Alright, my dash pad is off and I have some old stuff. :laugh: I only have two 10 ohm tweeters, and only one works. I also don't even have the speaker in the center of the dashpad. But I do have one in the rear of the car. I'm wondering what kind of tweeters I need to replace the oem equipment? o No: What has a nice sound even when loud? What do you recommend I do since I would like to keep the original radio unit and use that? o No: Also what were the selections that the big cars could come with back in the 70's. My parts car Electra had a AM/FM Stereo with two tweeters and one speaker in the front, two speakers in the rear also. My Electra has an AM/FM/8-track with two tweeters and one speaker in the back. I've never really found anything about the selections of the systems besides the unit itself. But I am looking at a piece of literature that will hopefully explain some of this for '73. Thanks in advance :TU:
Rob, Hate to say, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any of the stereo systems of that time knew the difference between woofers and tweeters. The original 70 Deuce that my folks had with just AM only had one speaker in the front, and the 74 Deuce with AM/FM/8-Track had 4 speakers in each corner - front and rear. There was a spot for the center speaker in the dash, but it was unused. Maybe consider that someone added the stereo w/speakers, and left the center speaker there? It just sounds odd that there would be THREE speakers in the dash. There certianly wasn't surround sound in that day! My current 70 ragtop only has two speakers, that I replaced last summer, one in the dash (4x10) and one in the middle of the back seat (6x9).
Q: Are you going to show this vehicle in the concours class? Or is it a nice driver? If you use this car as a driver and keep it nice, then consider a real stereo upgrade. You can use a replacement in-dash unit that drives a remote cd player mounted in the trunk. It requires no cutting of the dash. I chose a modern-mount CD unit, but mounted it under the dash in a surface-mount box. It even has a steering wheel remote that makes it really convenient. The only unit I have found so far that has this remote is the Blaupunkt Casablanca CD51, which is no longer available. I did, however, just order one from a website (as a spare should this head unit ever die - which seems logical in a couple of years). I'm waiting to see if I get a message about it no longer being available. So far it seems that all the units have a "hand held" remote, which I don't see as convenient at all.
It looks like Pioneer and Clarion have stereos with add-on steering wheel remotes. But they sure don't look as sleek and sexy as the Blaupunkt.
I never found the Hand held remotes usefull until I had one. My Cd player is in the glove box, and you can't reach it without really leaning over. I leave the remote in the ashtray and cruise with the glovebox door open. When I get to where I'm going I close the ashtray and glovebox door and nobody can see that I have a modern Mp3 Sound System in my car
stereos I use the Blapunkt myself,it's awesome and has a remote sound dot so you can keep everything hidden.Easy to use and the remote works like a charm. Not cheap in Canada that's the only possible down side.My 2 cents Curtis :beer
A nice driver for now. The thing is I never really have the tunes on when Im in the Electra, but other cars I do. I guess I enjoy the car so much I don't really need the tunes. But i'm sure I'll still upgrade the sound system for salem. :bglasses: I think if I convince myself to drop the cash for an Ipod, I would leave the stock am/fm/8track unit in and just replace the speakers/tweeters and add additional speakers and maybe one subwoofer. Get an i-trip so the ipod transmits the music to the radio and I should be good. The only question I have is if the stock am/fm/8track can push enough sound to new speakers of the same size, and additional speakers and a woofer? o No: Im not into the steering wheel controls, I love the way the deluxe wheel looks as is. :beer
Rob You can't use after market speakers they are the wrong impedence (spelling) and will blow the out put amps of the stock radio.
I have two ten ohms up front and unknown in the rear (have to look), if I find the new speakers with the same amount of ohms it will work? Lower or higher wont? o No:
Some newer GM cars still have 10 ohm speakers, My 1991 Park Avenue and most full size GM cars from this period have 4 ohm speakers at the front but still had 10 ohm (6X9) speakers at the rear. There are plenty of them in junkyards and their rear speakers are easy to remove. They are bolt on replacements for most sixties and seventies GM cars. Only the connectors will differ. You still can buy new ones too at the GM dealer for about 30-35$ each. The small speakers at the front are harder to get... Some early eighties GM cars had similar 10 ohm speakers but they have a magnet which don't allow mounting them on the original mounting brackets under the dashpad... I know that there are 8 ohm replacments with small magnets available (8 ohm speakers are also acceptable for our radios) Since both of your cars have stereo radios, they should have 4 speakers. Two small 3" speakers at the front and two 6X9" speakers at the rear. The center speaker isn't used on full size Buicks with stereo radios that were built after 1970.
