[jeffgniffke]

Thank you John for all the great advice! Will start thru it all this afternoon. In inspecting the chassis a bit more i found a crack running across the phenolic base of the mixer....tho continuity wise I'm showing grounding only where there should be...any thoughts?
The push button coils are tuned but get bleed over signal.I have tuned them to what was originally there,,,mostly the stations you name tho the calls have changed on some but the frequency is and has remained the same. Most of those wires were brittle connecting the coils and the buttons...oddly tho the green wire seems to be fine where the red is worthless...odd, but I'm sure it has to do with oil content of insulation or something on those line.
I have an old philco pre-war cap tester that seems to work.
You ask about WCCO...it will show up at 830 but to varying degrees across the dial.
I'm beginning to suspect the antennae on this thing...there are splices in one of the loops.....I may just wind out a new antenna to replace that one.
I will write more later as I start into it today....Thanks again John.
Did you move to a warmer climate? We are on our 15th day in a row of below zero temps. Getting old.

[jeffgniffke]

Restrung the antennae with a continuous wire...again a little better. Have some RF can wire to redo. BUT what is very noticeable now when the thing is dong its oscillating i push down on the mixer and it will quit...I knew that socket material was cracked...I ordered a new socket. I wonder it that is what side lined it to begin with back in the day?

[Raleigh]

Yup, I moved to North Carolina from St. Paul after the winter of 1983-84, which was the longest, nastiest winter I'd ever experienced. '76-'77 might have been close. We moved precisely to get away from the cold. I loved the Twin Cities, so it took me years to decide to move, but that year was so awful that we finally decided to do it.

I re-read the section of Marcus & Levy on the RF section, chapter 16. If you've gotten the copy you ordered you might want to read that. Some of the problems they describe sound similar to yours.

There is a compensator, 1C, on the schematic that goes across part of the broadcast loop antenna. I don't see any reference to it in the alignment instructions. It might be fun to play with it a little to see if it has an impact on your problem. Marcus & Levy mention a wave trap for ship-to shore communications that long ago were on 455 KHz. They interfered with reception of superhet receivers if not filtered out at the antenna stage. Maybe that's all it is, and it's not really necessary these days.

You might be onto something with the tube socket, especially since the oscillation goes away when you press on it. The loctal socket for the 7J7 converter on my 40-150 is also cracked, but I don't have any negative results from it. I ordered a replacement socket from either Radio Daze or Antique Electronics Supply (don't remember which.) The socket and the screw holes were oriented 90 degrees differently from the Philco socket, so I'd have had to re-orient all the wiring to use the original rivet holes, or else I'd need to drill 2 new holes and right angles to the originals. In the end, I didn't do anything, but have still got the socket in case I ever need it.

Do you have a spare RF tube, 1232? I don't know anything that suggests it's bad, but since the RF section could be implicated it's worth a try if you have a spare. I doubt it's worth ordering one unless you have a better idea that it's bad, though.

[jeffgniffke]

Well John...greetings from the tundra.
At least it was an ideal day to have a chat once more with my friend the 40-155....relating on a very personal level now.
Anywho....I think I believe I am just about there....after pulling the cans apart and rewiring them....various other wires that had fallen apart with all my probing had to be replaced. A 10K resistor and 250mmf cap in the antenna array as well. The biggest culprit was wiring in the 1st IF can (30).....wiring that had passed inspection now had crumbled and was touching the chassis and each other....small and hidden breaks but enough to mess the RF circuit up. 13 tested good.....I replaced 1A and 1B in the array. This antenna has been a problem from the get go...the mice had eaten thru the wiring in numerous places. So things have settled down...some odd squeak and growls yet but more a problem of the leads to the antenna I believe....I will pass on replacing the socket for today. An alignment is also badly need now...though it is sitting here playing WCCO very well....good sounding radio. it certainly is a labor of love what we do..... :-)

[Raleigh]

Glad you're making progress, Jeff. I have a 40-190 on my list to restore soon. It's a similar chassis to yours, but a different antenna, since it's a console.

I'm now working on a 46-350 portable radio that I've been tinkering with off and on for years. Every time I work on it, I find some little thing that gets it closer to sounding good. The most recent improvement I made was simply to clean and lubricate the tuning capacitor. I never thought to do that when I first started on this one, but it made a big difference. I also replaced the speaker. The original one looks perfect but sounds awful. Next I have to figure out how to make a battery for it. I haven't rewired the IF cans because they don't have the pre-war rubber insulated wire, but the 2nd IF and the RF transformer both have some mica caps and a resistor inside them that I should check and maybe change. Live & learn.

[DeckApe]

Jeff--

Look at your new sockets carefully. I got one from SPARK! (radio museum) in Bellingham, WA that had a tensioning/retaining ring on it that, once removed, allowed you to pull the socket from its metal frame and realign the key to the orientation that you needed.

[K7Sparky]

I've had a handful of Loctal sockets made by Amphenol in Chicago for years.
Just looked at them compared to one of the Philco. Not only is the key lined up with the mounting holes instead of off 90 degrees like the Philco, screw spacing is 0.315 narrower.

The socket Bakelite or phenolic is molded onto the mounting flange.

It would make sense if the older American Phenolic sockets also Chicago became Amphenol. Anyone know? When?

Thanks for the source DeckApe

Have really enjoyed reading along the trail. Had forgotten we used to call that style mica's Domino's