My 67 Olds 442 has a power antenna and I replaced the radio with aftermarket radio. The power antenna has only 2 wires to dash. One is red and the other is green and NO black for ground. The radio has blue wire for power, do I need to hook up seperate black wire for ground or does the power unit ground through the body ? Red for power and green for operate the antenna, am I correct ? I don't want to chance blowing the radio for incorrect wiring.
Thanks for the help.
Keith

 

The Chassis Service Manual is your friend, and you should get an original copy off Ebay for your very own. It is orange for 67.



Now, for your question. The power antenna is an antenna, which is power moved. Those are two separate things for this year. The antenna lead goes into the antenna plug on the radio, and the other wires go nowhere near the radio. This antenna has nothing to do with, or care, that the radio is on or off, that is later tech. The power antenna motor has three electrical paths, two to the switch, and a chassis ground. The chassis ground is simply leaving it bolted in, and the two hots come off the switch's output, and it has 12V in, probably ignitions switched. The harnesses, assuming stock, should only go one way, but you can bench test switch and radio with a 12V battery to see which way goes which.



Now, the radio. 67 Olds radio in the 33 series (that's A bodies, like a 442) had 5 connections. A 3 wire harness, a 1 wire harness and a chassis ground. The three wire was power, and pos and neg for the front speaker. The 1 wire harness was for if the radio had the biphonic speaker adapter (potientiometer) splitting the one speaker signal from one wire to two....the 1 wire harness was the rear speaker pos and it only had juice if that was there. Rear speaker negative was a chassis ground. The radio ground was a chassis ground. This is real high tech stuff here, hah.


For your new radio, read its manual, and do not cut the car's harness. Make a conversion harness. Your new radio will want power (you can use the car's existing radio 12V) and ground (you can put a wire on an eyelet with a toothy washer for it if it does not have a chassis ground, and it probably doesn't, but the new radio's manual has that answer). Then you will have +/- for your speakers. You will need new speakers. Your original speakers are 10 ohm, as is the radio. New speakers and radio are 4 ohm. Do not mix and match.

 

Thanks Koda, the car has long since been literally butchered under the dash. The wires themselves are still in good shape, the dash harness has been spliced almost to death and buying a new factory replacement dash harness is out of my price range. The car had an aftermarket radio when I got it.
The power antenna is mounted in the trunk and seems to be solid and has a Red and a Green wire for power. There is NO dash switch.
My Chassis Service manual " Orange " isn't a big help here as it does not state what color wire connects to what power source. The wires appear to be original, all the grommets and clips are there. The radio that was in the car aparently powered the antenna. I'm just trying to get info on wiring colors connecting to power.
I'm not trying to restore the car, just to repair the errors.
I have had 3 '66 442's but have never gotten this involved in the repair of either one.
Thanks for all your help, I hate to keep asking questions, but I want it repaired right and safe.

 

Oh ****. Pardon my french.



You may not have a stock setup at all. Ok, the 67 antenna had a switch on the dash. Later, more evolved ones went up when the radio went on and down when it went off, and that is a whole other ball of wax which I know little about. The dash switch, if it had one, would be in the nifty 66/67 badge hidable switch hole in the middle of the dash. It could well be you have no harness for that switch either, if the car did not have the option originally. Is there a hole in the passenger fender for a manual antenna?


Yes, red and green are the positives for the motor. Put 12V to one and it goes up, 12V to other and it goes down. It MAY be worth putting battery juice right to it and see what happens when it hits the end of travel. If it's a stock 67, it should sit there and hum (so disconnect quickly.) I don't know how the later ones are wired that will go up and stop, then go down and stop when you shut the radio off.



So if it's butchered, you can go ahead and splice. I'd start with getting radio running with a plug in cheapie antenna, then worry about the power antenna. Plus, to be Ghet-Toe, you could run the antenna up and leave it up for a while until you get it sorted out on the switch.

 

If you have a modern power antenna the red wire should be constant 12V and the green wire connected to the antenna labeled wire from the radio. The way most modern power antennas work is if there is power to the red wire the antenna retracts until it hits the limit switch, if there is power from the radio on the antenna labeled wire and 12V on the red power wire the antenna extends. To test if that is the way your antenna works apply a test lead to power to both red and green and the antenna should extend then apply power to only the red wire and it should retract. I've got a modern power antenna wired through the factory switch on my '67 CS Conv. So you can make the new antennas work with or without a switch.