1942 Philco Radio

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

This sort of thing happens as often as not.
When I found the dial glass loose, I just used a couple layers of electrical tape to hold it tightly in the mounting clamps. When working on radios or anything this old, you have to improvise. Look at the people restoring old cars. That's even a bigger PITA than these radios and a lot more costly.
Regarding the dial pointer not moving smoothly, check to see if the frame, where the pointer rides on hasn't been bent, after the fall.
If you read the other entries on this forum, regarding the restorations of the sets, you'll find that a lot of patience has been taken to get the results that they expected!

I actually did check that and the frame for the pointer isn't the problem (its as straight as an arrow yet) its just that the tuning knob for some reason or another isn't wanting to turn the string and the tuning capacitor to move the pointer and what not, because before the chassis took a fall it was working fine but then when it fell it for some reason stopped wanting to move with the knob it will move fine if you rotate the large pulley by hand (when you rotate the large pulley by hand then the knob turns with it but if you try to turn the tuning itself then the pointer won't budge except if its all the way at the top of the dial then it will move it down but only part of the way down before it gets stuck and won't move anymore.)
any other ideas as to what could of happened to the tuner when it fell besides the tuner assembly getting bent?

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

I actually did check that and the frame for the pointer isn't the problem (its as straight as an arrow yet) its just that the tuning knob for some reason or another isn't wanting to turn the string and the tuning capacitor to move the pointer and what not, because before the chassis took a fall it was working fine but then when it fell it for some reason stopped wanting to move with the knob it will move fine if you rotate the large pulley by hand (when you rotate the large pulley by hand then the knob turns with it but if you try to turn the tuning itself then the pointer won't budge except if its all the way at the top of the dial then it will move it down but only part of the way down before it gets stuck and won't move anymore.)
any other ideas as to what could of happened to the tuner when it fell besides the tuner assembly getting bent?

Try moving the tuning condenser by the pulley and see where it's binding. You should feel where it requires more effort to turn it. That's the only way you can do it. Try removing the dial cord that goes to the tuning shaft.
Going by what I stated before, dial cords were always a PITA and many times, they had to be restrung more than once.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Try moving the tuning condenser by the pulley and see where it's binding. You should feel where it requires more effort to turn it. That's the only way you can do it. Try removing the dial cord that goes to the tuning shaft.
Going by what I stated before, dial cords were always a PITA and many times, they had to be restrung more than once.

well when I turn the pulley/tuning capacitor by hand all the way up and down the dial it doesn't seem to give any resistance, and like I said when I do that the tuning knob turns with it, but when I go to turn the tuning knob it wont engage with the rest of the tuning mechanism, it just "spins freely" between the string even though the string still has two turns around the tuning knob and has plenty enough tension to cause it to turn the knob when rotating the large pulley by hand but the knob itself just doesn't want to engage the tuning mechanism itself...

EDIT: I completely took apart and restrung the dial string for the tuning knob assembly and it still isn't wanting to engage the tuning mechanism with the tuning knob, but yet the tuning knob will turn with the tuning mechanism if I turn the large pulley by hand with my finger so I'm still stumped as to what could of happened with this radio's tuning mechanism when it fell to cause it to do this.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

well when I turn the pulley/tuning capacitor by hand all the way up and down the dial it doesn't seem to give any resistance, and like I said when I do that the tuning knob turns with it, but when I go to turn the tuning knob it wont engage with the rest of the tuning mechanism, it just "spins freely" between the string even though the string still has two turns around the tuning knob and has plenty enough tension to cause it to turn the knob when rotating the large pulley by hand but the knob itself just doesn't want to engage the tuning mechanism itself...

EDIT: I completely took apart and restrung the dial string for the tuning knob assembly and it still isn't wanting to engage the tuning mechanism with the tuning knob, but yet the tuning knob will turn with the tuning mechanism if I turn the large pulley by hand with my finger so I'm still stumped as to what could of happened with this radio's tuning mechanism when it fell to cause it to do this.

