[cknob]

Got it! When I reattached one of the Bakelite blocks I rebuilt to the chassis, I pinched some bare transistor leads going to the socket you said was shorted under the nut. Corrected it and the radio started working. Unfortunately, the only electrolytics I have include the one that vented badly the last time I powered it up so it started steaming about a minute after the radio began playing. No problem...I have 10uf 450V Nichicon caps coming in a day or two. I had my multimeter attached to the BC resistor terminal one and I was measuring volts and there was no more bouncing around and no burning. Next step, install the new filter caps when they come and then I'm going to rebuild the 2 capacitor cans, 30 and 24. Right now I just have film caps tacked in. Steve, your help is so appreciated. I'm sure I'll be back with more help needed requests!