[murf]

Hello again Philco fans,
Brought home a 37-116 yesterday and it seems someone removed all the lights but the main one on top of the dial.
I know 2 of the lights are mid dial and are illuminated on the regular frequency I will call it.
Then there are the 2 mounted on the lower part of the dial that illuminate when the magnetic tuning is turned on.
I see that the lower set is probably driven off a female plug that is still there.
With limited schematics skills available, I want to make sure I re-wire correctly.
Can anyone provide a sketch of how these lights are wired?
I will go thru the cartoons and try to figure it out, but I want to make sure I am reading them right.
After going thru all the problems with the 38-116, I swore that I was done with that chassis.
Then I got a phone call and an offer to sell me this one cheap. Cabinet is real nice, so I bought it.
Guy had a 38-116 in nice shape that needed electronic restore as well for $150, but I have one of those already, so I brought home the 37-116.
Will be needing some advice on the E-caps on this one for sure. It has a bunch.
Will be needing a new dial for this one if anyone knows of a supplier.
Thanks,
murf

[Nathan Slingerland]

Hi murf,

Congratulations on your new 37-116! As it happens I just finished the restoration on mine today. This model really is impressive - it would be interesting to hear how it compares to your 38-116.

You didn't say if you have the 'Standard' 37-116  (shadow meter) or 'Deluxe' (teledial tuning). I've got the more common 'Deluxe' model. Here are some pictures of dial light wiring from the front of the chassis:

[Image: http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374...io3uar.jpg]

[Image: http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374...yv52ma.jpg]

[Image: http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w374...gfq9_1.jpg]

Lots more random pictures here.

Mark Oppat might have a dial (looks like the Code 122 might be sold out): http://oldradioparts.net/dials1.html#

There's RadioDaze too of course. Not sure how close their dial will look to the original though. I've found some are better than others.

As for the electrolytics, the polarity (if that's what you're wondering about) is actually labeled on the schematic. I finally realized that during the 37-116 restoration that the smaller 'piston' center part is the + (think of how a large can capacitor looks) and the larger encompassing part is the negative can. So for example below I've marked the positive terminals:

   

[Kenneth F. Besso Jr.]

   Just think,, as if it is a male,, and female part-----BUT,,not all schematic show this ,,,so clear,,, Cheers,,,Ken

[Nathan Slingerland]

Unfortunately I already have my chassis all installed - but I took a close-up video of the lights:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxFqxADhBJA

And here's a (very rough) sketch of the wiring for the dial lights:

   

Looking from the front of the chassis, there are two red wires coming up from a hole in the top of the chassis to the left of the RF subchassis. One wire goes to the terminal connected to the screw base of each dial lamp on the left. The base pin of each lamp cross connects to the screw base terminal of the other lamp.

[murf]

Great thanks.
Mine is also the deluxe set.
Confused about the female 4 pin socket coming out of that same hole in the chassis.
Wonder if that may have been removed on yours?
Thanks for your help Nathan.
murf

[Nathan Slingerland]

Actually I think this is probably a case of a revision that Philco made. Looking around on the web I do see a few other 37-116 chassis wired like mine with red and white wires. Those picture are also correlated with models not using the speaker plug - but earlier pin mechanism.

But... now I understand what you're talking about with the plug. Check out these pictures (don't remember where I grabbed these from - apologies if they belong to someone here on the Phorum! You might recognize your workbench...):

   

   

   

   

[murf]

There is the plug. Now if I can get the male end of that harness, I can whip something up.
Thanks for clearing that up for me Nathan.
murf

[murf]

Have a 37-116 that I am working on.
Wire harness for the dial lights is gone.
Only wired light is the top light for the pointer.
I have run new wires up from the bottom that were factory connections from the 2 pole socket on the top side.
I have hooked up a 2 wire light to the new wires and get nothing on either the normal setting or the magnetic tuning position on the switch.
If I connect the center tap to what I am calling the normal setting and ground the bulb socket to the electrolitic can
I get a  spark and a bright light.
If I try the same for the other lead I get nothing.
The bulb I am using is a 6.3 volt.
I have a harness coming from ebay, with no plug.
So I thought I would just hard wire it.
Tried checking ac voltage on both of these wires and get about 3 volts on one and maybe 1 on the other lead.
Can anyone tell me what voltage readings I should be getting on the 2 wires?
I assume one is for the dial light and the other is for the teledial lights?
Got the 4 socket light harness today, but will have to re-build and re-wire it.
Thanks to Ron for his article on re-building these.
murf



Thanks again,
murf

[Ron Ramirez]

Murf, since you already had a thread going on the 37-116 I merged your latest thread into this older one.

Starting multiple threads on the same subject is not allowed per Forum Rules.

http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=4586

[murf]

Got my lights and rebuilt them yesterday.
Hooked up to a 6 volt battery and they all lit.
Tried hooking up to the 2 wires coming from chassis and got nothing.
Looks like these 2 wires are coming from a terminal block that is wired to the magnetic tuning switch.
Am I looking at a bad switch?
Does work to control magnetic tuning.
I am at a loss here.
Any ideas?
murf

[Ron Ramirez]

Have you tried to clean the Magnetic Tuning switch?

Those are known for going bad. They have two sets of contacts; one that actually switches the Magnetic Tuning circuitry in and out, and the other that turns the lamps on and off. One or the other often gets dirty over the decades. Sometimes cleaning can fix it; sometimes not.

[murf]

I'll try that today.
Thanks again Ron.
murf

[462ron]

Murf, in my case my lights don't come on because the switch is bad. My theory is that the sockets were so bad that they all needed to be rebuilt using Ron's method that I believe they were shorted and that's what burned my switch out. The plastic body on mine is charred to the point that it still doesnt work after cleaning it.

[murf]

Well I tried cleaning the switch and no luck.
So what I did is eliminate the wire from the switch and wired in another from the lead that provides power to the top light.
Now I have all 5 lights burning when turned on.
That's all right with me.
Kind of nice to have the teledial lit up anyway.
Magnetic tuning still works as it should.
Here is a picture of brother and sister side by side.

[Image: http://i1161.photobucket.com/albums/q509..._116-s.jpg]

Both looking and playing great now.
Thanks for all the help once again.
I'LL BE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
murf

[PhilcoJohn]

A 38-116..........An awsome radio to have and to listen to every nite.....The debates and Donald sounds good on it also.