The PHILCO Phorum
Philco 37-690 - Printable Version

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RE: Philco 37-690 - Phlogiston - 06-02-2014

Depends on how much you value fixing a radio AGAIN. And I like the idea that once I do this no one will have to mess with it again.

They are also good original replacements on pre-Mershon radios.

RE: Philco 37-690 - bfrohwein - 06-02-2014

Can the Solens take the ripple current? I noted that argument in other forums before.

I've been using the Nichicon CS series (pencil thin) almost exclusively for restuffing. they have an 8-10,000 hour life @ 105 degrees. I can't imagine they will go bad until long after I'm gone. they're not much more than their shorter, more stout siblings.

and now after looking, I realized they only go up to 450 volts sooo... ignore me.. ;-)

RE: Philco 37-690 - Phlogiston - 06-02-2014

Those are great caps. I use them in situations where a film cap is simply not viable. This fits well with those devices since many of them used factory caps rated at 160V or 350V. I agree that they should last a long time.

I have been doing the film cap replacement in hundreds of radios for myself and others and have yet to have a single failure.

P.S. Ron watch those 500V electrolytics. The leads seem to be spot welded on and can break off if twisted.

RE: Philco 37-690 - Ron Ramirez - 06-02-2014

10-4 and thanks re: the spot welds, I will be careful.

The 10 uF Solen caps will fit inside old aluminum can electrolytics, but the 22 uF units won't.

RE: Philco 37-690 - Phlogiston - 06-02-2014

Sometimes I stack two 10uf(s) for 20uf.

RE: Philco 37-690 - bfrohwein - 06-02-2014

That's good enough for me, I'll give them a shot in my next important project. I've used the Solen's in my hi-fi equipment.

RE: Philco 37-690 - Eliot Ness - 06-03-2014

Steve Geary, who Ron and I have known for years, has been using these when size permits to replace electrolytic capacitors for at least a couple of years now. I believe that AES has (or had) the best price for these.

While I still have a stock of some American made Sprague electrolytic caps to use up, on a high end set such as a 690 I would be inclined to spend a few extra $$$ and use these instead. And the 630 volt rating is a plus too.

RE: Philco 37-690 - Ron Ramirez - 06-13-2014

Okay!

So the CARE package arrived a few days ago from Canada, eh! Icon_smile I had already ordered 500V electrolytics before we had this discussion about the Solen caps. Next time, I think I will try some of those instead.

But for now...I've cut open all of the old electrolytic cap cans, have gutted all but one, and drilled holes for wires to go through the bases. Tonight, I will install the new caps in the cans and glue the cans back together where they were cut open.

There is one out of the bunch that I will have to heat up in order to get the old innards out - the one that originally held an 8 uF and a 10 uF cap, with wire leads.

Once all of the electrolytic cans are restuffed and reinstalled in the 37-690's lower chassis, I expect things to proceed fairly rapidly from that point.

RE: Philco 37-690 - y2kbruce - 06-13-2014

Ron-I bet someone is going to be VERY pleased with this radio after all your meticulous work to get it playing at its full potential. Icon_smile

RE: Philco 37-690 - morzh - 06-13-2014

Just tell them not to touch that full potential Icon_lol

RE: Philco 37-690 - Ron Ramirez - 06-13-2014

Well, Bruce, I hope so. Icon_wink Plus - what Mike (Morzh) said. Icon_lol

RE: Philco 37-690 - Ron Ramirez - 07-01-2014

It's been a while...still things to do around the house, new kitten, etc., etc. ...but in between all that, I've slowly been rebuilding the 37-690 amp chassis.

It is almost finished!

Rebuilt electrolytics, rebuilt bakelite blocks, new resistors.

The 3000 ohm section of the voltage divider resistor (177), a dual 3000 ohm / 2240 ohm Candohm, had failed at some point in the past. Someone bridged a 3000 ohm resistor across the terminals of the 3000 ohm section of (177). Bridging resistors across failed Candohms can be disastrous, so both sections have now been replaced with 50 watt chassis mount resistors. No doubt the 50 watt rating is overkill, but these should be good to go for the next few - if not the next several - decades.

The woofer and tweeter cables were very dry and crumbling, so I made new wiring harnesses for these.

I took a new photo of the underside of the chassis but Photobucket isn't working at present, so I'll post the photo later.

I'll try the set out over the upcoming three day July 4th weekend. If all works as it should, the next move is a full alignment, and then the set will be ready to go home. Icon_biggrin

RE: Philco 37-690 - Arran - 07-01-2014

Ron;
Please post pictures of the new kitten, as well as the repair work on the 37-690.
Regards
Arran

RE: Philco 37-690 - Ron Ramirez - 07-02-2014

Okay...

First, a "before" shot of the underside of the 37-690 amp/power supply:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/37-690/Image00001.jpg]

And how it looks now:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/37-690/Image00001-1.jpg]

Arran, I'll post pictures of our new kitten in a separate thread in the Bar & Grill forum.
http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=9920

RE: Philco 37-690 - jerryhawthorne - 07-02-2014

Ron, that looks sooooo much better and should give your friend many years of trouble free service. I agree with Phlog that the Solen NP caps are the way to go on high current/voltage power supplies and use them. I learned my lesson on Scott 800Bs when standard e-caps would run fine for a few hours. Six or 8 hours and they blew. They just heated up. The Solen (4mfd.) in this case ran cool. I'm a believer in these caps. Yes Mike more expensive and larger.
Best Jerry