1957 T&C Radio wires

[TbirdFan76]

Yesterday while driving I noticed the smell of hot electrical wire. Pulled over and a wire appeared to have disconnected or maybe it just fell from somewhere it had been tucked away. The end touched the metal casing of after market temperature gauge and sparked. I pulled it away and smell and sparking stopped. The radio was off when this occurred.

Today I followed the wire to the radio chassis. Looking at the Figure 3 digram attached from the "1957 Ford and Thunderbird Shop Manual" it is the wire on the right side without any text.

1. Anyone know what its for and where it should connect?
2. Could it be the Pilot Lead Light in Figure 5?

Thanks .

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[cokefirst]

that is to light up the dial when the radio is on and the lights are on. It should hook into a connector for the dash lights.

 

[TbirdFan76]

Plugged wire back into open connector and radio once again functional. It seems this wire isn't just the light because when disconnected there also was no sound from the radio speaker. Sound and light are again working.

With as snug as the connector is I'm surprised it somehow came out.

 

[cokefirst]

The power for the radio is through the fused wire. A couple of questions. Did you have this radio recently worked on? Is the fuse in the line good? If so, is this wired to the accessory port of the ignition switch? I think you may have a frayed or misconnected wire inside the radio. The light wire should only have power when the lights are on. If you light works without the light switch being in the park light or headlight configuration, then your wiring is incorrect.

 

[TbirdFan76]

The power for the radio is through the fused wire. A couple of questions. Did you have this radio recently worked on? Is the fuse in the line good? If so, is this wired to the accessory port of the ignition switch? I think you may have a frayed or misconnected wire inside the radio. The light wire should only have power when the lights are on. If you light works without the light switch being in the park light or headlight configuration, then your wiring is incorrect.

1) I didn't have the radio worked on.
2) Yes the light is only on when the light switch is in either parking or headlight positions.

Thank you so much for the feedback. Always good to have extra information to confirm things are working as designed. I will double check it is connected to the fused wire.

 

[TbirdFan76]

The power for the radio is through the fused wire. A couple of questions. Did you have this radio recently worked on? Is the fuse in the line good? If so, is this wired to the accessory port of the ignition switch? I think you may have a frayed or misconnected wire inside the radio. The light wire should only have power when the lights are on. If you light works without the light switch being in the park light or headlight configuration, then your wiring is incorrect.

@cokefirst today I discovered the radio will only work if the parking or headlights are on. I'll have to look again at the wire connectons. Are you positive the radio light should only be on with the parking or headlights are on?