[HowardWoodard]

First of all, this is not a restoration.  This radio has been in constant use for as long as anyone in my family can remember and how it came to look and operate the way it does now is its appeal -- lots of family memories around it.

My brother, who lives in North Carolina, recently called me and told me that it had quit working one day and he was gonna ship it to me to see if I could get it working again.  Since I was certain there are shops in his neck of the woods that could have fixed it, I figured he just thought I would enjoy doing it for the family -- and he was right.

When it got here, I gave it a checkup and made note of the 88 years of replacements and changes and its overall condition.  The summary of my finds is that it's old. 

It had two bad tubes (the filaments were open), the 6N7G and the 5Y4G rectifier.  He didn't send me the big ol' speaker so I used my oscilloscope to look at the output and it's now producing pretty clean audio.

During the once over I noticed that the flex coupler was in bad shape.  In fact, both ears holding the leather pieces were broke.  When I removed the coupler, I noticed that the tuning mechanism was locked up.  The station selector handle was broken off and the only thing that would turn was the vernier shaft but the gear on the other end of the shaft wouldn't budge.  Since it was attached to the big gear from the station selector that explained why it wouldn't turn either. 

I took the tuning mechanism apart and found that all of the pieces worked if they were not connected to the vernier drive gear.  So where I am now is either in need of a complete tuning mechanism, or a working vernier shaft, or some way to disassemble and repair the shaft I have.  I'm including a picture that shows the shaft and describes the issue with it.

I would appreciate any help you can offer for any of these options.

[radiorich]

Hello Howard,
I wanted to welcom you to the forum and you have come to the right place to get some help with you Tuning Issues !
We also have section on this site when you can post for items like that .
First we should see if it can be repaired .

Sincerely Richard

[radiorich]

Howard,
First thing you can do is to soak this unit in some lacquer thinner .
What happens is the old greese gums up the unit I took mine apart for my Philco radio .

Sincerely Richard

[MrFixr55]

Hi Howard,

Is this the same radio chassis that you list in your "New Member" post? If so, we need to combine to make one thread. In addition, this is likely not a 39-7 as the 39-7 is a 5 tube radio with a rather plain tuning cap.

The gear is likely not turned by the vernier shaft; it is turned by the coarse shaft and the vernier shaft turns the course shaft. Can the coarse shaft be turned?

Like Rich states, soak the part in lacquer thinner. Liquid Wrench, Sili-Kroil and PB Blaster are also good. Heat may also be needed ad all clips may need to be remove and the device completely disassembled. Do so in an old pot as the ball bearings will roll right into a parallel dimension that will open up for the part but not for you. If you have to hammer, don't hammer on the vernier shaft, hammer on the coarse shaft using sockets as arbors.

Hope this helps.