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Posted by David Sherman on Monday, June 23, 2008 at 21:04:53 :
In Reply to: Restored roof mounted radio on E-bay and a Video! posted by Eric B. on Monday, June 23, 2008 at 00:31:03 :
Nice to see somebody get into restoring an old car radio. Lots of guys do a super job on the body and mechanical parts, but old radios seem to be overlooked. Maybe electronics scares them, even though these AM radios are incredibly simple. The only slightly unusual thing about them is the vibrator power supplies. I've accumulated half a dozen or so tube-powered car radios, all in rough shape, and haven't tried to make any of them work. Most of them need to go in the vehicle they were made for, because they take up so much room behind the dash. Some have only a control box in the dash, with the actual works mounted somewhere else.
If anybody else on the forum is into trying to get one working, I'll be glad to help. I have the full set of Sams photofacts (schematics and alignment instructions) from the first issue up to the mid-1960s, which includes all the car radios. I also have lots of tubes, including the 6 volt "loctals" used in the early radios, and a Hickock 539C tube tester to test them with. I could give all kinds of advice on troubleshooting old radios, but for now I'll say that if the radio hasn't been turned on for decades, and it doesn't work, it's usually NOT "just a tube". If the tubes light up, are not broken, and the getter hasn't turned white, they're usually good enough for an AM radio. What usually does go bad are all the old paper and electrolytic capacitors.