[MrFixr55]

Hi bsost,

There are several folks (Pholks?  After, all, this is the Philco Phorum) who, as a rule, stuff electrolytics with their replacement caps (capacitors).  They also hollow out the original paper / foil caps, install the replacement axial Myler caps inside the hollow shell and seal with brown wax, so as to restore the chassis to a museum level of appearance.  Several examples can be seen on the Phorum and these are absolutely wonderful!

Whether or not to stuff depends in several factors:

First, is the set sufficiently valuable to perform a "restoration" as opposed to a reconditioning and replacing all the caps and failed resistors with new, modern parts?  Sets like these include the highest end Philcos, the Zenith "Stratosphere", EH Scott radios of the early 1930s, Pre-WWII TVs, etc.

Valuable or not, is the set in such outstanding physical condition (chassis completeness, cleanliness, cabinet very clean or if you intend to totally restore the cabinet).

Finally, what do you want to do?  Do you want to create a full museum quality restoration because you want to?  This is thoroughly OK; I stuffed 2 RCAs because it was easy to do and generally stuff the Bakelite caps on early Philcos because, at the very least, you need to break the connections to the internal components.  Procedures for stuffing electrolytic cap cans vary on the mounting and construction of these cans, whether or not they have a paper insulating sleeve (which hudes the "surgery", ease of removal and what tools you have. (A pipe cutter does a nice job.)

There should be room under most Philco chassis to install new electrolytic caps.  The new caps are much smaller than the original electrolytics, therefore room can be easily found. Several important things however:

• Don't "bridge" the existing capacitor.  Early electrolytics tend to short when they dry out.  A shorted electrolytic can severely damage the rectifier tube or power transformer or both.
  
• it is good practice to not have "flying connections", connections between 2 or more components that are merely hanging in the air, unsupported by a terminal.  In some cases, the cap can be connected directly to the cathode of the rectifier (input filter) and to whatever tie point for B+ is available (Screen connection for the output tubes, etc.) however, often the capacitor's positive terminal is that tie point.  In these cases, one needs to add terminal strips to the chassis.  It is ok to either find an existing hole, drill a hole or solder an unused terminal on the strip to the now empty terminal on the capacitor.
  
• Refer to the attached schematic link from our library.  Note that the can (negative terminal) of the 20 uF cap, C20 is not connected to Chassis ground; it connects to the center tap of the hv secondary of the transformer that supplies the HV AC to the rectifier.  This center tap is not at ground potential.  Since there is a 165 Ohm resistor between the secondary (and the negative terminal of C100) this point is more negative than the chassis ground.  This is done to obtain bias (C-) voltages, particularly for the output stage.
  

This should be a fairly nice sounding set with the cathodyne phase invertor, the push - pull output and the use of negative feedback.  The 6K6 (successor to the 41s Philco previously used) are not high output like 6F6s (42s), 6V6s, 2A3s, 6B4s, 6L6s, etc.  But nonetheless should put out an honest 5-8 Watts.  The phono input can also be used to input an FM tuner, CD player, MP3 player, cable box, guitar, etc., or another turntable using a magnetic cartridge and a preamp.

Good luck with this set!