Retro Radio Shop

The 1967 Ford Galaxie Radio That Refused to Cooperate

An AM/FM radio repair & Bluetooth upgrade — told the way it actually happened

Posted by Retro Radio Shop · August 2026

A Few Words About the ’67 Galaxie

By 1967 the Ford Galaxie was a full-size brute of a car — big, comfortable, and built for gobbling up interstate miles. It was available with everything from a sensible six-cylinder up to the thundering 428 cubic-inch V8. The Galaxie 500 LTD trim that year was Ford’s answer to “what if a car could feel like a living room on wheels,” and it sold in huge numbers.

Here’s the thing about the radios, though: out of all those ’67 Galaxies that rolled off the line, only about 2.1% left the factory with an F7TBF AM/FM radio. The vast majority got a standard AM set. So when a factory AM/FM Galaxie radio hits the shop, I pay attention — these are genuinely rare, and worth getting right. 

Power On, Panic Ensues

The plan was simple: hook it up, power it on, see what we’re working with. I hit the switch and — nothing. Not a hum, not a crackle, not so much as a polite whimper. A quick look at the amp meter on the bench supply confirmed the radio had a direct short. Of course it did. It’s never “works great.”

I popped the cover and went looking. The culprit turned out to be Q11 — a DS520 germanium output transistor, which is the kind of part that makes vintage radio people either very happy or very nervous, depending on whether they have a spare. Someone, at some point in this radio’s long life, had removed Q11’s leads entirely. Charming.

A Short Story (Literally)

Looking deeper, I found the real comedy of errors. One of the retaining screws had the collector lug sitting on top of the insulating spacer — which is a bit like putting your raincoat on underneath your shirt. The opposite screw was missing its insulating spacer entirely. Together, those two mistakes were happily shorting the collector straight to the chassis. Hence: direct short, dead radio, one confused technician.

Fortunately, the shop keeps a healthy stock of these spacers and lugs in the spare parts inventory — because if you do this long enough, you learn that someone always has been in there before you. I replaced the missing spacer, tucked the collector lead back under the insulator where it belonged, and wired Q11 back up properly.

It Lives! Sort Of.

I hit the power again and — success! The amplifier came to life. No more direct short. I felt a brief, foolish surge of triumph, which lasted right up until I realized there were no stations coming through. Just hiss. The universe giveth, the universe taketh away.

I splashed some DeoxIT on the band switch — the universal “maybe it’s just dirty” prayer — and worked it back and forth. No change. Since I was already in there, I took the opportunity to clean the tone and volume pots at the same time. Nice and smooth now. Still no stations.

The Mystery of the Bowing Board

That’s when I noticed something off about the main board. On closer inspection, the board was incorrectly seated in the chassis — it was sitting on top of the mounting tab on the rear of the chassis, instead of below it where it belonged. That little misplacement was putting upward pressure on the board, bowing it and shorting out the RF circuitry. The amp worked because the amp wasn’t the part getting crushed.

I reseated the board correctly — below the tab, where the engineers who designed it intended it to live — and fired it up one more time.

Time for the Upgrade

With the radio healthy and drawing within spec, everything else looked great — which is my cue to start making it better. Two upgrades were on the menu for this one:

• White LED dial illumination — the original incandescent bulb had seen better decades. A clean white LED gives the dial a crisp, even glow that looks right at home behind the ’67 faceplate.
• Internal Bluetooth board — installed entirely inside the chassis, so there’s nothing visible from the outside. No switches, no dangling modules, no “look, I added Bluetooth” clutter.

The Knob Hunt

The radio was playing beautifully. Naturally, there was one last thing: the knobs. The radio arrived with only one front knob — which, for a radio that needs a front volume knob, a front tuning knob, and two rear knobs, is not quite enough.

So once again I made the walk of shame over to our extensive used knob stash — the kind of collection you only build up after years of “I’ll keep these, they might come in handy” — and found a proper front knob and both rear knobs to match. We also had the dummy retainer that sits behind the front tuning knob, so the whole assembly looks complete and correct.

The Wrap-Up

With the short sorted, the board seated right, FM booming, Bluetooth added, the dial lit, and a full set of knobs back where they belong, this rare 2.1%-er Galaxie radio is ready to go to a new home — looking factory, performing modern. Exactly the way we like it.