Well, replaced the one two section candohm resistor with a terminal strip and two ohmite wire wound resistors.

Hooked everything up, hooked up an antenna, turned the tuner to channel 7 and fired up my modulator. Brought the set up slowly on a variac. At 90 volts - no smoke, no bad smells, all tubes lit. Cranked it up from there slowly and CRT lit up and heard very low static - then very low sound. :D Waited a few moments looking for smoke or any sign that the set needed to be shut down. All ok so far.

Walked around the front of the set and saw a decent picture. :thmbsp: Switched signal over to my DVD player (thru my modulator) for a test pattern. With only a slight height and linearity adjustment, then an ion trap adjustment got a decent picture. Sound was very bad. Barely audible and full of static. Fine tuning did nothing. So I switched to channel 8 and got fantastic sound. GREAT, just need to adjust the channel 7 tuning lug, right? Wrong! When I removed the channel/fine tuning knob, the tuning screw for channel 7 was either sheared off or not there. Then as I turned the tuner around - noticed the same thing for channels 3-10. No tuning screws visible where they should be. Well since the set had a decent pic, I decided to turn on the radio. Turned it on and CRT slowly faded to black and TV sound faded as well. Nothing from radio. Hmmmm??? With the radio still on, I turned off the TV power knob and the radio came to life. Dial lights came on and got stations on AM and FM bands. Now it gets strange. Turned off radio knob and tv knob and the set would not turn off. Had to unplug it totally to kill the power. So something is not right there. Good news, nothing blew up and got a raster/picture and sound. NOW THE BAD NEWS!

Pulled the chassis and pulled out the turret tuner. EVERY SINGLE tuning screw from channel 3-10 is DESTROYED! Someone butchered this tuner. UGH! When I got the turret out, it sounded like shaking a jar full of pennies. Pieces everywhere. All the tuning screws were driven in too far, destroying the tuning abilities for all these channels.

So on the hunt for a late 40's/early 50's Admiral turret tuner.

Over all, a decent first power up all by myself. Lots of bugs to work out, but there is life and nothing blew up. I did not really mess with the phono at all. When I switched the radio to phono mode the turntable did start turning with a little kick start from me. So it had power too.

Radio did have power, but I could not turn it off once it was on. Hmmmmm???

Hi Al,

I just happen to have this Admiral tuner handy. I think it's a 1954 date code. Not sure if the screws are compatible? It's yours if you can use anything. Oh, and your switch contact may be stuck in the on position. Maybe a squirt of contact lube will free things up?

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/Kuehn/AdmiralTuner001_zpsb0637868.jpg?t=1398831683

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/Kuehn/AdmiralTuner002_zpsbc5d5f5b.jpg?t=1398831725

Hi Al,

I just happen to have this Admiral tuner handy. I think it's a 1954 date code. Not sure if the screws are compatible? It's yours if you can use anything.

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/Kuehn/AdmiralTuner001_zpsb0637868.jpg?t=1398831683

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/Kuehn/AdmiralTuner002_zpsbc5d5f5b.jpg?t=1398831725

THANKS! PM sent.

I hit all the pots with deoxit last week. So can the on/off knob on either the TV or the Radio be stuck on, even if you hear and feel the "click" when turning it off???

I hit all the pots with deoxit last week. So can the on/off knob on either the TV or the Radio be stuck on, even if you hear and feel the "click" when turning it off???

Yep. I've had it happen where the actuating mechanism clicks, but the switch contact would not pull in(or out)

Yep. I've had it happen where the actuating mechanism clicks, but the switch contact would not pull in(or out)

Good to know. Thx!!!

Those tuners are pretty easy to fix. The tuning slugs are short piece of threaded brass rod and if they are turned a little too much they fall inside. Pop out one of the channel strips, pull up on the piece of wire near the end and it will come out. Then just thread it back in. I've had a little practice doing it :o

Turntable power switch stuck on? or does the turntable not control power in this unit?

SR

Those tuners are pretty easy to fix. The tuning slugs are short piece of threaded brass rod and if they are turned a little too much they fall inside. Pop out one of the channel strips, pull up on the piece of wire near the end and it will come out. Then just thread it back in. I've had a little practice doing it :o

Guess I assumed the plastic pieces were damaged(butchered). Hopefully like you say they can simply be screwed back in. Maybe butchered was a slight dramatization. :D

Here's the little spring wire Bob was referrencing. Should be able to lift it up and shake the tuning screw out of the tube. The screw threads are suppose to stay under that little wire.

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/Kuehn/AdmiralTuner_zpse584dddd.jpg?t=1398750861

Oh, when I said destroyed, I was not being dramatic. All channel strips look like this . . .

Turntable power switch stuck on? or does the turntable not control power in this unit?

