Radio

[aggie]

I want to install a new Radio/CD player into My Spitfire which, being 1964,  is Positive earth.  All the modern Radios are, of course, Negative earth.  Is there a way to do this ?

[NonMember]

There's a few options.

- have a bit more of a hunt around, because there are some positive earth radios out there for exactly this purpose

- fit the radio in an electrically isolated box with the supply and ground swapped. As long as it's isolated it doesn't know that the vehicle's earth is what it thinks of as supply.

- convert the car to negative earth, which is just a case of swapping battery terminals, swapping coil terminals, and re-polarising the dynamo.

 

[RogerH]

Be aware - if you go for option 2 (Isolating the radio) the radio aerial outer screen on the cable is earthed.  That could be fun.

 

reversing the car polarity is the sure way to do it.

If you can do without the CD player than many 1950's classic radios are being converted to MP3 etdc.

 

Roger

[NonMember]

40 minutes ago, RogerH said:

If you can do without the CD player

Oh, yes, there's always option 4 - don't bother with a radio and just enjoy the music of the engine 🤪

[DanMi]

swapping the polarity is really very easy as others have said just swap battery terminals, the connections on the coil and change polarity of the dynamo by briefly touching a wire from battery positive to the small terminal on dynamo and job done and any radio can be fitted. My MK2 has been -ve earth since 1990. I have however now adopted option 4, no radio

[RogerH]

I have option 5.

A fancy new modern super duper lights whistles and bells but it is crap.  Almost impossible to play with while driving.

Even turning the volume up is quite dangerous.

My solution - it is not connected. But it fills a hole.

 

Roger

[mark powell]

My solution - it is not connected. But it fills a hole.

Snap! Old Sony radio / cassette unit fitted but looks good in the hole...

[Colin Lindsay]

10 hours ago, RogerH said:

I have option 5.

A fancy new modern super duper lights whistles and bells but it is crap.  Almost impossible to play with while driving.

Even turning the volume up is quite dangerous.

That's why I prefer the older versions that take CD or USB sticks; turn them on and they play. These new ones want to know who's listening, what playlist you want, what's your preferred volume, open folder, select from drop-down list, and it plays tracks in random order rather than your remembered list... and then you park, turn the car off, and on restart you have to do it all again. My current unit is nice enough, plays ok, but asks too many questions so that eventually I just do as Rob suggests and turn it off.

[RogerH]

Back in the 90's I had one of the first car radios with a digital display.  I got it through one of the electronic magazines at the time.

Probably auctioned/excess stock that was re-badged.  I'm sure its original brand was 'Tacaro' whoever they are. It worked very well

All the bands + cassette. Turn it on and it played - what more could one ask for. I replaced it with a Blaupunkt with a similar spec and that worked very well.

I now have a over complex Kenwood - utter rubbish

 

Roger