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  #1  
Old 06-06-2004, 04:06 PM
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What Zenith is this?

Bagged this puppy for 5$ at a yard sale. I'll post a pic later tonight. It has a blonde wood cabinet , rectangular, a cream plastic face with a chrome circle around the main speaker. It is a 2 way speaker design, toobs look all original. It says "High Fidelity" on the face, top left corner. On the back it says Zenith Long Distance Radio. It has a vertical dial on the left, AM and FM, the dial is lighted. What am I?
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  #2  
Old 06-06-2004, 04:20 PM
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Try here: http://archives.radioattic.com/archive_z6.htm

Radio Attic has more than 5000 model photos in the archives...
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  #3  
Old 06-06-2004, 05:45 PM
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Good call. It's a C845 And here she is. The problem is, the tuning knob does nothing at all. Looked inside, man, it ain't gonna be easy to get to the tuning apparatus or the knobs for deoxit. Anybody have a tip?
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Last edited by dsk; 06-06-2004 at 06:52 PM.
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  #4  
Old 06-06-2004, 06:52 PM
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Ok, here it is after all:
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  #5  
Old 06-06-2004, 07:46 PM
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May be easier than you think - pop off the knobs and look for a few screws on the bottom that hold in the chassis. MAYBE you can tighten up the dial cord, but it's probably broken.

It's covered in Sams folder number 485, but I don't have that one...
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  #6  
Old 06-06-2004, 07:50 PM
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You know what, on the bottom there is a sticker. It identifies it as an H845. Wonder what the difference is, if any? Didn't see an H845 on that website.
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  #7  
Old 06-07-2004, 04:25 PM
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Got the chassis out, thanks for the tip. The dial string is broken. Any thoughts on a replacement?
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  #8  
Old 06-07-2004, 06:52 PM
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Check this site for radio restoration parts - http://www.dialcover.com/components.html

20 feet of dial cord, $1.50. INCLUDING postage.

The H845 is a later model, and it's in Sams #725, 1964. Don't have any that late...
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  #9  
Old 06-08-2004, 02:08 PM
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Paula Paula is offline
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Tom, thanks for the dialcover.com link! I've been wondering if there was anyone out there that reproduces those plastic dial covers. The one in my Silvertone 6230 is warped -- apparently from the small fire caused by the field coil shorting out.

Paula
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  #10  
Old 06-15-2004, 04:03 AM
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Quote:
Originally posted by dsk
Ok, here it is after all:

That's one fine set, as are all Zeniths. I would almost put it in a class with the K-731, which is also a high-fidelity set (though your C845 probably only has one speaker, whereas the K731 has a 5x7 oval speaker plus a small electrostatic tweeter).

Replace the dial cord and the tuning knob will work again as it did when the set was new. I don't know if you've tried to power this set up, but if not, please, do it slowly, with a Variac or at least a 100-watt bulb in series with the line cord. If the bulb glows dimly when you turn the set on, you can safely continue your testing. However, if the bulb lights brightly (or even burns out with a bright white flash) as soon as you power up the set, there is a short somewhere. This is also a tipoff to a problem in the power supply in AC/DC sets with pilot lights. I have a Zenith H511 in which the pilot light immediately burned out the first time I powered up the set after receiving it from an ebay seller a couple years ago. The problem, I think anyhow, was simply that the main power supply filter capacitor (a rather large 3-section polarized unit) was deformed from years of disuse (the radio looked as if it had reposed, unused, in its former owner's basement or garage for years or decades). I replaced the bulb and the set worked well.

A deformed filter capacitor will draw so much current through the pilot light (from the huge inrush current surge) as to burn out the latter in the blink of an eye; so, for that matter, will a shorted rectifier tube, as the pilot light in most AC/DC sets is wired directly across the tube (35W4 in most later-vintage ['50s-'60s] AC/DC receivers, but it can be a 35Z5 or even a 35Z4 in some very old sets). The 35Z4 is an obsolete rectifier tube found in older sets; I once read of a Sylvania radio with this type of rectifier, but have not seen or heard of any others recently.

The 35Z4 may be replaced by a 35Z5, but not directly. There is an under-chassis modification which must be performed to use a 35Z5 in place of a 'Z4, but offhand I don't recall what it entails.
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  #11  
Old 06-15-2004, 04:04 AM
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<----Zenith C845
 
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Quote:
Originally posted by dsk
Ok, here it is after all:

That's one fine set, like all Zeniths. I would almost put it in a class with the K-731, which is also a high-fidelity set (though your C845 probably only has one speaker, whereas the K731 has a 5x7 oval speaker plus a small electrostatic tweeter).

