01-07-2006, 11:33 PM
Poston is right, guys. If you run an AC-powered radio (with a power transformer) on original components, you're taking a gamble every time you power it up - and, eventually, your radio is going to lose.
When I was young and foolish, I had a Model 96 lowboy that was still running on original components. All was well until the day I turned it on and BOOM! Bye-bye, power transformer. I replaced it with a power transformer from a dead 112, but the radio did not get played again until every bakelite block and metal can capacitor had been rebuilt. Lesson learned, and never forgotten.
It does amaze me to find 1937-era aluminum electrolytic capacitors which are still good, and still full of their liquid electrolyte. Do I leave them in the circuit? Absolutely not! They get drained and restuffed with new electrolytics.
When I was young and foolish, I had a Model 96 lowboy that was still running on original components. All was well until the day I turned it on and BOOM! Bye-bye, power transformer. I replaced it with a power transformer from a dead 112, but the radio did not get played again until every bakelite block and metal can capacitor had been rebuilt. Lesson learned, and never forgotten.
It does amaze me to find 1937-era aluminum electrolytic capacitors which are still good, and still full of their liquid electrolyte. Do I leave them in the circuit? Absolutely not! They get drained and restuffed with new electrolytics.
--
Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
