[Guest]

Hello All,

I am new to the Philco world. My wife's great-uncle gave us his Philco 40-180. I am not really sure how to go about restoring it to working condition, so I figured I would ask y'all.

I guess I should start with my intentions. I was thinking about restoring this to working order, and then selling it. I am a new father, and my time is eaten up between my new family duties, new house (honey do list), and work. A full scale restoration project just isnt in the cards, but I figure maybe I can do some work to get it to actually turn on and operate.

I have not attempted to plug the unit in to see if it works. I am leery of doing so, as whatever passed for plastic that coated the wires in those days has corroded, and there are several areas along the length of the wire that are now exposed. So, is it OK to just put new wire in there? (As in, can I go to Radio Shack and get whatever AWG I need, crimp on some connections and call it good? or is that blasphemous?) For example, I know if you are restoring a car, you have to find parts to match; does that carry over to Philco electronics restoration?

Also, there are tubes that appear blackened. Can I take for granted that they are fried, like I would be able to surmise a fuse was blown and needed replacing?

Sorry if this isnt the appropriate forum category, and I also apologize for asking such broad questions, but I am new, so... I have to start somewhere.

Thanks to all,

Brian

[Joe Rossi]

Hello there, I am doing this between meetings, so the answers here will be short. 1. You are a wise man NOT to plug this in. 2. The wiring does need to be replaced, not by 'crimping', but by desoldering the old and soldering the new wire in, ALL of it. 3. Tubes that look black are not necessarily bad, probably an accumulation of external dirt on the outside and age. 4. Check to make sure the tubes in the sockets are the ones that are supposed to be there! 5. Every electrolytic and paper capacitor should be replaced. They will be defective now due to their age. Resistors should be checked to insure they still are within tolerance. Other, more experienced folks will reply here with add'l info, but this is where it starts! There are many good people here who love to assist and encourage, so stay tuned!

Joe

[Guest]

joeswl,

Thanks for the reply.

OK, so soldering not crimping. But can I just get any old wire and put it in (again, is something from RadioShack/Lowe's/HomeDepot ok,) or do I need to get some specialized wiring to replace the old?

I am pretty certain that the tubes in the sockets are the ones that were there when they left the factory. I don't think my wife's family members that owned the radio were the types to go fooling around with it. (but then again...) Luckily there are a few diagrams glued to the inside of the cabinet, so I think I can go off that as far as what's supposed to be where.

Thanks again.

Brian

[FStephenMasek]

Where are you physically located? there may be a radio/electronics club or member of this forum in your area, and people there would have tube testers and other things you would not want to buy just to work on one radio.

You may be tempted to just replace the power cord and "try it," but avoid doing so unless you also want to buy a new power transformer and fix other damage which could result. You might get lucky, but you need to replace the electrolytic and wax-coated paper capacitors. If you had a dim-bulb set-up (the radio powered in SERIES with a light bulb), you might be able to catch the high current draw a sharted capacitor would cause before you damage something(s), but the capacitors need to be changed anyway, so you may as well go ahead and do it. People here will be gald to help you.

Dave at Just Radios will be glad to send you the capacitors you need.

When changing them, you also need to check for bad (open, or out of tolerance) resistors.

The power cord simply needs to be #18 wire. If you are just buying one cord, they are available many places. If this radio is the start of a hobby, I have found good ones for $1.11 each in quantities of 10 or more.

You may find this site with photos, original selling prices, and production numbers interesting:

http://www.philcoradio.com/gallery/1940a.htm

Some Philcos have old rubber wiring inside the chassis, and the insulation has been come hard and is crumbling off. It takes a long time to change it, but that is what you have to do to have a reliable and safe refurbished radio.

[Ron Ramirez]

Brian,

Welcome to the Phorum!

As has been mentioned earlier, your radio is full of rubber-covered wires. That rubber insulation deteriorates over the years, dries out, and eventually falls off. This will be the worst problem you face in restoring your radio. You can either replace each wire, or do what I do: just replace the insulation.