By turning the big pulley, you're dealing with something like a 20:1 ratio. The tuning shaft doesn't present much of a resistance. Two turns sounds alright. A few times, I had to rough up the tuning shaft with a file. The area where the cord wraps around gets smooth, after a while.
It takes a lot of picky-picky experimenting to get if right once in a while.
Why it changed after the drop, is anyones guess.

[Electronic M]

I'd consider adding a turn or two to the tuning knob shaft and or tightening the string if the filing fails.

There is an art to tensioning the string and tying it, sometimes using a stiff enough spring to achieve the tension helps (later sets made tension springs a nearly standard part).

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

By turning the big pulley, you're dealing with something like a 20:1 ratio. The tuning shaft doesn't present much of a resistance. Two turns sounds alright. A few times, I had to rough up the tuning shaft with a file. The area where the cord wraps around gets smooth, after a while.
It takes a lot of picky-picky experimenting to get if right once in a while.
Why it changed after the drop, is anyones guess.

That's the problem I don't have a rat tail file to use on this, otherwise I would be trying to rough up the tuning knob to see if that works or not.
but yeah it is kind of weird that it decided to poop out on me following it falling on the floor.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I'd consider adding a turn or two to the tuning knob shaft and or tightening the string if the filing fails.

There is an art to tensioning the string and tying it, sometimes using a stiff enough spring to achieve the tension helps (later sets made tension springs a nearly standard part).

I was thinking the exact same thing adding another turn to it or two but I don't have a whole lot of dial string to work with to begin with, I had just enough to make it work with the original restringing instructions and that's it.

[Electronic M]

Look for a junk 70's-90's stereo receiver, and steal it's string, order some online, or look for decent material locally. IIRC fly fishing line tends to be normal line wrapped in cloth.....Perhaps a bait shop could fix you up with some suitable dial string.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Look for a junk 70's-90's stereo receiver, and steal it's string, order some online, or look for decent material locally. IIRC fly fishing line tends to be normal line wrapped in cloth.....Perhaps a bait shop could fix you up with some suitable dial string.

I could see what I could do.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

I could see what I could do.

Way back, when I first started in this, I used to raid my father's fishing tackle box, for the old style line. Not sure if they still use it for that purpose.
The on-line and mail order old radio part suppliers still sell it.
I bought my dial cord from Bob's antique radios in Illinous.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Way back, when I first started in this, I used to raid my father's fishing tackle box, for the old style line. Not sure if they still use it for that purpose.
The on-line and mail order old radio part suppliers still sell it.
I bought my dial cord from Bob's antique radios in Illinous.

I was kind of curious about your username (I know this is kind of off topic) but I'm guessing you have an actual Diesel powered Jeep?

Also I do have an old Silvertone AM/FM/Phono Console from 1948 that needed its tuning dial restrung but wasn't able to figure out how to restring it as the illustration in the Sam's Photofact that I have for it was very poorly drawn and also because of how tough it is to get to the tuner pulley to attach the string and tension spring, as it has the pushbutton presets and those are directly linked to the tuning capacitor which makes it even harder to access the pulley.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

I was kind of curious about your username (I know this is kind of off topic) but I'm guessing you have an actual Diesel powered Jeep?

Also I do have an old Silvertone AM/FM/Phono Console from 1948 that needed its tuning dial restrung but wasn't able to figure out how to restring it as the illustration in the Sam's Photofact that I have for it was very poorly drawn and also because of how tough it is to get to the tuner pulley to attach the string and tension spring, as it has the pushbutton presets and those are directly linked to the tuning capacitor which makes it even harder to access the pulley.

When I signed up for this forum, I was driving my Diesel Jeep Liberty.
They only built two model years of them for the US market, 2005 and 2006.
The Diesel emissions ruling changed for the 2007 model year. They still continued to build the Jeep Diesel, but only for sale to the export market. They felt the demand in the US wasn't great enough to meet the new emissions standards.
IIRC, they're building a Diesel Jeep Grand Cherokee now for the US market.
My beloved Dieseljeep was totaled in a freak accident on December 10, 2009.
I felt no need to change my user name.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

When I signed up for this forum, I was driving my Diesel Jeep Liberty.
They only built two model years of them for the US market, 2005 and 2006.
The Diesel emissions ruling changed for the 2007 model year. They still continued to build the Jeep Diesel, but only for sale to the export market. They felt the demand in the US wasn't great enough to meet the new emissions standards.
IIRC, they're building a Diesel Jeep Grand Cherokee now for the US market.
My beloved Dieseljeep was totaled in a freak accident on December 10, 2009.
I felt no need to change my user name.

