Posts: 3,122
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Joined: Apr 2011
City: Lexington, KY
That's a beautiful radio! Great job on the restoration Greg
Just curious what was causing the binding?
John KK4ZLF
Lexington, KY
"illegitimis non carborundum"
Posts: 1,521
Threads: 240
Joined: Sep 2012
City: West Bend, Wisconsin
Thanks for the kind words everyone! John, the old fabric dial belt was stiff as a board. Found a replacement from JustRadios.com. That and the whole mechanism was bone dry. So it was a combination of the new belt and lubrication that freed things up. I did not even try to get that complicated electric pushbutton assembly working again. For one the motor just keeps running on either manual or electric position. I finally just disconnected it to get it to stop running. I don't want to risk breaking the main dial string to the movie dial assembly. That and the dial cords and counter weights are missing for the pushbuttons to function. Just wasn't worth the hassle to me after the nightmare chassis work to get it back to factory correct. Apparently these electric tuning mechanisms were troublesome for Airline from the get go. So much so that they eventually produced a kit to convert it from electric tuning back to manual only.
Greg V.
West Bend, WI
Member WARCI.org
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City: Sandwick, BC, CA
I wouldn't completely abandon the idea of getting the electric tuning working, but it's something that can always wait till a later time when you get bored. For the record, the movie dial sets were produced by Wells-Gardner for Monty Wards.
Regards
Arran
Posts: 13,776
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Joined: Sep 2005
City: Ferdinand
State, Province, Country: Indiana
Ditto what others have said - great job and a really neat radio!
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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Joined: Jul 2012
City: Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Beautiful radio.. Wish I had one like it . I bet they are few and far between. Enjoy it!