Replace the dial cord and the tuning knob will work again as it did when the set was new. I don't know if you've tried to power this set up, but if not, please, do it slowly, with a Variac or at least a 100-watt bulb in series with the line cord. If the bulb glows dimly when you turn the set on, you can safely continue your testing. However, if the bulb lights brightly (or even burns out with a bright white flash) as soon as you power up the set, there is a short somewhere. This is also a tipoff to a problem in the power supply in AC/DC sets with pilot lights. I have a Zenith H511 in which the pilot light immediately burned out the first time I powered up the set after receiving it from an ebay seller a couple years ago. The problem, I think anyhow, was simply that the main power supply filter capacitor (a rather large 3-section polarized unit) was deformed from years of disuse (the radio looked as if it had reposed, unused, in its former owner's basement or garage for years or decades). I replaced the bulb and the set worked well.

A deformed filter capacitor will draw so much current through the pilot light (from the huge inrush current surge) as to burn out the latter in the blink of an eye; so, for that matter, will a shorted rectifier tube, as the pilot light in most AC/DC sets is wired directly across the tube (35W4 in most later-vintage ['50s-'60s] AC/DC receivers, but it can be a 35Z5 or even a 35Z4 in some very old sets). The 35Z4 is an obsolete rectifier tube found in older sets; I once read of a Sylvania radio with this type of rectifier, but have not seen or heard of any others recently.

The 35Z4 may be replaced by a 35Z5, but not directly. There is an under-chassis modification which must be performed to use a 35Z5 in place of a 'Z4, but offhand I don't recall what it entails.
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  #12  
Old 06-15-2004, 06:59 AM
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Thanks for the advice. Actually, it has 2 speakers, both traditional drivers.
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  #13  
Old 06-15-2004, 07:33 AM
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Chad Hauris Chad Hauris is offline
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As far as I know this Zenith set does not use a rectifier tube...it uses a selenium rectifier. The dial lamp/indicator lamp is either a neon lamp, or it is a 28 volt bulb that operates with a dropping resistor directly off the 110 volt ac powerline.

Most of the time the selenium rectifier will operate OK...but it will deteriorate over time and possibly short out. A good replacement is a 1000 PIV at least 1-amp silicon diode with a 100 ohm 10-watt resistor in series with it to limit surge current at turn-on and to keep the voltage at the same output level as the selenium.
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  #14  
Old 06-15-2004, 01:30 PM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
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Quote:
Originally posted by dsk
Thanks for the advice. Actually, it has 2 speakers, both traditional drivers.
I just reread your post. You did mention that the C845 has two speakers. I guess that will teach me not to go firing off a reply to a post without first reading that post thoroughly.

The blonde wood cabinet of the C845 would place it around the mid-1950s, as this was when blonde wood furniture (not to mention pink colored stuff) was popular in American homes. (I don't remember the model number offhand, but one of Zenith's 1950s-vintage clock radios was in a pink cabinet.) My folks were married in the '50s, and we had all sorts of pink and red dishes, kitchen furniture, etc., not to mention a blonde wood cabinet Crosley Super-V 21" console TV, in our house when I was growing up and until I was about 16.

Another tipoff to the '50s heritage of the Zenith C845 is the tuning dial. The presence of the two Civil Defense icons on the AM tuning scale at 640 and 1240 kHz would date this radio around the mid-'50s as well, as this was when the Conelrad early-warning alert network was developed.

BTW, if it were not for the blonde cabinet, plastic front, and vertical dial, the C845 could probably pass for a K731--the front panel control layout, dial scale (horizontal), etc. are very similar to the latter. One of the differences, however, is that your set has a pilot light behind the dial, whereas the '731 does not.

I have a '731, an ebay score last year, and the set works great--didn't have to do a thing with it or to it once it arrived here. Your C845, however, as I said, is likely very similar in terms of chassis design and the like. I always did like the sound of those old Zeniths (not to mention the looks of the cabinets--I always wanted a console, but don't have the room for anything that big here in my very small apartment, which is why I bid on the set in the first place; the walnut cabinet matches my furniture almost perfectly), and besides, the sets are built to last and last and last. With proper maintenance, many of these older Zeniths will run for years or decades, as well as they did when they were new--just look at some of the old sets we AKers have. I am also impressed with the restorations the guys on AK's antique television forum have done on old sets most ordinary people would have given up for dead years ago. I browse these forums daily and am always impressed by how well these older sets are being made to work.


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Last edited by Jeffhs; 06-15-2004 at 02:03 PM.
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  #15  
Old 07-11-2004, 09:11 PM
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UPDATE

The Zenith is polished up, the dial string has been replaced (after many miscues). Now it sounds like crap (it may have before, I really didn't listen to it). It sounds like a speaker is blown, although I don't think that is the case, I'm just trying to describe the distorted sound. Could it be a tube?
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