[hotrod]

I got the Hammond 125E output transformer in from Fed EX ground today and it looks almost new. Also, I have been impressed with home much faster Fed Ex ground is than UPS, only three days from California to Ohio and when I orders some lacquer a week or so ago I received it in two days from Main.

In addition, I have all replaced all the paper capacitors and am working on restuffing the electrolytics.

Rod

[hotrod]

I just thought I would update this thread and let everyone know that I have it playing and it plays pretty well and the voltages look pretty good. I think I need to clean a couple of tube sockets as one of the 6J5 discriminator tubes has an intermittent filament (or maybe the filament is intermittent). Also the reception seemed a little weak on the lower BC band but playing with the 6L7 tube seem to cure it at least down to about 700Khz.

The speaker sounds good at low volume but when turned up rattles pretty bad. I am hoping when mounted and back on the speaker board it will be cured. It sounds really good though.

Finally, I should have my band scale mask in a couple and I'm going to need to tear apart the dial assembly. It works but it often takes a full turn before the dial scale starts to move. Also sometimes the fine tuning locks up with the normal tuning knob. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to tear into this. Also, my repro dial scale mounting whole was cut to small and I cracked the dial scale while enlarging it. Oh well, it will look more like an original dial scale I guess. Here is a link I have to a thread detail what I have done too the radio, http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=135859


Regards,
Rod

[Ron Ramirez]

Hi Rod

Sounds good. It also sounds like you need to clean the 6L7 tube socket, though.

Can you describe the "rattle" you are hearing from your speaker? It should not be doing this. I wonder if the voice coil is slightly misaligned in the air gap of the field coil's pole piece?

[hotrod]

Hi Ron, Yes I need to clean a few tube sockets a little better than just the contact cleaner I used. I need to get to a wielding supply company and find one of those small thin round files that wielders use.

The speaker sounds like it is rubbing. IF I touch it slightly where the first flat ridge (up from the spider) where the seams meet it will stop. That seam has been reinforced with a thin coat of rubber cement already. Also if I push on this area with the radio off I get a clicking sound. I haven't tried centering the spider yet and there still may be some dirt in there. I had to re-glue the speaker edge to the frame and I may have got something of center while doing this.

Rod

[hotrod]

This radio rocks. I changed the connections on the output transformer and lower the total impedance and have it playing on the one local station that plays classic rock and oldies and it is jamming. If I didn't know better I would swear it was FM.

Just in case anyone else replaces their output transformer with a Hammond 125E use terminals 4 and 6 for the secondary. The impedance is lower than the original because it is 6400 ohms for a 4 ohm speaker but using 3 and 5 is 8800 ohms for a 4 ohm speaker and it didn't sound good at all on 3 and 5. The output tubes seem to be running a little cooler too. I am really impressed with the sound of this radio now

Maybe I should hook up an RCA jack so I can hook an FM tuner up too it. I see it has a knock out for one on the back for an RCA jack.

Rod

[Ron Ramirez]

I take it you have fixed your rubbing voice coil problem?

Congratulations. Another fine old radio saved from being trashed. Good work!

[hotrod]

I take it you have fixed your rubbing voice coil problem?

Congratulations. Another fine old radio saved from being trashed. Good work!

Yeah, I played around with the field coil and noticed that it was a little loose and shimmed it with a couple of business cards. That took care of some of the noise. But it really seemed like the bass was distorting anytime I turned up the volume or increased the bass control. So I decided to try different impedance on the Output transformer and that seemed to solve my problem. Depending on the program material playing I still get some distorted bass on the high bass setting. However I think this is because I used .1uf capacitors to replace the .08uf that were in the tone control. Plus even AM stations seem to turn up the bass a lot anymore. I was worry about low bass response because the 125E is only rated 150Hz - 15kHz but it seems fine. I imagine when I get it back in the cabinet I will hardly ever use the increase bass controls.

Rod

[radiomikee]

I've had one of these radios in restoration for 2 years, and as a birthday present to myself,I just spent the weekend scraping, steel wooling, and refinishing the cabinet. It's 100% back together and playing like nobody's business now, I have to say these are really fine sets. I had a model 680 which was tops, but this one is as good I believe. The chassis had been playing on the workbench for quite a while. The intersting scare I had after putting it all together, was no sound and smoke!! I traced a 1000 ohm path from B+ to chassis out to the area around the Fidelity-Selectivity/AFC part of the chassis. It turned out to be some conducting debris/dirt/bits of wire or other stuff that got around a 6K7 tube base; once I pulled the tube and reinserted it, the short went away, and the radio played fine again. All I can say is that these chassis are not getting any cleaner by themselves.

[hotrod]

All I can say is that these chassis are not getting any cleaner by themselves.

Yeah my was a real mouse house and rust bucket. I have the chassis back in the cabinet now and it sounds great but I still have more work to do on it later but my daughter is coming home for the summer and her bedroom is also my work room. Most of the work I have to do is on the dial assembly and I didn't think it would be wise to leave small parts out where they could get lost. I still have some work to do on the cabinet as well but I am going to wait until fall and hopefully lower humidity and pollen.

Rod