[Arran]

I always "extricate" the old Philco orig bakelite blocks when electronically restoring vintage Philco & AK "coded" orig chassis components. I replace them with terminal-strips to mount new caps ( fully visable for the next tech to deal with yrs later), and therefore never have these grounding type probs. Keeping "authencity" hidden under these chassis is for the purists generally speaking? Does it really add any "value" to these sets? Does it ad probs re-building & re-installing orig bakelite cap blocks sometimes? Very glad you found the prob in your recap- restoration, and corrected it! Seems we have all learned something here all over again?

That will work well if you have a source of terminal strips but in some circles they are getting hard to find. In practice I don't find rebuilding the bakelite blocks any more difficult then replacing parts on a typical terminal strip when you get used to melting the tar out. Nobody would advocate replacing terminal strips and tie points in any other radio, the bakelite blocks are just Philco's version of the same. Speaking of which I am not normally into restuffing condensers, at least the tubular paper types, but with the bakelite blocks, or the tar filled cans used in early AC sets, it's a different kettle of fish due to the mechanical aspect and the lack of chassis space.
Best Reagards
Arran