You can buy 3/16" diameter heat shrink tubing in various colors.

You will need to unsolder one end of the wire, remove any remaining rubber insulation, preshrink the tubing with a source of heat (being careful not to use too much heat which will burn the insulation), slip it over the wire, then reconnect it where it was originally.

When you are finished, the wires will look like the originals - only the insulation will be all new, and should last much longer than that rubber did.

Good luck with your project!

[Guest]

Joe, FStephen, and Ron,

First, thank you for your replies. I appreciate your insights.

I am located outside of Philadelphia. How do I find a radio club, as FStephen mentioned. (his mentioning that I didn't want to buy a tube tester for one project was on the money)

I am by no means tempted to just replace the power cord and try to turn the radio on. As I look at the back of the radio, I assume from y'alls posts that the chassis is the actual guts of the radio that the tubes plug into? Anyway, as I look at the back, the power cord's rubber is totally a loss. I'm not even sure that I can just simply replace the insulation. But there are other wires. The ones that go to the speaker are covered with cloth and appear to be in decent shape. Then all the way to the left, as you look at the back, there is a plate with "1, 2, 3, 4" and a little further over there is the antenna/ground. The wires that go to 1, 2, 3, and ground, I think, are cloth and appear to me to be OK. 4 and Antenna (really its ANT on the plate, but I made the leap) are badly decayed.

So all that info is to say, OK, I know I am replacing the power cord, and I guess the 4 and ANT wires. But then what? Start with the tubes? Do I blanket-ly replace them all, as if I was changing the batteries in my house's smoke detector, or should I ferret out which ones are good and which ones are bad?

And how do I ID these wax paper capacitors of which I was cautioned? Oh, and you might as well add the resistors to that question.

Oh, and the buttons on the front... what was that stuff? I don't think I have an intact button on the face at all. (reddish material) Is the pushbutton material the same as whatever appears to be snugged around the metal chassis?

Thanks again to you guys.

Brian

[DeckApe]

I am by no means tempted to just replace the power cord and try to turn the radio on. As I look at the back of the radio, I assume from y'alls posts that the chassis is the actual guts of the radio that the tubes plug into? Anyway, as I look at the back, the power cord's rubber is totally a loss. I'm not even sure that I can just simply replace the insulation. But there are other wires. The ones that go to the speaker are covered with cloth and appear to be in decent shape. Then all the way to the left, as you look at the back, there is a plate with "1, 2, 3, 4" and a little further over there is the antenna/ground. The wires that go to 1, 2, 3, and ground, I think, are cloth and appear to me to be OK. 4 and Antenna (really its ANT on the plate, but I made the leap) are badly decayed.

So all that info is to say, OK, I know I am replacing the power cord, and I guess the 4 and ANT wires. But then what? Start with the tubes? Do I blanket-ly replace them all, as if I was changing the batteries in my house's smoke detector, or should I ferret out which ones are good and which ones are bad?

I wouldn't blanket replace them. As Ron pointed out in another thread, most if not all of your tubes are probably good. I am just embarking on my own restoration project of a 40-190 (the 40-180's big sister; identical chassis with one extra tube) and the only bad tube I had was my #84 rectifier. (I also bought a 40-180 chassis for a practice run, spare tuner, etc. and darned if the #84 wasn't bad on that one too!) My set had fallen victim to a "tube stuffer"--someone who just stuck any old tube in to make it look good--so I have two of the incorrect tubes. (And besides... there's only a limited number of the old tubes out there. Why make the supply that much more limted by chucking out good tubes?)

And how do I ID these wax paper capacitors of which I was cautioned? Oh, and you might as well add the resistors to that question.

If you can read schematic diagrams, may I recommend Chuck Schwark's schematic service? A great package deal. It includes a spiff diagram with everything neatly labeled, right out of the Philco service manual.

