05-18-2008, 09:31 PM
Ok, completely recapped her last night, from front to rear. The resistors actually checked out well within the %20 range for this set. Anyhow I replaced the transformer this morning. She plays nicely so far. I have yet to align it but reception is strong on all bands, and dial calibration is surprisingly accurate for not having touched it yet. The shadow meter works well, again for a change. It turns out someone had forced the rectifier tube into the socket incorrectly, then tried to get the set to play. Turning the tranny into a piece of charcoal. Don't ya just love it!! Believe it or not the original electrolytics still functioned properly.
I wanted to see if one of the electro's might have been bad. They weren't shorted so slowly I powered it up on the variac after the cap and tranny replacement. She came to life somewhere around 90-95v, and played nicely. I let it play for 10 minutes or so. Powered it down, then replaced all the electrolytics. Proof positive someone was stupid with this set, causing a perfectly good tranny to hit the dumpster
Now it gets funny. One of the replacement electrolytics let the smoke out. I had it playing for about 10 minutes with the new electro's and suddenly POOF! Smoke rolled out hard from the left front of the chassis under the two electrolytic cans. It was still playing fine though I quickly pulled the plug. Waited a few minutes, turned it upside down and couldn't see anything wrong. That is until I touched that electrolytic, it was hot as the devil, but not deformed. I thought WTH? Cap was right, not shorting out, and correct polarity......I installed another and it's been fine for the last 10 hours playing straight.
That's the first time I've ever experienced a bad new cap.........The sets haunted!! Next stop, getting one of my 116Bs up & running. Time to get serious before the summer sets in. Then I'll never get off my ar$$ until next winter
I wanted to see if one of the electro's might have been bad. They weren't shorted so slowly I powered it up on the variac after the cap and tranny replacement. She came to life somewhere around 90-95v, and played nicely. I let it play for 10 minutes or so. Powered it down, then replaced all the electrolytics. Proof positive someone was stupid with this set, causing a perfectly good tranny to hit the dumpster
Now it gets funny. One of the replacement electrolytics let the smoke out. I had it playing for about 10 minutes with the new electro's and suddenly POOF! Smoke rolled out hard from the left front of the chassis under the two electrolytic cans. It was still playing fine though I quickly pulled the plug. Waited a few minutes, turned it upside down and couldn't see anything wrong. That is until I touched that electrolytic, it was hot as the devil, but not deformed. I thought WTH? Cap was right, not shorting out, and correct polarity......I installed another and it's been fine for the last 10 hours playing straight.
That's the first time I've ever experienced a bad new cap.........The sets haunted!! Next stop, getting one of my 116Bs up & running. Time to get serious before the summer sets in. Then I'll never get off my ar$$ until next winter
-Brian
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