-amp section using an unused multiplexer input. I'm having a hard time finding a 1/8" jack with built-in switches that will change the multiplexer's input (it has four, two are not used) automatically when an input device is plugged in. That would be the slickest way to do it. The jack would get wired directly to the mplxer, without having to cut any traces, and the equalizer will still work! I can find a 1/4" jack, but because of it's size (1/8") I doubt anyone makes the jack I need (I've been looking for most of the winter). I could make a piggy-back board that will do the same thing. I don't want to hang a manual switch on the radio. There is a spot under the radio to mount the jack so it won't be seen, and I don't want to cut another hole for a switch.

Another way would be to use the radio input to the mplxr, but that would involve cutting the radio traces, running a shielded cable to the jack and back to the chip. Not as clean as the first method, but still very easy and cheap.

If anyone is interested in seeing this done, let me know. I'll take pics of what I do and post in this thread.

 

by all means, please post as many pics as you want inthis thread


thanks

 

I got the mod to work last week. I ran a Zune thru it and it sounds fantastic! I've had a health issue come up that has kept me out of the garage, so I haven't been able to fully develop it yet. I took pics of what I did so far. I'll format them a bit tonight and get what I have posted.

Here's what I did. I bought a 3-foot long, 3.5mm extender cable and cut it in half. I used the jack section and stripped the bare wires about an 1/8" and soldered them to the last input of the mux chip (pins 4 and 11). Soldered the shield wire to pin 8 (gnd). I pulled the two resistors (R212, R214) that connect the control lines to the processor chip. That allowed the lines to be pulled up, forcing the mux to use the input I want.

That's it, it works great! The sound is better than I thought it would be, it wasn't overdriven at all. The radio was clear as a bell and mp3s that were ripped correctly sound terrific. The fader, balance and eq controls still work like they should. I just can't use the radio or tape because of the missing resistors. But by cutting the traces and adding a dpst switch, it can control the input.

I'm planning to mount two jacks on the side of the radio chassis, one for audio input and the other for a switch to control the input. By using jacks, I can easily pull the cables to remove the radio. I was thinking of mounting the switch and input jack on a plate fitted to replace the ash tray.

I hope this helps. I'll work on getting the pics marked up and posted.

Definitely keep the radio!! It was only produced for three years, and I think it gives the car some character. I hope this mod will keep more of them around.

Good Luck!

Here's a quick pic;

 

For future searchers of this thread, the two businesses mentioned will no longer repair the pod radios. I struck out with both of them.

 

Do you know of anyone that will repair these pod radios?

 

No, I'm afraid not. I actually haven't worked on mine for a few years. What's the problem with yours?

 

Bringing this one back from the dead, have you tried M&R electronics? They refurbished and added an aux on my GTA radio and did a nice job with a quick turnaround.

https://www.mnrelectronics.com/ (989) 790-2949

 

Try Noe Saldivar on FB.
I think he repairs and sells delco 3rd gen radios.