[MrFixr55]

Hi Paul,

The spring from the socket is going to be the same diameter as those from the dashboard of cars from the 50s and 60s. for what that is worth. You can try AES for a socket even to just steal the spring. With the bulb removed, just pushing up on the wire for the center contact of the bulb should raise the contact and wafer from the socket body, exposing the spring.

Remember that the shell and bracket of the socket must be isolated from the rest of the radio as the tip and the body of the base of the bulb are more than 100VAC above chassis ground level.

As for the 35Z5, I would think the only fault that the tube would have that could cause this is that the filament section in parallel with the bulb shorts. I would think that is rare. The more common failure is the filament section in parallel with the bulb opening because the bulb is burned out. With the bulb burned out, that section of the filament will run hotter.

If the socket shorts, the bulb will go out but there will likely have little effect on operation. In fact, during wartime, if the bulb and eventually the rectifier opened, the service tech would short pin 2 to pin 3, to allow the rectifier to function with the other 4/5 of the filament.