Oh, and the buttons on the front... what was that stuff? I don't think I have an intact button on the face at all. (reddish material) Is the pushbutton material the same as whatever appears to be snugged around the metal chassis?

They're Tenite plastic, and they did NOT age well. My buttons had turned a rather nasty brown and had almost shriveled up. The replacements are easily found--I bought mine at renovatedradios.com... part #PBPh40W, and you'll want the port wine color. The replacements are beautiful. You'll probably want a full set of 8. They also have reproduction knobs, corner chassis mounts (part #PHS-COR), screws and crew sleeves for securing the completed chassis... There are other places to hunt for parts, too; this is just the first place I found on a quick search.

Happy Phoolin'!
Brandon

[FStephenMasek]

I see your confusion. Ron was not taking about the power cord or speaker wires. The rubber-covered wires we are talking about on inside of the chassis. Once you remove it, you will be able to turn it over or up on one side and see the internal wiring and other components mounted under the chassis.

Before you remove the chassis, make sure that the tuning knob is turned so that the aluminum plates of the tuning capacitor are fully meshed, to help avoid bending them.

[Raleigh]

And how do I ID these wax paper capacitors of which I was cautioned?

The wax paper capacitors are smallish, yellowish, cylinders with a wire coming out of each end. Usually you can see brownish wax at the ends where the wires come out, and often there is a coating of wax all over the tubes. Sometimes the coating of wax has obvious blobs or drips on it. You should be able to read a capacitance value less than 1 mf (microfarad) and a voltage rating, usually between 200 to 600 volts. These are unreliable after so many years and should be replaced. There may be 15 or 20 of these in a 40-180. It doesn't matter much what kind of capacitor you replace them with, as long as the capacitance rating is about the same, and the voltage rating is at least as high. By the way, these wax paper capacitors can be other colors, usually blueish green, but most of them are yellowish brown.

In a 40-180, you will also see 2 larger aluminum cylinders that project above the chassis and are held in place with a lock nut below the chassis. These are electrolytic capacitors. They are VERY unreliable after so many years and should be replaced before you even turn the radio on or serious damage can result. You can put modern capacitors of the same value under the chassis, leaving the old aluminum cylinders in place for appearance, but you must make sure the old ones are removed from the circuit (center wires disconnected and taped up or even just cut off.) Otherwise, you can carefully cut open the aluminum cylinders, remove the nasty, powdered stuff inside, wire in modern capacitors in place of the nasty stuff, glue the cans back together, and wire them back exactly as they were. This is called "restuffing" the capacitors, and it isn't as hard as it sounds (except for the first time, maybe.)

Again, the capacitance value should be close to the original, but the voltage rating should be at least as high as the original. For electrolytics in the 41-180, you should use replacements rated as no less than 450 volts.

Advice to beginners on replacing and restuffing capacitors is on this web site. http://www.antiqueradio.org/recap.htm#replacing

Oh, and you might as well add the resistors to that question.

Resistors are usually small brown cylinders with a wire coming out of each end. They are marked with color bands that tell you what the original resistance value was supposed to be. Unsolder the wire on one end from whatever it is attached to, measure it with an ohm meter, and replace any that are outside of a 10% tolerance from what the color bands and the schematic say they are. (Some radio restorers say 20%, and they are probably right, as these old radios were designed with greater tolerance than modern electronics. Often the manufacturers used parts with a 20% tolerance in the first place, but I like to go with 10%. You can easily buy 5% tolerance resistors for replacements.) In addition to resistance value, resistors are rated in watts. Most of the resistors in the 40-180 are 1/2 watt, but at least one that is attached to an electrolytic capacitor can, is 1 watt. The wattage of replacement resistors must be at least as high as the orignals, or they will get very hot and not last very long.

[Radioroslyn]

Hi Brian
I'm not too awfully far and if you like I could take a look.
Terry