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Nice!

Getting off my rear and finally working on the car.

It's getting colder here, which means that I need to address the broken Bowden cables for my heater controls.

I started the removal of the radio and heater controls last night. It's pretty straightforward, but can be tricky to access the bolts for the heater controls behind the dash. It'll be interesting getting them back in. The worst part was trying to figure out a path for the radio to come out. It is almost too big for the space.

There was a TON of sand in there. Once I pulled off the faceplate I was surprised at how much was stuck right behind it.

I removed the heater controls and one of them had bent levers. Looked like someone nailed it with their legs as they were scooting around. Some rags to protect the metal and two sets of pliers made quick work of that.

All the levers have some corrosion on them. At first I was contemplating stripping the controls down to separate parts, then learn how to nickel plate to try and get some shine back. But nickel plating doesn't give the high shine that chrome does, so I decided to try and polish what I could. I used 0000 steel wool and a lubricant to clean off as much rust as possible. Then did some wax over that. It's definitely better than it was, but I can't do much about the pitting. Every piece of chrome on the car has moderate pitting. With the cost of chrome these days there is no way I'm going to pay for every bit to get redone. I would much rather spend the money on reupholstering the seats and door panels.

More to come when I get back to it tonight.

-Kevin

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  Cleaned and polished arms.jpg (105.07 KB)

It is surprising all the places sand can get into.

Had a few more minutes tonight and was able to fully disconnect the radio.

The radio removal is hampered by the wires for the rear speaker. They enter the radio box from the bottom through a tight rubber grommet, and the connections are made internally. The other end of the wires go over to the rear speaker control knob (left side of the dash), where they are soldered in place.

After evaluating my options, I figured it would be easiest to remove the rear plate of the radio in the car, then unplug the speaker wires from the radio and pull them out of the grommet.

With the radio free I took it outside and blasted it with air to get the huge amount of sand out. Now that it's all clean I may take a stab at seeing if I can get it working. I downloaded schematics from Auto Radio Schematics and will start watching some Youtube videos to see if I can figure it out. The light on the dial turns on when I turn the radio on, but no sound and no buzzing from the vibrator.

As a side note, when I opened the radio I found two original schematics for the radio. One is correct, and one is not. Pretty cool to find paper that is nearly 70 years old.

Two of my Bowden cables are broken, the other two seem to be fine. I'm going to order some new cable and will cut it to length.

-Kevin

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  Rear speaker control knob.jpg (87.62 KB)


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  Cleaned up interior of radio.jpg (129.43 KB)


  Original schematics.jpg (122.12 KB)

- Check that tubes light & no significant corrosion anywhere

- Replace vibrator

- Check for burst or expanded capacitors

Hopefully just replacing the vibrator will get it working. If not, reseat vacuum tubes and try again. If not, get part chart, order and replace caps.

You should probably replace at least the power supply’s capacitors and, of course as said, check or replace the vibrator. These are even available in solid state if you want to go that route. I grew up in my grandfather’s radio and TV repair shop so was working on things like that from an early age!

This is a useful thread on radios:

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... 5295&post_id=242334#forumpost242334

Thanks everyone. This is my first experience with anything involving vacuum tubes, so I'm coming at this with zero knowledge. So far the only thing I know is that the vibrator is supposed to hum.

I have the parts list/schematic from the link I provided, so I'll have to pull the front off the radio and figure out which capacitors are for power, and do a thorough inspection of everything. So far from the back the internals look pretty good with no signs of corrosion.

Jerome, that thread is one of the many I was reading through last night as I was researching what to do next. Thanks for providing all those links.

I don't have a benchtop 12V supply. What should I get?

-Kevin

Tubesandmore.com should be able to help with vacuum tubes and possibly some of the other hard to find parts.

Two questions:

1.) For a 12V power supply to test with...can I just use whatever 12V wall wart and put alligator clips on it? Or do I need an actual benchtop power supply?

2.) Will the tubes light even without the vibrator working?