Ah, that's a cryin' shame! you would of thought that with as many Diesel Mercedes-Benz's and Volkwagens that sold here over the past 40 years you would of thought that Daimler (who owned Chrysler at the time and is the parent company of Mercedes-Benz) would of made and sold more diesels under the Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge badges...

Anyways back on topic, the radio is still going to be kind of tricky to try and get going as I have to still patch some wire yet that was chewed up by mice, and the tuning string issue as well, I also have to try and figure out how to replace the bakelite bezel on the front of the radio cabinet as its warped and cracked in several places, I had seen one like what I needed on the Radio Daze Website but they wanted $30 for it which is way more than I can afford to spend on this radio to get up and running again...

Also I have an issue with my mom thinking that I have too many radios in my place (she thinks I'm being a hoarder even though I'm not) and she is trying to get me to get rid of my radios even the ones I'm currently working on restoring so I can resell them once I get my own shop space from a friend of mine who runs a flea market near me, she also wants me to get rid of the radios I have that I had already gotten working and I'm just waiting to get my shop going so I can sell them.

And the way my mom is when she says something needs to go she means it needs to go into the trash, not be sold, which is quite annoying because I put lots of hard work into some of my radios to get them working agains so I could actually sell them for profit, bu she doesn't seem to understand that part of the deal and still is going to insist that I throw the radios in the garbage.

How would I go about trying to explain to my mom that the radios are more than just garbage and that there is an actual collectors market for these radios and that I should be allowed to keep these radios that are going or that are almost up and running except for a couple of parts that are needed to finalize the working order of the radios so I can try and sell them to get my moneys worth out of them without trying to upset her (as she can get very upset very easily if I'm not on the same page as she is on something like this). Also my mom seems to think that my house (actually my little section of the house as I live in a smaller house with a house mate) stinks because of the radios and other antiques I have and she thinks that me getting rid of ALL of my old radios will get rid of the stink (which I don't even notice a smell of any sort in the house) and she even thinks that the smell has crept into my clothing (which that's not the case, what's she smells on my clothes is the smell of old growth walnut wood that has a distinct smell which is what my 1940s vintage dresser is made out of not the "old electronics" smell she thinks she's smelling.) Anyways like I said I really want to try and talk my mother out of her crazy idea of making me throw out my radios that I had put lots of money and hard work into getting running so that I could turn around and resell them later on but like i said I don't know how to approach my mom about this without upsetting her and making her think that I'm trying to hoard radios (when that's just not the case, I'm just trying to use my talents for electronics repair/restoration to try and make some extra money on the side since I currently do not have a steady job at the moment.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

Ah, that's a cryin' shame! you would of thought that with as many Diesel Mercedes-Benz's and Volkwagens that sold here over the past 40 years you would of thought that Daimler (who owned Chrysler at the time and is the parent company of Mercedes-Benz) would of made and sold more diesels under the Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge badges...

The American motoring public was soured on Diesel powered cars, because of the poor excuse of a Diesel, that GM sold in the 70's. It was a re-designed Oldsmobile 350 V-8, that had an extremely high failure rate.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

The American motoring public was soured on Diesel powered cars, because of the poor excuse of a Diesel, that GM sold in the 70's. It was a re-designed Oldsmobile 350 V-8, that had an extremely high failure rate.

Yeah I know a couple of people who had some of those old GM Diesels but they said when they did work they got really good fuel economy somewhere around 35 MPG compared to the 10 MPG that the old 350 V8s at the time got, I believe that the diesel engines that GM was trying to develop in the '70's was GM's attempt/answer to the fuel/oil crisis of the 1970s.