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Advice on Pulling the Radio, Replacing the Front Speaker and Replacing the Convertibl
Ok. I dread doing this and I'm looking for advice.
Background: My car is a "71 Cutlass convertible with factory air AND aftermarket gauges mounted under the dash. Additionally, the car has bucket seats and a factory floor console and factory floor shifter.. The factory radio does not work. The radio must be removed and sent to a Jim Shepard. The front speaker is original to the car. I want to replace the front speaker while I'm in there? The convertible top switch must be replaced.
Advice/Recommendations: Does it make sense and maybe make these tasks a little easier if I remove the speedometer and the idiot light gauges in order to install the convertible top switch.
Also, does it make sense and again make these tasks a little easier to remove the radio and replace the front speaker while the gauges have been removed for the convertible top switch installation.
I recognize that there is limited access under the dash, especially with factory air, buckets, factory console AND aftermarket gauges.
I'm also strongly considering removing the front seats to provide additional working room.
Full disclosure: I am no longer a young guy. If I could bring the car to a shop to do this work I couldn't get there fast enough. This is not about saving money. I'm only doing this because I don't have a shop in Philly to do this work.
I already have a jug of Tylenol Extra Strength Tablets in anticipation of performing this work. 😊
Thoughts/ideas will be welcomed.
Last edited by twilightblue28A; May 1, 2025 at 08:49 PM.
Make the most room you can for yourself, and it will make a nicer job. The factory radios are huge.
Future you will thank yourself if you put 2 speakers on a plate and run both wires down, in case you upgrade the radio.
It's probably 50 years or more since I removed any Oldsmobile dash, but one thing I do remember is that it was never an easy task. If I were going to do this, I would wait until after the summer to tackle the job. Below is the order that I used to use whenever tasked with dash restoration.
1) Disconnect the battery cables
2) Remove the front seats.
3) Remove the aftermarket gauges.
4) Remove the steering column if it's a floor-shift car. If not, learn to work around it or remove the steering wheel for additional clearance.
5) From below, remove all air conditioning ductwork and set it aside.
6) Remove radio *****, and loosen the nuts behind the *****.
7) Remove the straps at the rear of the radio after disconnecting the antenna and speaker wire. If it has a rear seat speaker, be careful when unplugging the 3-prong flat connector, as replacements can be difficult to find.
8) Once the radio is out of the way, you can remove the large bracket that holds the speaker against the underside of the dash.
9) At this point, you shouldn't have much of a problem accessing the back side of the speedometer cluster to remove the speedometer cable. From memory, I believe the cluster can be unscrewed and pulled out from the front. However, you might need to lower the steering column to get it out. If this is the case, then take pictures of the attaching parts before removing it so when you put it back, you will be able to keep the original setting of where the column is bolted in. I learned this lesson the hard way when I couldn't get the steering column set correctly since I didn't have any reference pictures. Remember, this was over 50 years ago, and cell phones hadn't been invented yet.
10) Have friends or family nearby to help you get out of the car when you're done. You might also need a visit to the chiropractor to get back into alignment after you're done.
I would suggest that if you like music, consider having an Aurora Radio Conversion done to your original factory radio, but tell the person making the conversion that you want to maintain the original factory look of the radio. The cost is about $500-$600 to add AM/FM/Stereo & Bluetooth and other options to the radio. Today, the options are almost endless.
It's probably 50 years or more since I removed any Oldsmobile dash, but one thing I do remember is that it was never an easy task. If I were going to do this, I would wait until after the summer to tackle the job. Below is the order that I used to use whenever tasked with dash restoration.
1) Disconnect the battery cables
2) Remove the front seats.
3) Remove the aftermarket gauges.
4) Remove the steering column if it's a floor-shift car. If not, learn to work around it or remove the steering wheel for additional clearance.
5) From below, remove all air conditioning ductwork and set it aside.
6) Remove radio *****, and loosen the nuts behind the *****.
7) Remove the straps at the rear of the radio after disconnecting the antenna and speaker wire. If it has a rear seat speaker, be careful when unplugging the 3-prong flat connector, as replacements can be difficult to find.
8) Once the radio is out of the way, you can remove the large bracket that holds the speaker against the underside of the dash.
9) At this point, you shouldn't have much of a problem accessing the back side of the speedometer cluster to remove the speedometer cable. From memory, I believe the cluster can be unscrewed and pulled out from the front. However, you might need to lower the steering column to get it out. If this is the case, then take pictures of the attaching parts before removing it so when you put it back, you will be able to keep the original setting of where the column is bolted in. I learned this lesson the hard way when I couldn't get the steering column set correctly since I didn't have any reference pictures. Remember, this was over 50 years ago, and cell phones hadn't been invented yet.
10) Have friends or family nearby to help you get out of the car when you're done. You might also need a visit to the chiropractor to get back into alignment after you're done.
I would suggest that if you like music, consider having an Aurora Radio Conversion done to your original factory radio, but tell the person making the conversion that you want to maintain the original factory look of the radio. The cost is about $400 to add AM/FM/Stereo & Bluetooth. Today the options are almost endless.
Thank you. I can remove the dash gauges without removing the dash and/or steering column.
T,
Convertible owner here. '66 98 in my case. A generation older & larger than your '71 Cutlass.
Those convertible top switches are high amperage (~40 amps) circuits & can burn out the switch points. If you pull the switch & can open it, maybe the points can be polished back to brass below the carbon scoring which is normal. Or replace it if needed.
