For those of you, mainly to the member who PM'd me about the loss of a channel or two,
The 2 board radios are proned to channel failure in the Camaros and Firebirds due to the lack of ventilation in the console area.
Problem 1 is the 7 capacitors failing and leaking their fluid. Those are easy to spot. If anyone has a pic of that scenario, please post it here.
Problem 2 is the IC chip failure due to overheating. Again easy to spot.
Pics are bad chips. Note the browned areas.

 

Ah-ha! So it looks like my problem was actually a bad IC chip, and not bad caps after all...I just went and re-checked the amp board only to find a few browned legs on one of the chips...swell.

Are the IC chips available for replacement, or do smoked IC chips essentially mean my radio can now be considered useable for parts and landfill?

Thanks

 

No the chips are not available. Try to find a gently used radio with the same features as yours. Meaning just treble and bass or 5 channel equiliser and cassette to swap out the amp section. They only made about 4 different configurations of the 2 board radios and put different trim on them for whatever car they were going in. Meaning a Buick radio having a 3 button cassette, bass and treble is the same as a Camaro radio with a 3 button cassette, bass and treble. Or maybe just swap out the trim.

 

The IC chips are in fact still available. Consolidated Electronics out of Dayton, OH has some in stock. $15 a piece.

If it is your right channel that is bad, try replacing the 3 small green 1uf caps first. They can be seen in the first picture red88tagta posted. They are almost always bad. I have had at least 100 of these radios apart and only seen a few that had bad 100uf caps (long blue ones) The problem is the heat, and when the 1uf filter caps go bad and that channel now runs open gain it fries the IC's.

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll go check them out--heck, they're close enough I can drive over to pick them up if they have a counter.

It's the left rear that's out. I have already re-capped the entire amp board and I still have the failure, which narrows it right down to the IC.

 

Yes, sounds like the IC. Left channel should be the top one. If you drive over and pick up a new IC let me know. I'm curious to see how many they have in stock.