I just got an issue of my Riviera Owner's magazine and THIS topic is covered in it! The 10 ohm GM speakers and the aftermarket 8 ohm speakers both carry 7.XX ohms. So an 8 or a 10 ohm speaker will work for you.
Yardley, I also read that article last night. www.turnswitch.com/speakers.htm was the source they provided for replacement speakers. But he said in his Eldo the magnets in the new speakers didn't allow the dash to fit. Phil, is my Electra a stereo car automatically because its an Am/Fm/8track equipped? The other Electra had some of the speakers replaced before I got it, can't remember which ones besides the small front ones. So I only need to replace the two small speakers in front and two 6x9's in the back? And if the replacement speakers are have equal ohms I can use the stock radio? o No:
Car stereo stuff is cheap these days and far better than anything that came with a car in 1973. Forget about original speakers, they're so old that the paper will turn to dust if you give them too much juice. I would say the same goes for an original radio, looks good, but sounds crap. I took out the ash tray mount and cut off some pieces to fit a radio (100$ sony) in there instead of an ash tray; then I cut off a piece from the cover plate for the ash tray so I can close it. The cover plate will have to be taken off when I'm using the radio, so it just ends up on the floor when driving, and then back on when parked. I also kept the original radio in it's original spot. So the only radio equipment you see is the original one. I managed to fit 2 5*8 alpine speakers under the dash in the corners with some filing on the bottom side of the dash. i think the passenger side one is mounted to the dash pad and the driver's side is not, it just rests with a bunch of foam around it. I then have two 6*9 and one 12 inch subwoofer in boxes where the top folds down. The top actually fits quite nicely on top of them when down and is only raised an inch or two. Then I stuck an amp under the seat that powers the rear speakers while the radio powers the front speakers. In your electra there should be a nice shelf right at the front of the trunk compartment to lay some boxes on, which you could just unplug when you want to, and the rest of the stuff is all hidden so it still looks like an original car.
There were five types of radios offered in the 1973 Electra. #1. A "Sonomatic" AM radio with one or two speakers (one at the front in the center of the dash, and one at the rear, on the passenger side that was available at extra cost) #2. An AM-FM mono radio with the same speaker setup as the AM radio. #3. An AM/8 track radio with a stereo amplifier and mandatory 4 speakers (two at the front, two at the rear). Of course, the radio itself wasn't stereophonic as AM stereo decoders and stations didn't exist back then... (at least not here in North America). #4. An AM-FM Stereo radio with 4 speakers (with a built-in FM multiplexer, a "Stereo" light on the faceplate and a stereo amplifier) #5. An AM-FM Stereo/8 track player with 4 speakers which had the same features as the AM-FM stereo radio (less the flip dial of the other 1973 fullsize Buick AM-FM radios) + an integrated 8 track player. The radios #3 and #5 with integrated 8 track players had their amplifier diodes mounted on a heat sink somewhere under the instrument panel (GM called this part "convector"). That was because there was not enough space left to mount them on the radio. The dashpads of the 1971-76 fullsize Buicks had holes for 3 speakers but they either just installed a speaker in the center hole if the amplifier was mono or just in the two outer holes if the amplifier was stereo.
Exactly what I was looking for, Thanks Phil. :TU: I did see the big heat sink in the service manual and later behind the dash to the left of the glove box. At least I know what's original, I wanna find out how much the rear speaker setup was played with as its missing one. I'll also take another gander at the parts car for comparision. Thanks :TU:
I have a Kenwood KRC-3006. It is a tape deck that fits in the original hole and it has CD changer controls. I mounted my 6-disc changer under the passenger seat. I have 2 JBL 6x9's in the rear in the stock location and didn't bother with the dash speakers. No cutting and it sounds pretty good. Custom Autosound sells a radio that is based on the Kenwood, but the Kenwood was cheaper at the time. You can find them on Ebay for around $250. I think its worth it because even if the tape player is broken the CD changer controls should still work (who uses tapes anymore anyways?)