When working behind the dash, I've found it helpful to pull gauges &speedometer in my '66 big cars. You get access which you may well appreciate to get to one particular part. The only caveat is you have to know how get the speedo & gauges in & out without damaging them or any tender electrical pins which might snap off as you try to twist/turn gauges out...
GM radios & speakers during 60's-70's used various ohm values which may differ from what you can get today. Or at least you'll need to shop for something that will not be an impedance mismatch to your radio/amplifier. With a Cutlass, you should be able to find something that will match the factory radio very well. There are aftermarket providers who manufacture 2 speakers that fit in 1 space. I don't know much about them, but figure out the size of your front speaker mounting bracket and see what options are out there for 1 or 2 speakers which will bolt up within the ohms resistance range your radio puts out.
At 61, I'm not young either. The good part is we might have a little wisdom working on our side. So yeah, give yourself some working room by pulling one or both seats. If there's a console, consider pulling that too. Perhaps you have a young person who wants to learn how cars are put together who might be interested in helping. If you have A/C, removing those hoses opens up a lot of working room behind the dash.
Overall I find that a comfortable working environment makes me work more carefully and generally leads to better quality result. Equally, an uncomfortable, rushed or unpleasant working environment tends to make me rush to a lower quality result. I warmly suggest making the project comfortable and fun - 68-74°F day, good coffee, good tunes in the background and tools organized and at the ready. In the same vein, try to do this when you have a couple of days when you can put in 3-5 hours, then break off if you want & not rush. Or power through if you feel good and/or if you're enjoying the work.
If you have any weird electrical or vacuum gremlins/problems/glitches, give some thought as to whether you'd like to pull the whole dash one time a deal with all of it with full access. That's a multi-day job, but once you get in there, you can clean/fix melted electrical connections, replace cracked vacuum hoses, replace peanut light bulbs, put sound deadener down, reseal the heater/defroster hoses/vents, clean the h*ll out of it, replace speakers and remount the radio in the dash before reinstalling it the way the factory did as a unit. Big job, but knowing it's as right as you can make it is a good feeling.
If it's just the speaker & radio, it's maybe not worth all the effort of pulling the dash, but if your car has some of the problems my '66's did, you may be happy going deep.
If the aim is de-minimus do the speaker & radio, I'd pull and A/C/defroster hoses, pull any close-by gauges if I could get 'em in/out with not damage, replace the errant speaker/radio & be done. But with gauges out, I'd replace the peanut bulbs just to not have to do them at later date...
Advil works better than Tylenol. My advise is to just invest in a set of front kickpanels with 6" speakers. The center speaker is useless if you are converting your radio to an updated stereo amp, Bluetooth, and aux. jack mods because the available replacement speakers suck.
Be aware that there is very little room between the top of the dash and the ductwork for the center dash outlets. Any replacement speaker in that location will need to be very thin (the original is). Non-A/C cars have a lot more room to work with.
Be wary of getting modern, multi-cone speakers. I got triple cone speakers off of Amazon and they wouldn't fit below the OE speaker griiles in my dash. I had to get aftermarket speaker grilles. You can see them in the 2nd pic here.
Thanks for the information. I'm buying exact factory reproduction speakers so they fit. Tomorrow, I'm planning to replace the convertible top switch. You have given me some good tips on removing the radio. I'm ordering front and rear speakers. Tomorrow, I plan on getting under the dash to see what must be removed in order to remove the radio, given the obstructions. I'm definitely going to remove at least one, if not both seats. I didn't get the speakers yet, so hopefully tomorrow, I'll install the convertible top switch and determine what is involved to remove the radio for Jim Shephard. In addition , hopefully I'll figure out how to replace the original front speaker.
I have a 500 count jug of Tylenol Extra Strength for tomorrow's work (replacing the convertible top switch. I can't use Advil for health reasons Oldcutlass). The real physical pain will start when the speakers arrive and I remove the seat(s), HVAC hoses, HVAC ductwork, aftermarket gauges and who knows what else in order to access the radio and install a new front speaker.
Last edited by twilightblue28A; May 2, 2025 at 06:23 PM.
Since the weather finally got nice in Philly, I wanted to replace the convertible top switch first. I removed the AC valance and disconnected the HVAC duct on the driver's side. I removed all of the gauges in the dash. I used an endoscope to locate the nuts on the switch and removed the switch. Turned out that the wiring was disconnected from the convertible top switch. I reconnected the wiring on the existing switch, tested the operation of the switch (top closes and opens) and put everything together. Next step: remove the radio and the existing speaker in the dash and install a new front speaker after the existing radio is repaired.
I attached a photograph of the wiring now connected to the existing convertible top switch. Photograph of the existing convertible top switch with the wires attached.
To get at that front speaker, I removed the clock. This is just one technique and it worked for me. But it's really a 3 handed job, an assistant would be a huge help if available.
I have a 72 convertible with factory AC. And I’m 73 years old, so understand the aching bones thing. Not fun looking upward and working. Hard for my brain to process upside down information and convert it to useful images. But I got through it all. I now have new speakers in dash and behind rear seat. Sounds like you have the correct speaker located, and that alone is a big part of the puzzle. I removed the AC duct directly below the dash speaker for better access. Just took good pictures while disassembling so I would remember how it all goes back together. As I remember it, a piece of duct tape is used to attach some of the plastic ductwork.
My advise is to just invest in a set of front kickpanels with 6" speakers. The center speaker is useless if you are converting your radio to an updated stereo amp, Bluetooth, and aux. jack mods because the available replacement speakers suck.
