The PHILCO Phorum

I'm helping a friend with his Philco 16B, code 125.

While trying to align it, we found some flakey trimmers in one of the IF cans. My friend managed to repair it after opening up the IF can and using some no-residue electronics cleaner on the trimmer caps, but at the cost of a broken IF coil wire which as we know are fiddly to repair.

Today we went on the RF and oscillator coil alignments, and immediately ran into the same problem. Is this a common problem?

I haven't seen the inside of the IF, RF, and oscillator cans, but I'm under the impression the trimmers are air variable caps. I suppose the rotor contacts get dirty or corroded over time. I'm thinking Deoxit would be the appropriate cleaner for those contacts. What are your thoughts?

I would suspect that all of the caps are compression trimmers. I've worked on several over the code 121, 116's and larger chassis Philco sets in the '34-'37 time frame. I haven't any issues with trimmer but getting the 6-32 machine screws out of the top of the IF shields. Some come out others snap off and I have broken the ceramic plate that the brass bushing where the screw screws into. That sucks had to find a replacement transformer. Two things I have found are loose stator screws on the tuning cap. And faulty grounds at rivet points. Just something to look for.

GL and have fun chasing those electrons

Thanks, Terry.