LUVTruck.com

Morning all,

I'll be pulling the old AM radio out of my 78' LUV this weekend and replacing it with the same one (one that works). However, I have no idea how to get the old one out. Ideas and help always appreciated. I have to replace the speaker under the dash too, so any advice with that's also welcome...

Take out the ash tray and the slide that it rides in. Sometimes its worthwhile to take out the glove box too. The unit slides out and down from the back once the nuts behind the knobs are removed. I think there may be screws through the sides too. Uncomfortable but not difficult.

Thanks a lot...

How did you get the speaker out? Mine is blown and I need to repair, recone, or replace it...

As far as I could tell, it is not removable without breaking the connection between the vent grille and the dash, which is a pain in the ass. The grille was not meant to be removed, and you will almost certainly damage the skin of your dashboard if you try to do so. My vent grille was already trashed, so I sacrificed it to get to the speaker, and I found a newer-looking one in a yard that I reinstalled over it. It is dry-fit right now, and I'm reluctant to re-fasten it down...

tl:dr: There were little non-removable metal clips holding the plastic grille to the dash skin and I'm not aware of a way to get to the speaker without damaging either the dash or the grille. I may be wrong.

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75 Mikado G180/4sp Desert Tortoise

Dang, thats what I was afraid of. I was hoping there was a way to get to it from the bottom. So even if you pull the whole dash out you still have to rip that glued grill out?

The grille is not glued to anything as far as I know. It has about a dozen 3/8" long x 1/16" diameter plastic 'pins' that poke through the (presumably vinyl) dash skin. These pins hold the grille tightly to the skin via little metal clips between the dash skin and the dash frame. I would guess this is because they assembled the dash on the factory floor, and installed the completed piece. When I pulled my crusty vent grille out, I couldn't even reach the clips, let alone remove them carefully, so I had to just cut and pry the grille up and accept the damage I did to the dash.

tl;dr: As far as I can tell, the clips holding the grille to the dash are not removable without damaging either the dashboard skin, or the grille itself. It just depends which one you really care about saving.

I can probably get you a pic if you're interested. Like I said, my new dash grille is just dry-fit right now, so it's no prob to pull it up.

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75 Mikado G180/4sp Desert Tortoise

Yeah for future reference of others it would be great to see how this is fasned down and how the speaker is bolted in as well. Thanks man!

When I got my truck both the radio and speaker were missing. I purchased an original radio and put it and a speaker I had laying around in the dash without touching the dash or grill on the dash. I did everthing through the radio hole or under the dash.

There are four studs that hang down from the metal frame of the dash that the speaker slide up onto and nuts are then screwed on to hold the speaker in place. At least that's how it is on my '75.

Hope this helps.

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'75 body with '82 diesel running gear
My build thread.