Greetings Fellow Corvette Enthusiasts,

I have a 1977 Corvette with factory original AM/FM radio and 2 speakers, my left speaker recently was damaged during removal and had the two wires epoxied to the speaker cone pull-out of the cone and now are not attached.

My questions are:
Can I re-glue them with epoxy to the torn cone and re-install the speaker?
Will they work with a torn cone?
Can I order a replacement cone?
Is it worth it to buy new replacements or have these re-coned somewhere? (I'm not worried about the originality of speakers but would prefer not to update factory radio.
Will they work popped out as-is once reconnected to the wiring connection?

Please see the below photos and let me know what my options are and what you think I should do because I'd like to have the radio working.






Thank You in Advance! MAGA!!!

 

Just get replacements. They're 44 yrs old. I kept my original stereo and swapped the originals out for a new pair. I can actually hear the radio when im driving with the tops off.

 

I had a perfectly good answer for you...until I saw the last word....

AMERICA WAS ALWAYS GREAT.

 

Direct bolt in replacements are readily available. Virtually any replacement will give you much better sound than the originals, even when they were new.

 

If you go with a replacement speaker, I'd stick with a 8ohm (unless you have changed the head unit / amp) as installing a set of 4 ohm with the stock radio could cause some issues
M

 

I would replace them...but not with some 'direct replacement' from a Corvette Parts place. Those are just as lousy as the original speakers! Basically junk, by modern standards.

You need 4"x6" speakers, but here are the differences you need to consider:
1. If you have the original Delco radio in the car and intend to keep it, the speakers you purchase need to have 8 to 10 ohm impedance ratings. They also need to be 'efficient' speakers with 25-50 watt power ratings (rather than 100+ watt rating speakers). The Delco head only has 16 watts RMS power rating, so putting inefficient 'big power' speakers in there is a NO-NO.
2. If you have a modern radio head unit with lots of power at each speaker, purchase 4 ohm speakers that are rated for the kind of power your radio can produce.
3. For either type speaker you purchase, buy one with a plastic frame. I don't know of any modern speakers (other than the 'junk' direct replacements) which match the mounting holes required by the speaker brackets on the underside of the dash pad. With plastic frames, you can use a pencil-tip type soldering iron to burn holes where you need them to match with the speaker retainer brackets. It is easy to do and will work perfectly with your existing hardware.
4. The Delco head unit and speakers used a "common electrical ground" system; modern head units have separate wire pairs going to each speaker with no chassis ground going to ANY of them. So, if you use the Delco radio, wire the speakers the same way as originally done with the stock speaker wires (black is speaker ground). If you have a modern head unit, make sure that you do not connect any (-) speaker wires to chassis ground.

You can find lots of speakers, etc.at onlinecarstereo.com .

 

For me it would first depend on the factory radio I had.
There were 2 different RPO codes for the AM/FM only radio in 1977. U58 was the AM/FM Stereo, U69 was the AM/FM Mono radio. Both radios had 2 dash speakers.
If I had a Stereo model I would look for a 4X6 modern 8ohm speaker.
The modern frames will support different mounting hole patters and likely will align with the factory support housing. Just be careful when backing off those nuts, the frame stud is tapered and they snap off easily.
If I had the Mono radio I would upgrade the complete system.

 

All good advice. I have the Pioneer TS-G4620S in that location in my car but I'm running about 60 watts into them, so they are probably not the best choice for the factory head unit. Find something that runs on a little less power. I also don't remember what I had to do to mount them, but they ended up fitting well. Check out the Crutchfield site. If you order from them they will also provide the required mounting brackets, adapters, etc. for your application.

 

Mine says "Stereo" on the A/M FM illuminated face, but I only ever found 2 speakers in the car. Would GM factory install an AM/FM Stereo with only the two dash speakers at the factory?

 

See "STEREO" in between the 14 & 16 marking points on the AM/FM radio frequency indicator.

