02-18-2022, 03:35 PM
Congratulations on your new adventure. You don't say what previous experience you have doing electronic repair. If you are a novice at such work you will find a lot of information and help here. If you don't have one, I suggest you buy a Weller soldering gun. The model 8200 is ideal for our work. The kind of irons used for printed circuit board work do not produce enough heat to work efficiently on these old radios. If you buy an 8200, get one with the NUTS to hold in the tips, not the new kind with set screws. This means buying a used one, which you can find very reasonably on ebay.
You can find the service information for your radio right in the library section of this site, https://philcoradio.com/library/download...l.%202.pdf . This is the actual Philco service information, well scanned.
You say the original electrolytic condensers are missing from the top of your chassis. Did they leave the clamps for them? If so, you can make decent reproductions fairly easily, and clamp them in the proper place, leaving your radio looking more like its original self. Here is a link to one of my own restoration projects where I explain how I do it. https://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=22318
Besides the soldering gun, you will need a number of hand tools, needle nosed pliers, wire cutters, hog nosed pliers, etc. You'll figure that out as you need them. You will also definitely need a decent multi-meter. Good ones can be had reasonably from many sources. I bought the one I use the most at Harbor Freight. You will need this to check resistors, and voltages. With some you will also be able to check condensers. (Oh, don't mind me, I'm old and still call them "condensers" because that was what I learned, today most folks call them capacitors.)
More advice, replace all the paper condensers, and all the electrolytic condensers. There are a number of sources. I primarily use https://justradios.com/ and https://www.tubesandmore.com/ and https://www.oldradioparts.net/ Mark has all kinds of parts, and is an excellent source for hard to find potentiometers. Also check the resistors, and replace any which have drifted out of tolerance over the years. Most will be +/- 20%, some will be +/- 10%, and rarely you may find a +/- 5%. If you don't know the resistor color code You will need to learn it. Here's a link to a good page about it https://www.teachengineering.org/content...v1_dwc.pdf There is a horse for remembering the numbers each color represents. It goes... BAD BOYS RAPE OUR YOUNG GIRLS BUT VIOLET GIVES WILLINGLY, GET SOME NOW . That stands for, Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Grey, White, Gold, Silver, None . Black = 0, Brown = 1, Red = 2, Orange = 3, Yellow = 4, Green = 5, Blue = 6, Violet = 7, Grey = 8, White = 9, Gold = 5%, Silver = 10%, None = 20%
So, that's a start. I hope this is of help. Welcome to the site and to the hobby. Be warned though. Once you restore this radio, you are liable to find it is addicting. Many of us have a house full of antique radios at this point.
You can find the service information for your radio right in the library section of this site, https://philcoradio.com/library/download...l.%202.pdf . This is the actual Philco service information, well scanned.
You say the original electrolytic condensers are missing from the top of your chassis. Did they leave the clamps for them? If so, you can make decent reproductions fairly easily, and clamp them in the proper place, leaving your radio looking more like its original self. Here is a link to one of my own restoration projects where I explain how I do it. https://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=22318
Besides the soldering gun, you will need a number of hand tools, needle nosed pliers, wire cutters, hog nosed pliers, etc. You'll figure that out as you need them. You will also definitely need a decent multi-meter. Good ones can be had reasonably from many sources. I bought the one I use the most at Harbor Freight. You will need this to check resistors, and voltages. With some you will also be able to check condensers. (Oh, don't mind me, I'm old and still call them "condensers" because that was what I learned, today most folks call them capacitors.)
More advice, replace all the paper condensers, and all the electrolytic condensers. There are a number of sources. I primarily use https://justradios.com/ and https://www.tubesandmore.com/ and https://www.oldradioparts.net/ Mark has all kinds of parts, and is an excellent source for hard to find potentiometers. Also check the resistors, and replace any which have drifted out of tolerance over the years. Most will be +/- 20%, some will be +/- 10%, and rarely you may find a +/- 5%. If you don't know the resistor color code You will need to learn it. Here's a link to a good page about it https://www.teachengineering.org/content...v1_dwc.pdf There is a horse for remembering the numbers each color represents. It goes... BAD BOYS RAPE OUR YOUNG GIRLS BUT VIOLET GIVES WILLINGLY, GET SOME NOW . That stands for, Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Grey, White, Gold, Silver, None . Black = 0, Brown = 1, Red = 2, Orange = 3, Yellow = 4, Green = 5, Blue = 6, Violet = 7, Grey = 8, White = 9, Gold = 5%, Silver = 10%, None = 20%
So, that's a start. I hope this is of help. Welcome to the site and to the hobby. Be warned though. Once you restore this radio, you are liable to find it is addicting. Many of us have a house full of antique radios at this point.
