The PHILCO Phorum

I'm not even sure what to call the darned thing.

The drive shafts from the tuning capacitor and front panel reduction drive meet each other at a rubber disk.  Each shaft (front and rear) has a mounting bracket with two holes where rivets are used to attach the brackets to the rubber disk.

The rubber has shrunk and space now exists around these rivets where they pass through the disk.  The end result is that the tuning knob moves a fair amount before the rivets finally encounter rubber and motion is finally transferred to the shaft of the tuning capacitor.

Originally, there were cracks in the rubber that ran from the rivet holes to the edge of the disk.  I pinched those tight with super glue and they held nicely but the gap between the rubber and the rivets persists.

I'm assuming that I need to introduce some sort of durable material into that space that will be flexible enough to fill the space and firm enough to instantly transfer movement from knob to capacitor.  It also seems safe to assume that others have already wrestled with this problem.  

The photo shows a light-colored area around the rivet head where movement has rubbed the surface smooth.  Is it as simple as gluing the rivet head to the adjacent rubber surface?  II was reluctant to do that in case the disk ever needed to be replaced, but maybe it would be the best option?

Suggestions?

A leather piece will do just fine. Thick one, like from an old belt once your kids are off to college, it won't fit around the beer belly anyway and you no longer have any other use for it.

similar repair done here by Mondail
 http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=10376


sam

Mike I had the same problem with my 37-116 and as a quick fix I super glued everything and so far it has held up for a year now!

Ron

(04-08-2016, 01:16 PM)462ron Wrote: [ -> ]Mike I had the same problem with my 37-116 and as a quick fix I super glued everything and so far it has held up for a year now!

Ron

Hi Ron,

This is what I ended up doing.  After turning the dial shaft to move the rivets to one edge of their respective gaps in the rubber, a drop of Super Glue was applied to bridge the rubber disk and rivet heads.  If I eventually decide to replace the rubber disk, those small quantities of glue will be easy to remove.  For now, though, the slop in the tuning mechanism has been eliminated and I can finally do the RF alignment.

This set is the 12th Philco radio I've worked on and I have to say that there is something special about the higher tube count consoles that has me looking for more.  The performance of this 37-11 is impressive - it hears more stations than my other 10-12 tube sets on the same antenna.

Thanks to morzh and Sam for their advice as well.  

I think Ron rebuilt one of these sometime back, though I can't find the thread. I think replacing the disc would be a better fix.

Steve