[Guest]

Hello,im new to this hobby so please bare with me,my first restoration is a 38-17,ive read how to rebuild bakelite blocks so iv'e got that covered,im having a problem with the can cap,i cant find out to rebuild this one its solid,no cap on it,3 wires out the bottom,green,tan,blk #31 on the diagram of the 38-15,same chassis,right?,is there a procedure for rebuilding these solid cans,thanks for your help,Randy,...oh and great web site Ron,iv'e learned alot in a short time at least i think i have.

[Chuck Schwark]

Those rectangular metal can caps can be cleaned out and re-stuffed the same way as the bakelite block caps.
Open the can tabs carefully and re-use the fiber "plate" but use new wire leads to the new caps. Glob of hot-glue will secure the cap(s).

Chuck

[Guest]

Thanks Chuck good to know.

[Guest]

Holy cow,replaced all caps ,rebuilt bakelite block,and it plays,how cool,all tubes tested fine,but low audio,and gets lower when it warms up,picking up very few stations,extended antenna seems not to help,any help would be great,this is my first rebuild,thanks

[codefox1]

In order of likelyhood:

Poor tube pin to socket (Wiggle them a little while playing, see if the volume changes) Clean and retention the tube sockets, and tube pins.

Out of range resistor that goes further out of range or opens when the set warms up. There aren't very many of them, and they are cheap and easy to replace. Replace all of the carbon resistors in the power supply and audio output sections.

A diseased mic capacitor in rf or if section. They may be hiding in the IF Coils. Again, cheap and easy to just replace e.

Other (coil opening up or cold solder joint, grime remaining in one of the adjustable trimmer capacitors)

Other other ?? Have to work backwards from the speaker. Somewhere between the speaker and the antenna there is a problem.

Keep us up to date!

[Guest]

thanks,will let you know.

[Guest]

bad tube test,doubled checked all of them,replaced tube now have great volume,thank you so much,I have another question,How was the antenna run on a 38-17 thanks for all your help!!

[Ron Ramirez]

There are two wire leads which protrude from the back of the 38-17 chassis. One is for the antenna; the other is a ground lead. Connect your longwire antenna to the antenna lead; this is the one which will make the set louder when connected. (Connecting the antenna to the ground lead will have no effect.)

[Guest]

Ron,do i need to connect the ground lead to something,like back to the chassis or what,and both wires are the same length ,so hook up one and if the set gets louder thats the antenna,correct?,thank you!!

[Ron Ramirez]

Some may disagree...but I see no real necessity in connecting the ground wire to anything on a radio as recent as a 1938 Philco.

Do not attach the ground lead back to the chassis, there is no point in doing so since that lead is already connected to the chassis internally.

Yes, hook up the antenna to one of the two leads. Whichever one makes the set play louder is the antenna lead.

The original colors for the two leads were WHITE for the antenna; BROWN for the ground.