[MrFixr55]

89s do strange things. I think there is kinda saga of the 89 and 19 written by Ron Ramirez in the Philco Library. I had one that you looked at it wrong, it would stop working and touching the 77 grid cap would restart it.

Do check the Oscillator coil, not only the tickler but the coil under it. I had improved performance when I cleaned the corrosion of the coil under the tickler, glyptoled it and rewound the tickler. I don't remember what version mine (fixed for a friend who sold it) was, but I think it was early with a 36 Tetrode as the converter. I converted (pardon the pun) the converter to the 77 version.

Also try this:

Pull the RF tube and run the set with a long wire connected to the 77 grid cap. If the problem disappeared, then the issue is in the RF section. If the problem still occurs, the issue is elsewhere. Either converter, IF, detector or audio. On the unit I repaired, I added a radio / aux switch If you do that, you can test the audio section in the same manner, however, I think that the issue is not there.

Hope this helps.