[37silverstreak]

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to share some pics of my latest find and birthday present to myself. I found this Zenith 9S262 at a garage sale for $80 bucks! Just got it home and haven't had a chance to really look her over yet. The cabinet is in excellent shape overall, the finish is iffy though. The chassis looks to be unmolested. The old owner said it was her parents radio and she remembers listening to shortwave on it as a kid. She also said it was still working up until 2 years ago. I am planning on doing a complete restoration on it, but will have to wait until I finish her bigger cousin, a 12S568. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
Kevin
http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q500...262001.jpg
http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q500...262002.jpg
http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q500...262003.jpg
http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q500...262005.jpg

[Dave]

Happy Birthday! Great looking set.

[Michael Dennis]

Thing about getting your own Birthday gift is that you don't have to worry about wheather or not you'll like it.

[Joe Rossi]

Kevin,

That is a beauty, and what a price! Have a great birthday. Joe

[Ron Ramirez]

Happy Birthday, good present!

[morzh]

Happy birthday Ron!

9S262 seems to be a popular set, as at least 4 other people here, myself included, recently were posting here about the restoration of such.
(Of all people you I did not expect to deal with Z-brand )

First of, see if you got the original eye tube, the 6T5. If you did, this alone brings the value up by a 100 bucks. It's a museum item now. Even if it no longer works, though most of them do, just don't glow as bright.

I had it replaced by electrical equivalent, 6U5, but the latter is the regular sector pattern, and 6T5 is the concentric circular one.

Obviously the driving belt and the tuning cap belt are likely to be ripped. Adamsradio sells belts for every model. I tried them, exact fit, good quality.

The eye tube socket will probably have the 1M resistor open, seems to be a popular failure. I published the easy no-effort way of restoring it, without cracking open the socket. Worked for me just fine.

Well, if I tell you to recap it, I will be preaching to the choir, so I won't

Notice: be careful when taking the chassis out of the cabinet and putting it back - breaking the tone control switch seems to be a popular thing to happen, and it is not easy to find (I glued mine with epoxy).

Hopefully your speaker and Xfmr are intact. If not - I found an inexpensive one, OT8SE from Musical Power Supplies, works great (it is Single-ended, so the Hammond one is 50 bucks), just a tad over 20 bucks.

Good luck with it!

[Ron Ramirez]

Um, Morzh...I think you mean, "Happy birthday Kevin!"

[morzh]

Yes that was it. It did surprise me about you and Zenith....still, these days I am not much surprised by anything so....

Happy birthday, Kevin!

[37silverstreak]

Thanks guys!
Technically, my birthday isn't until the 15th, but after almost 47 years, what's a few days more or less!
For the record, Philco has always been my favorite. I do however, really like the big black dial Zeniths from the mid to late thirties, especially the ones with robot dials and tuning eyes! I don't love them enough though to pay the wacked out prices they seem to go for So, I consider myself lucky to find this one at such a great price. I'm also really excited about the motorized tuning!
I started cleaning the Zenith up and had a chance to look her over. Cabinet is tight, no veneer problems. The chassis had about 5lbs of dust and dead spiders on it, but it cleans up well. No major rust issues, finish on chassis is in good shape. Only two Zenith brand tubes remain and unfortunately it no longer has the 6T5 tuning eye. It has the 6U5 which is a Zenith tube. Other tubes are later replacement types which I will replace with correct style ones.
Underneath everything looks good. No melted wax from the transformer or burned parts. It looks like the electrolytics were replaced a long time ago, along with one other paper cap. The dial belts had been replaced by rubber bands that were petrified and laying on the bottom of the cabinet!
I plan on doing a complete restoration on this one. I will maybe get the cabinet done yet this summer/fall and do the chassis over the winter. I would be glad to hear from anybody here who has worked on this model that has any tips!
Thanks again!
Kevin

[Geoff]

Congrats! A great radio at a great price!!!

- Geoff