38-9 Restoration

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The Beginning
Don't Plug it In		 9. Complete Electrical Restoration
The Plan

 1.  Get the Data

 2.  Block Diagram

 3.  Pre-Flight Checks

 4.  What Needs Replacement?

 5.  Ordering Parts

 6.  Install Electrolytics

 7.  First Power-On Checks

 8.  Triage Problems - more trouble!

 9.  Complete Electrical Restoration

10.  2nd Pre-Flight and Power-On, and The Last Problem

Additional Resources

 o  Antenna in the attic

 o  Shortwave Listening Guide

 o  Philco and Radio History

 o  Other Links

 

The complete restoration took about four hours, spread across several sittings.  If you choose to undertake this, all I can say is "be methodical."

I worked left-to-right, and marked off each part on the part layout diagram as I went along.

The Bakelite Block Capacitor
One of the special challenges was the "universal bakelite capacitor."  I believe these may also be referred to Bathtub capacitors.  Philcos of this vintage have capacitors on the input voltage line, and those capacitors are encased in tar to keep them dry.  I probably would have replaced these caps anyway, as I was doing everything else, but the black ooze made it imperative.  (See item #5 in the pre-flight checks).

Chuck Schwark's Philco Repair Bench has a fantastic step-by-step guide to rebuilding these block capacitors.  It can be a bit hard to find on his site, but here's the link (http://www.philcorepairbench.com/capbuild.htm).  
Beforeand after

Chassis Restoration

Before
(click for high res image)

After

(click for  high res image)

 

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Lilian Vernon
Copyright © 2004 look4000@verizon.net 
Last modified: November 01, 2008