SR

The TV has a turntable power knob and the radio has it's own turntable power knob as well. But the radio uses the TV's audio circuit to get sound to the speaker and gets its power through the TV chassis as well.

At first I just turned on the television. Once I was sure there was no smoke and had a decent picture and a little sound, I turned on the radio knob. The picture faded to black and the TV sound cut out. But the radio showed no signs of life. Turning off the radio knob restored the picture and TV sound to the set.

So I turned back on the radio knob, TV faded to black and TV sound cut out again. I then turned off the TV knob with the radio knob still in the on position. This brought the radio to life, but once it got power to the radio, turning both knobs off does not kill power to the entire set. The picture tube and TV sound stay off but the radio chassis and some tubes in the TV chassis stay on. It's like it's stuck in radio mode.

So with both knobs off, some TV tubes lit, radio dial lights on, no picture, no TV audio no radio audio.

With both knobs on I seem to get the same condition as above.

With TV knob on and radio knob off TV seems to function fine but radio dial lights still on.

With TV knob off and radio knob on radio seems to function okay.

I am going to insert a shorting plug into the radio socket and just work on the TV once I get a replacement tuner.

I would keep the original tuner. Just get the channel strips from a donor set and snap them into place, tuning slugs and all.:smoke:

I would keep the original tuner. Just get the channel strips from a donor set and snap them into place, tuning slugs and all.:smoke:

That is the plan! :)

I am actually very excited. If this were just a TV, I'd be in really good shape with that kind of first power up. :thmbsp:

I would keep the original tuner. Just get the channel strips from a donor set and snap them into place, tuning slugs and all.:smoke:

Does the set have a Q series tuner, or a G series?
The Q uses a 6BQ7 RF amp. The G series uses a 6AG5.
IIRC, the Q series came out in late 1951. :scratch2:

Mine is an "F" series tuner. 6CB6 RF Amp. Kevin offered his "Q" series to me and then realized that it probably would not work.

Either I am very lucky or EVERYTHING is on eBay. Just scored a "F" series Admiral tuner for $12! Pics show the underside of the turret and the channels are marked, 8F, 9F, 10F . . . etc. Same as mine. Same number of contacts for each channel. Think I am in business!!! :D

Wow! Looks like someone got really mad at that tuner :(

Wow! Looks like someone got really mad at that tuner :(

I don't understand it. Channels 3-10 were all exactly the same. You'd figure after you destroy 1 or 2 tuning strips you would have stopped. Had to feel or hear the crunching and snapping, you'd think?!?! :thumbsdn:

Either I am very lucky or EVERYTHING is on eBay. Just scored a "F" series Admiral tuner for $12! Pics show the underside of the turret and the channels are marked, 8F, 9F, 10F . . . etc. Same as mine. Same number of contacts for each channel. Think I am in business!!! :D
It's been ages since I worked on one of those. Forgot about the F series.
I'd be tempted to try the Q series tuner. It's a little hotter! Same IF frequency.

I don't understand it.Might have been a kid messing around. When I was young, my pals and I did unspeakable things to stuff that was lying around discarded in my Dad's garage or Grandpa's outbuildings.

You are lucky to find a tuner so fast. Fortunately, Admiral was a big seller back in the day.

That picture looks very promising!

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Might have been a kid messing around. When I was young, my pals and I did unspeakable things to stuff that was lying around discarded in my Dad's garage or Grandpa's outbuildings.

You are lucky to find a tuner so fast. Fortunately, Admiral was a big seller back in the day.

That picture looks very promising!

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Guess I was SUPER lucky that the adjust screw for channel 7 was sitting in a good spot for me to even get a picture to begin with. There was definitely almost no sound. When I popped out the channel 7 strip, the adjust screw fell out into the turret. Along with 3-4 other adjust screws and a ton of that paper like substance that makes up the adjust "tubes." What are those tubes made of?

What are those tubes made of?

Paper. Probably wax or resin impregnated. Same deal with many IF transformer cores.

Just thinking that you might be able to salvage one or more destroyed strips and, if you are on a CATV system that is still analog and has an interesting channel between channel 6 and 7, you could make a channel strip to tune it in.

Just thinking that you might be able to salvage one or more destroyed strips and, if you are on a CATV system that is still analog and has an interesting channel between channel 6 and 7, you could make a channel strip to tune it in.

That would be cool to try. I am on DirecTV and have it run into my agile modulator. I built a dipole antenna for it for channel 7 frequency, so I am pretty limited to that right now.

I also have a digital converter box for over-the-air broadcasts. But have not set that up yet. Doesn't that need channel 3 or 4 on the original tuner to work correctly? Since those two channels are in the same shape as my channel 7 channel strip, I think I need to wait for my eBay parts tuner to arrive before I can mess with the TV more.