1952 Zenith Bugeye AM/FM Clock Radio

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Your DMM probably on its sub k ohm range has a max resistance measurement limit of 200-400 ohms and anything above that will read as infinite unless you move the range switch to a higher range. The 470 ohm resistors are probably fine.

The lytics measuring in the pF range are almost certainly open and defective. Picofarad range capacitance is easy to get from the cutoff leads of the cap, your instruments test leads, set wiring, etc. All can present a few dozen pF to the meter easily. Heck if you have a good amount of RCA A/V cables you'll find most have well over 100pF between center and shield. Any 2 conductors not connected to each other have some finite (possibly measurable) capacitance between them.

Ok. That makes sense, so it seems I only have 1 electrolytic cap to replace and the one resistor (R32) to replace and that's it. And the radio should be good again.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

Ok. That makes sense, so it seems I only have 1 electrolytic cap to replace and the one resistor (R32) to replace and that's it. And the radio should be good again.

Replacment of these items may well fix the B+ supply, but it appears that you also have another unrelated problem in the heater string that is causing the the tubes not to light up.
Unless you fix both problems, the radio will remain dead.

jr

[vortalexfan]

Well I got it going, mostly it was indeed R32 that was causing the problem when I took R32 out, it had a nice big crack running down the backside of it, telling me that it had taken the brunt force of the improperly installed diode.

But now I have a new problem, and it may very well be just a bad tube causing it or an improperly seated tube, but the AM Band works perfectly on the radio, but the FM Band is very weak and barely picks up anything including a local Christian Station that puts out nearly 50,000 watts of power making it the strongest station in the area.

What do you guys think? A bad tube or something else?