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Replacing rubber insulated wiring - lasurveyor - 10-03-2011

Hi everyone, I'm new to this radio thing and admit that I have a tremendous amount to learn.
I have a couple of 42-PT94's that I'm going to try to re-cap and see where it goes from there. The wiring is rubber insulated and some of it looks pretty cruddy, some crumbling. What wire should I use to replace with? Stranded cloth insulated, 20 ga.? Solid vinyl insulated 22 ga.? Are colors just to visually be able to trace them, or is there a color code that I need to adhere to?

Thanks for your help now and for all that I'll need down the road.

Alan

Re: Replacing rubber insulated wiring - ipwizard - 10-04-2011

Hello Alan and welcome.

That old crumbling wiring is the pits to deal with. There are usually two roads people generally take when dealing with it. Unsolder one end of a wire and slide the same (or close) color heat shrink over the wire, and reconnect. The other road is more tedious and time consuming that would be removing the wires one at a time and replace with the same color wire. I use either strand or solid wire from the 18 - 22 gauge size.

My opinion is to use the same color or as close to the original as possible, as this will help if you run into a problem down the road and someone with the same radio tries to help out.

I get my wire from here. They have every color you would need.
http://www.wesbellwireandcable.com/UL1015/1015-20-10.html

Re: Replacing rubber insulated wiring - Ron Ramirez - 10-04-2011

Hi Alan, and welcome!

Keith has given you some good advice. I also resleeve the original wires with color-coded heat shrink tubing. A heat gun set on low, or an Aladdin lamp, will shrink the tubing for you.

A comment on what Keith said re: using the same colors as the original. I have run across Philcos of the same model number that do not use the same color rubber insulation. It appears that at times, they just used whatever they had on hand at the time rather than adhering to any sort of a standard. It looks like they only adhered to a standard on IF transformer leads, for the most part.

I've had enough of those nightmare sets cross my bench, so I'm pretty well versed on Philcos with rubber-covered wiring. And I still dislike working on them. But they usually do reward your efforts with very good performance, especially the larger multi-tube models.

Re: Replacing rubber insulated wiring - Glenn Roberts - 10-04-2011

Hi Alan,

What Keith and Ron said +1 Icon_thumbup . My first radio was a 41-300, yes it is tedious but they do reward you with a nice sounding radio. Don't be afraid to ask anything these guys are the best. I would have given up if it wasn't for their sage advise and direction.

Glenn

Re: Replacing rubber insulated wiring - lasurveyor - 10-04-2011

Thanks guys for such warm responses. I know that you'll keep me psyched to see this through.

Much, much appreciation,

Alan

Re: Replacing rubber insulated wiring - Arran - 10-05-2011

I like to use either 18 or 2O gauge solid wire if it's similar to what the set originally used, 22 gauge is a bit flimsy to work with. Vinyle insulated wire makes a decent substitute for the rubber stuff although it's hard to find colours that are an exact match.
Regards
Arran

Re: Replacing rubber insulated wiring - Marsupial - 10-05-2011

Not talking about the gauge, but look at the lug strips used in the chassis, and if they used solid wires or stranded ones.

I mention this as, when I started to recap/rewire my 47-1230, I got stranded wires of appreciable size.
Appears the type of lug strip used in it works like a charm with solid wires, and is a bit more iffy (but still very doable) with stranded. They are sort of T-Shaped lugs, you simply twist the solid wire around, heat, put solder, and are done. Stranded don't hold that easy; so I would have been better to get solid ones while I was at it; and the price was about the same (maybe even cheaper if I recall)

But as long as your wire is big enough for the power passing trough it, you're all set. The rest is mainly cosmetics.