[mikepellegrini]

Another possibility for the poor radio reception is that the late cars with the antenna in the windshield used antenna amplifiers - which often get unhooked and forgotten about.

My 951 had the same problem - I hooked up the amp and presto-chango, the radio worked perfectly.

If I remember correctly, the wire to the amp was a small (say 16 or maybe 18 Ga) black wire in the vicinity of the antenna connector.

You hook it up to +12 VDC.

On mine, I hooked it up to a 12 VDV out from the deck. If you use some other source, be sure to fuse it (maybe 5 amps or something low).

Do of course, make sure you've got the correct wire before you give it the voltage. To test mine, I think I had the radio out but plugged in and playing - I brushed the wire quickly with a 12 VDC source and the reception was intantly good.

Then after confirmation, I wired it into the deck.

As for the vents, like the other guys said it might very well be a vacuum hose off somewhere on the vent system. All the vent doors are vacuum controlled. You'll just have to poke around down under your dash and see if you can find it.