73 fj40 radio/cowl vent interference (1 Viewer)

[Engineer8000]

My truck has never had the cowl vent mechanism installed/working. I have the parts and intend to get this working again but am concerned there might be physical interference with any radio other than the original short little AM radio. Has anybody had experience with this? How much room is there?

 

[73FJ40]

My truck has never had the cowl vent mechanism installed/working. I have the parts and intend to get this working again but am concerned there might be physical interference with any radio other than the original short little AM radio. Has anybody had experience with this? How much room is there?

No clearance for any radio other than the short one (or equal) originally equipped.

Even the OEM needed an offset in the vent actuating shaft to clear the radio.

 

[MoCoNative]

Yep the vent rod is totally in the way for anything else. I put an AM/FM radio in mine from an early Toyota pickup application. If you get the right one, the original AM faceplate will fit on it. It is however an inch or so longer as I recall. I modified the original vent pull knob shaft by taking the factory crink out and moving it back on the rod. Works fine now. I can't say off the top of my head how much space is behind the radio until you hit the lever and such that moves the cowl vent up and down, not a lot, but a modern stereo may fit, its the actuating rod that gets totally messed up, it connects behind the radio, so getting it to hit with something too long in the way can't even be rectified with a different bend. It also has to remain a straight pull, as it takes some effort, and a "L" shaped rod just bends. I messed with this some 20 years ago. At that time I built and overhead console and put a nice Kenwood tape deck up there. Running soft top now, so found a tuner for the dash, but old tuners just won't hold the station like the new digital tuners do.

I want to get a Retro Sound radio unit and try it in that hole. Looks like the case may be too large on them too, however, the case can also be remote mounted and just the display left in the slot with the fully remote/customizable knobs. That may be the best way to get modern tunes in the dash of a cowl vented 40. The mini Euro faceplate looks to be the right faceplate for our dash from Retro Sound. Later on the cowl vent was sealed over in the 40, so the rod is a non issue on newer trucks. I personally use the cowl vent all the time, I like it and would never take it out.

 

[Engineer8000]

Thank you for the information, you confirmed what I had thought. They bent the rod only to accommodate the radio they were using at the time. I have a short vintage clarion am/fm rf-411 and most of a rn-454 with tape deck interface. Both are about the same depth as the oem radio. The clarion fits and mounts in the original opening (I don't have it adjusted quite right in the photo). The face plate is just a bit wider but it still fits nicely between the lower dash pads. The RF-411 has adjustable knobs so it can be used with the OEM faceplate if desired. It also has a DX feature for poor reception areas and doesn't say Datsun on the front. The only drawback is it is not fm stereo but I can fix that by adding a stereo de-mpx circuit. My new dash mock up:

 

[MoCoNative]

Those are some neat old radios. The Clarion looks very similar to the AM/FM units used in Toyota. The picture below is the unit I found on Ebay, maybe an inch deeper than the original AM radio, I did have re-bend the rod. This would have gone in an early Toyota pickup, maybe Celica and Corolla or the like. The key to it was that the tuner posts were the same width as the original AM radio, and I reused the faceplate, covers the freq. numbers a bit.

That Clarion case, looks almost identical to the case on the Fujitsu units. The FJ60's had Panasonic radios as I recall, same case design. The holes are slotted, but the posts can't be moved because the internal components won't allow it. If you find a tuner with the posts low and narrow in those slots, they will fit the old FJ40 faceplate. That Clarion unit, and the FJ60 radios have the posts in the high and wide location and won't fit the old faceplate.

All new single DIN radios are just too wide to fit in the dash hole uncut. Also too deep for the cowl vent as we have discussed.

This my original AM radio with the plate back on it, yours is later with the black knobs like mine above.

 

[Engineer8000]

I have a couple of the old Toyota pickup am/fm radios with the knobs in the correct location but was afraid they would be too deep. The oem faceplate like I have fits those very nicely. But if I can make a new push rod and there is room then that opens further possibilities. I am almost afraid to use one of my oem faceplates since they are becoming so rare (like the vader lights). I have adjusted the clarion posts to the down/in location and the oem faceplate kinda fits ok but needs some adjustment. My mockup dash panel is going in my truck because someone hacked up the radio hole as you said to fit a DIN sized radio. I didn't really notice at first but after being pointed out here on this sight it bugs me.

 

[ToyotaMatt]

a stand alone AM is several Millimeters shorter or Less Depp then a Am/ FM Pre-82 is .......

 

[Engineer8000]

Thanks everyone for the info on this. It helps me in my planning. The orange clarion sort of goes with my dukes of hazard cassette deck I got from @ToyotaMatt.

 

[TeamJB]

@ToyotaMatt @Engineer8000 Can you guys help me identifing this Clarion AM/FM radio please

 

[ToyotaMatt]

@ToyotaMatt @Engineer8000 Can you guys help me identifing this Clarion AM/FM radio please

View attachment 2377679

good close up photos of top and bottom please

 

[Engineer8000]

good close up photos of top and bottom please

x2

And the back side also.

I have several old clarion radios, but none like that one.