[denodawg]

Hi experts,
I am a guy with need of help. I have a Philco 40-180. I have just completed the recap process ( more on that later), but during the process, i lost a few little thin wires running to the coil assembly. My question is, can i replace and solder these back to the original or is something special about these wires. Ive noticed that they are bare and im wondering if i can solder with new wire and all is ok. Also, would stranded or single wire be the best for this. Now back to the recapping. This radio has 2 electrolytic capacitors housed in cans above the chassis. I believe there are only one capacitor per can. My prob is determining polarity since all wires seem to connect to the same place at the bottom of the can. Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Deno

[klondike98]

Welcome to the Phorum!!  I can help with the electrolytic cap question but you need to add some photos to help folks figure out what wires you are talking about.  Its always helpful to provide a link to the schematic on Nostalgiaair but for some reason the site seems to be down today.  Anyway, looking at the schematic I have, there are two electrolytic caps; #58 (a 16 uF cap) and #61 (a 12uF cap).  These caps use the metal can as the negative lead.  Cap #58 has the negative connected to the chassis (ground).  It does this by having the cap can (the negative lead) in contact with the chassis.  Cap #61's can is isolated from the chassis by means of rubber washer type insulators.  There should be a metal ring with a lug on it or some type of lead that allows you to connect the negative to the centertap of the transformer.  The positive lead on both caps is the lead coming out the bottom of the center of the can.

You can restuff the cans or disconnect them and put the new caps under the chassis.  I like to stuff them. Some info on doing that here.  I also found a few pages of a 40-180 restoration with nice photos that might be helpful.

Update: Nostalgiaair seems back up.  40-180 schematic here

[Radioroslyn]

If you could post a pic of it (the wire problem) we can sort it out.
Terry

[Raleigh]

The bottoms of those two caps are threaded and are held in place with a stamped, sheet metal nut. The nut has cut-outs on the sides to solder wires to. The metal is plated with something to make it solderable. The nut is the wire connection to the negative side of the cap.

One of the caps is inserted directly into the hole in the chassis without any insulators, so it should ground the negative to the chassis by contact. As Bob mentioned, the other cap is isolated from ground by insulating rings on both sides of the chassis to prevent both the cap body and the nut from touching the chassis.

The positive terminal of the cap is in the center, an aluminum wire coming out of the can and insulated from the sides of the hole with rubber. There is some kind of lug crimped onto it, if I remember, because you wouldn't be able to solder to the aluminum wire. When I restuffed mine, I replaced the aluminum wire with a piece of solid, insulated 12 gauge copper wire and soldered the + lead of the new cap internally to it. In one radio I crimped and soldered a lug onto the other end of the 12 ga. wire and in the other I made a loop in the wire and soldered to that loop.

I drilled a tiny hole just below the threads and brought out the negative cap lead wire through it. It doesn't matter if it touches the can. I soldered that wire to the nut so that the nut and anything soldered to it would connect to the negative of the new cap inside the can.

I think what you mean by the coil assembly is the row of coils used for the push-button oscillator coils. The coils were originally connected to the push button block with braid, and the common ends were connected with a straight piece of bare solid wire that looks like maybe 22 gauge. I doubt if it matters much if you use braid, but you might use stranded wire. I've seen people use solder wick to replace braid, though I've never done it myself. I've read that you should soak the solder wick in rubbing alcohol or similar solvent to remove the solder flux that is impregnated in the braid. Otherwise the solder wick will soak up the solder and turn pretty solid.

The single coil (transformer?), part 18, used for dial tuning of the 3 bands is connected with ordinary wire, some solid, some stranded if I remember right. I replaced the rubber coated wires with 20 gauge stranded and left the cloth covered wires alone. There is also an antenna loading coil, part 5A, and it is also connected with ordinary wire, stranded and cloth-covered, I think.