02-21-2009, 04:12 PM
Don't plug it in again until you have found the problem. The big pins are the filament and the cathode. Disconnect any wires to those pins that do not go to the transformer. There should be only one. Then with a voltmeter between either of these (large) pins and the chassis or B - if it is floating, measure the B+ vloltage as you slowly bring the set to life under a variac. Shut it down if any arcing or "red plates" occur, for this means the tube is bad. If you get this far, it is the electrolytics 90% of the time, and a bad coupling capacitor the other 10%. Well, that's how I would do it. But I summarily replace the filter and coupling capacitors before evern attemting to fire the thing up. That's my 2 cents worth. I'm sure there will be other opinions.
