[Joe Rossi]

This is the next project at the Rossi house.  This was given to me by my sister and brother-in-law, who got it from someone they know in Tennessee.  The S-41G was a starter radio, and is fairly common.  There is a peculiarity on the front panel:

   

   

There is an added knob on the front panel.  A very ingenious 'gear' reduction method was added so that the tuning knob turns very incrementally and acts as a fine tuner.  I've never seen this before.  Here is a pic of the internal portion of the shaft assembly and a close-up of the front:

   

   

The radio was filthy on the inside, and there is more cleaning to do.  Surprisingly, except for the metal electrolytic, it all looks original. 

   

In turning the bandspread this dial cord snapped.  I have ordered some cord and will restring both that and the main tuning.  Nearly every resistor looks crisp and fresh, the cap's with a few exceptions look new.  Every last cap will be replaced, and seeing that it is an AA6, I will isolate the ground by using a polarized plug so that the ground is always connected to the chassis B-, and putting the switch back in the hot line so when you shut the radio off there's really no power in the circuit.  I found that on the S-38 Guy website and quote directly from this very wise person.  As I go forward I'll do further posts.

[codefox1]

Last time I did a similar set, I replaced the carbon resistors too as many had drifted up, and also added an isolation transformer, so as not to bet my life that a wall socket was wired correctly.

[Arran]

 I'm not sure about this model of Hallicrafters but on the S38s I own they went to extra lengths to isolate the chassis from the cabinet, and they had a floating common negative in the sets top begin with. That gear reduction looks like an idler wheel from a phonograph, I'm sure that one of the previous owners added that, if Hallicrafters would have added a gear reduction I'm sure they would have installed it on the inside.
 I'm with Codefox on the isolation transformer, though I would use an outboard one, (a GFI outlet would be another alternative) I'm very skeptical about playing around with the polarity on line cords making an AC/DC set any safer. It's been my experience that there is often a current flowing through the chassis with the set shut off even though there is not when it is on, and that's with sets with the isolation cap between the B- and the chassis. 
Regards
Arran

[Joe Rossi]

Thank you both for the insight.  I had already ordered new resistors and planned to replace where needed.   When I think of all the AA5 sets I owned and used as a kid and never understood how close I might have been to frying myself!