[cewrightiii]

Greetings! Ok, so I got a PT-6 at a yard sale for $10. The cabinet didn't look to bad, but I couldn't get a look inside while there.

Upon chassis removal, I see it is rusty as all get out!! There look to be a few not so good repairs to the guts, but at least the tuning string is still there!! All caps bad, resistors shot, wires falling apart...this is going to be a complete overhaul!

So, first question I have is, what is the chassis made out of? and how is it treated? I know the metal treatments back then were pretty toxic things, so respirator and gloves are on hand for striping it down.

I plan to retreat the chassis depending on the metal...

Pics to come once my son unhides my SD card for my camera! (He's 1 year 9 months)

[klondike98]

The chassis is steel, thus the rust.  I know some chassis have a cadmium coating which is toxic when inhaled or ingested but I don't know what Philco used. If you do a wet strip with naval jelly or EvapoRust (see Bob Andersen's thread: http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread...8#pid52748 ) inhalation is less of an issue. If you sand or wire brush then dust mask or respirator is needed. (I wear a dust mask any time I sand anything).

[cewrightiii]

EvapoRust seems the way to go!! Thanks!! And I always wet sand/brush metal...flakes can get into everything known to man!!

And I love your signature!!

[cewrightiii]

Oh, where is the best place to get caps/resistors/etc from? I can go through Mouser but didn't know if there was a cheaper/beter alternative...

Thanks!

[morzh]

Mouser makes sense when you buy many parts, as they will charge you 6 or 7 bucks for delivery (order it to your workplace, residential delivery is 10 bucks).
Otherwise, some places like "Parts Direct" might work for you. Or some people sell kits.

PS. I do use Mouser.

[cewrightiii]

Ty Ill check them out...Ill be buying for 2 radios so it may add up, it may not.

[cewrightiii]

Ok, lets check out the inside of this puppy...

Rusty front...
[img][Image: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m5/Fr...114315.jpg][/img]

Not bad on the bottom from a distance...
[img][Image: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m5/Fr...114149.jpg][/img]

Upclose..Left side...all caps gone yuck!!! And I think someone did some fixes in here!!
[Image: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m5/Fr...114220.jpg]

Upclose...Right Side...40/80 resistor is toast....Oscillator Transformer cracked all to heck...and more splat caps...
[Image: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m5/Fr...114226.jpg]

As usual any and all advice welcome!!

[morzh]

Well, what could I say.....most of the Transitones have very similar if not the same chassis.

Rubber wiring....in my case it was OK until touched. I replaced those wires that I had to mess with, the rest was OK and replacing inside the IF can would be too involved for my taste. However if yours in bad shape, you might have no choice but to replace the wires.

All caps that do not look tubular but are not micas, like that one 0.001uF 1600V are not good either and must be at least checked; mine was way out of tolerance so I suspect it is a dipped paper cap of some sort. I would replace all caps other than one or two micas that are there.

The tubes from the paper caps will clean nice and easy so keep them if you want to restuff them to make it look a bit more authentic, though you will still use today's resistors, but them being dull grey/bone, they do not look as bad as bright yellow and orange caps.

Check your Candohm right away to know if you have a problem there; mine was OK.


When done and aligning, if using the internal loop antenna, one outer end of the antenna transformer should be Grounded, at least it was so on mine. See if the sch says something to that effect; mine did. It will work anyway, but it works better when the directions are followed.
When aligning you could just connect the Gen's ends together and place them nearby, it will make for coupling.
Also in my case the output stage and the rectifier were not what was shown in the sch, as I found out, and it did not look like it was changed by someone, so I think there might be several versions of the same chassis sometimes. And it was not mere parts substitution because the rectifier did have different pinout and it was followed, otherwise the radio would not work.
So check your chassis against the sch first or you might do some changes assuming that the sch on hand is correct whereas it might be not.

[cewrightiii]

morzh..

You cant really see it in the pics, but 90% of the wiring is toast...missing insulation or burnt up....What gauge of wire would be the correct to replace with?

Planned replace and restuff of capacitors..alot of them are leaking badly....saw some great step by steps for restuffing on here!

Checked resistors...will probly be replacing them all...they are either open, or way out...beginning to wonder if this thing ate itself at some point.

The aerial transformer is open all the way around...and cracking apart...

Going to order parts on Thursday!

P.S. using Philco Service Bulletin #374 for parts list and schematic

[Ron Ramirez]

cewrightiii

I use 22 gauge hookup wire from Radio Daze.

http://www.radiodaze.com/category/395.aspx

I had purchased the stranded wire previously, but as the original is solid, I will buy solid next time.

I used to use color-coded heat shrink tubing and replace the insulation on each wire by unsoldering one end of a wire, removing all of the insulation (usually just pinching its length with needle nose pliers would do the trick), slipping on the tubing cut to a proper length, shrinking the tubing, moving on to the next wire. I have found, however, that it seems to take less time to just replace the D**n wires.

[Eliot Ness]

+1 on the 22 gauge hookup wire from Radio Daze; for $45 you 8 different colors at 50' each. They also have cloth covered wire if anyone needs a source for that.