 

To expand on this advice, you should also consider speaker sensitivity rating (some call this efficiency). The sensitivity rating will be in dB. The higher the sensitivity, the less power required to drive the speakers to acceptable volume levels. For example, consider two otherwise identical speakers, one with a 92 dB sensitivity and one with an 89 dB sensitivity. The 92 dB speaker will require 1/2 the power of the 89 dB speaker to achieve the same volume level. Each 3 dB increase in sensitivity requires 1/2 the power.

DC

 

Ok yep stereo radio. Only 2 front speakers in the 77 Corvette model. In 78 I think rear speakers were optional.
The Stereo radios right shaft there is a spacer (L-R speaker balance) and has that little tab sticking out, like the left side shaft spacer is for the (tone control) and also has the little tab
Just some 1977 Corvette useless trivia.....On a AM/FM Mono radio there is a spacer on the right shaft but it is just a spacer with no tab, no L-R speaker balance on a Mono radio.

You can add rear speakers using your 77 stereo radio, just need to add the wiring to the existing connectors. In 77 these radios were used in many models including models with rear speakers.
Here is the back of my AM/FM 8 track including F&R speaker pin layout.

 

Same speakers, whether stereo or mono. 1968-69 got 4"x10" speakers in each kickpanel (none in dash); 1970-1977 (I think) got only the two 4"x6" speakers in the dash.

Those dash speakers are very beneficial, even though they are 'puny'. The mid-high frequency sounds bounce off the hard [inner] windshield surface and reflect directly to the listener's ears. Very good strategy, as those higher frequencies do not reflect off of softer surfaces well. For my purposes, the best sound available in a 1968-77 C3 is two larger speakers in the kickpanel areas (which provide bass and midrange frequencies) and two smaller (mid/tweeter) speakers in the dash. With the Delco head, those 4 speakers...all 4 ohm impedance...can be wired in SERIES on each side. That results in 8 ohm impedance for right and left pair, which is a good match for the Delco unit's 10 ohm output impedance. With decent quality, lower efficiency speakers, this provided good frequency balance and very good sound 'fill' in the cockpit area.

 

Will this pair work?

RetroSound R-463N

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-3d9ck3...SABEgI0DfD_BwE

 

According to the Crutchfield website, they will fit. (Although I'm sure you already knew that.) In my experience the Crutchfield site tends to err on the side of caution. Lots of cases where the part will fit, perhaps with a little modification, and the site says it won't. But I've never had a situation where they said it would fit and it didn't. Undoubtedly they have customers with a broad array of installation skills and this is their way of avoidiing trouble.

 

Great, are these the proper OHM size pair to be running with the factory AM/FM Stereo Radio?

 

Click the details tab under the speaker photo.
You should at least be using a 8 OHM speaker.

 

Looks like I've been successful at finding 4 ohms, unfortunately, I need 8 ohms and need some advice. Do you know of any that are 8 ohm and you can send me a link to them? Most of the speakers I'm seeing manufactured today are 4 ohms for the aftermarket community and I don't necessarily want to replace the factory stereo. I might have to though.

 

Wow. I did some searching for you and struck out completely on finding 8 ohm speakers for your car. Eckler's shows several speakers but all are rated at 4 ohms. None of the car stereo sites I visited had 8 ohm 4x6 speakers

I would call Crutchfield and run this by them. They may have a solution.

DC

 

After searching several sites for 8 ohm car speakers, I came up empty! I think the best [all around] solution for new speakers for your stock Delco radio would be to put 4 ohm 4"x6" speakers in the dash AND two 4 ohm speakers behind or in the kickpanels. On each side, the two speakers should be wired together in SERIES mode (radio output + to dashspeaker; dash speaker - to kickpanel speaker +; and kickpanel speaker - to radio ouput - ). That will yield a total speaker impedance of 8 ohms on each side. And the sound will be much better. Midrange/tweeters in the dash and midrange/bass speakers in the kickpanels.

With 4 ohm speakers being all that is available for cars, two 4 ohm speakers wired in series gets that job done....and better than a single speaker. 20-50 watt dash speaker and 30-80 watt kickpanel speakers. Kickpanel speakers should be 4"x8" or 5"x7" ovals or 5.25" round 2-way speakers.