Replace IF transformer caps? - Printable Version
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+--- Thread: Replace IF transformer caps? (/showthread.php?tid=19121)
Replace IF transformer caps? - lasurveyor - 10-19-2018
Hi all, I'm restoring a Philco 40-155T slant front and it's coming along great. Got her all re-capped and a re-coned speaker is on the way. This radio sounds really nice, really powerful and I have a good cabinet.
I'm questioning if, since I'm into it now, I should replace the caps in the transformer cans. The radio plays awesome, and it's some trouble to pull the cans, and I always hate doing surgery around coils. But maybe I should just do it rather than wonder later. What d'ya think?
Thanks,
Alan
RE: Replace IF transformer caps? - morzh - 10-19-2018
No, the caps inside caps are usually micas and should be left alone unless explicitly failed.
Goes for all mica caps.
RE: Replace IF transformer caps? - Arran - 10-20-2018
Unless they are post war K-tran or Automatic style IF cans, the mini If cans used in millions of AC/DC sets from the late 1940s onward, leave them alone, Philco used either molder micas or ceramic caps in these sets I think, except for a large one used on the pushbutton banks.
The one on the P.B bank does go bad so I would change it, it looks like a sandwich with no case on it. One item to check though is the audio output transformer, the primaries on those often fail in these sets.
Regards
Arran
RE: Replace IF transformer caps? - lasurveyor - 10-20-2018
Thanks guys, just the answers I needed, didn't want to go there. Thought maybe I would be heading off the dreaded silver mica disease.
Alan
RE: Replace IF transformer caps? - morzh - 10-21-2018
Silver mica disease ails a specific type of caps, the open kind, not the overmolded laded type. At least not as badly.