[5ft24dave]

Found a 38-116 code 125 at a building Salvage store for $85 bucks. Cabinet looks to have been restored, including saving all but 1 of the original decals.  Chassis looks to be in good condition, no rust, just a lot of dust. Grille cloth looks new as well.  Checked the tubes, one 6L6 was cracked, half the 5Z4 has no emissions.  A couple others have extremely low emission. Ordered 8 tubes to replace them
Other than the electrolytic and paper caps, are there any specific issues with these radios?
Thanks

[morzh]

If the speaker is in good shape, this is excellent deal.
The cabinet looks good, the chassis is clean.
Should be fun project.

Issues....well, not issues per se, but the alignment is a bit more complex than your average superhet, due to "magnetic tuning", which is AFC (practically a PLL); the access to the caps inside the tuner chassis is not easy at all, unless the chassis is fully disconnected and then lifted. I was able to replace all caps without it, but that required some ingenuity and use of various contraptions. (I worked on 38-690, but they have the same tuner).
For the same reason servicing the band switch is also onerous.

Do check the interstage and the oputput transformer: they are know to have issues.
If you decide to orestuff the backelite blocks (which is what I would advise, to keep the original look and for other reasons too, and which is not that hard, in fact) - they flooded the eyelets where the inner capacitor wires come through to solder tyo the solder posts, and sucking out the solder is a bit difficult, but again, not too bad overall.

The mechanical coupling between the tuning gear and the cap often goes bad. I was able to use them, but some fol;ks rebuilt them, using leather and some rivets.

The tuning mechanism is complex. There is a document, describing it, but I would advise taking many photographs of the steps and parts, when you disassemble it (should you decide to). Perhaps, this is the most complicated part of the radio. It has the auto-silencer for the quick tuning (when you press that lever and rotate the dial quickly to the desired position; done usually while using magnetic tuning).
At the time when I did this, the smart phones did not exist, so I manually drew many-many drawings of the parts, and the blow-up drawing too. And even with this (that was 37-116, but the mechanism is the same) I had some difficulties (which I overcame).

This is my 37-116 restoration, which will have many similarities with your radio.
https://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthrea...ght=37-116


Have fun!

[5ft24dave]

Cool. Thank you
Speaker appears to be in good shape, still need to check it and the field coil with an ohmmeter to make sure it's electrically sound.
Will check the interstage and output transformers as well

[GarySP]

Welcome to the Phorum! That's a great grab for the price! Take care and BE HEALTHY! Gary

[morzh]

Oh...if 38-116 is anything like 38-690, when pulling out the speaker, do it straight away from the front panel. Do not move it sideways at all. There might be that hughe wooden cone in the senter, and if the paper cone is banged against it, there will be a gaping hole in it.
Don't ask me how I found out.

[Greg]

A photo of my 37-116 speaker board. Think they are the same or similar. You don't want that thing poking your speaker.

   

It might be a bit tougher removing the 38-116 speaker since it "hangs". The 37-116 sits on a cross piece and I kept the speaker frame the cross piece to steady and support (a bit) it as I removed it. I too was forewarned about the cone.

[5ft24dave]

I will keep that in mind. When I go to remove or install I'll lay the cabinet down on it's face on a blanket. Less chance for me to slip with it