Hi John,
Noel is taking the route of “restomoding” his radio with modern guts but he brought up the issue that we should try to get the schematics for the stock radios and get them up on the web site. Bob had sent me your notes and the a copy of the club news article you wrote in 1980, and I’ve been sitting on that for a year and a half. I need to work on this sometime and may need to contact you with questions. I have also worked on old tube radios and still have a few; sold off some on ebay. My knowledge is not as extensive as yours so mostly I just recap (have gotten screwed by cheap Chinese electrolytic caps too) and test/replace tubes; sometimes resistors if necessary, clean up the tuning cap etc. just basic stuff to get them functional. Although on Zeniths I replace the selenium rectifier (even if still OK) with modern diode and resistor; as you know the selenium rectifiers are a disaster waiting to happen; they had a short service life typically and if they burn up very toxic. I was an EE the first 2 years of college but have forgotten 99% of that, but always liked old radios and electronics.
I have seen your philcojohn posts! Redid one Philco 40-125 table set, real pain in the ass, no room on that chassis, it had been badly messed with too, sold it off on ebay. My oldest set is a Silver-Marshall console model 75 from 1929 with original manual and paperwork, early a/c set but TRF circuit (not superhet), original cabinet, original finish, museum piece really, sorta rare and valuable, electromagnetic speaker replaced at some point with a Jensen EM (needs reconing) but otherwise the set works great – all I had to do was parallel the huge electrolytic cans, really obsolete tubes but still OK, didn’t dare try to do any alignment on a TRF. Bought it at an estate auction in 1984 for a song. Also have and use a 1939 RCA T60 (AM/SW), a 1952 RCA 1R81 AM-FM (excellent performer after recapping and replacing all resistors – I get the good caps from that guy up in Canada), a 1964 Zenith H845, a 1958 Hallicrafters S-85. Still need to tackle my 1959 Grundig console, original and near mint with all papers, wish I had a 1959 Chrysler to go with it (had one once , a ’59 New Yorker). Grundig will be challenging, all German as you know. Other old hi-fi stuff siting around too. Last year I sold my 1960 original (not repop) Marantz Model 7 preamp, the holy grail of all tube hi-fi equipment, still had all it’s original Telefunken tubes and never been messed with. I bought it at an auction in the 1980’s for a few bucks, sold it on ebay to some guy in Hong Kong for nearly $5 grand! I just didn’t have any use for it. Now Noel is going to tell me I need to pay taxes on the long term capital gain 😊 .
Carl
From: 'John Grady' jkg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [Chrysler300]
Sent: Friday, January 4, 2019 3:21 PM
To: 'Noel Hastalis'
Cc: 'Bob Merritt'; Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Re: [Chrysler300] 1960 F radio -
Hi Noel,
A few suggestions for him, on radios, First , generally the tubes are fine. Wiggle in sockets gently to be sure good contact . coat pins carefully with silicone contact grease. I was much very all into that, (I collect / restore old radios, anyway, since a kid, have backed away now. 100’s of them on shelves!—see Philco 90, 20, 70 ; I am “philcojohn” in old radio circles…. 90 is the 300 of radios. ) I wrote all about the 300 radios in a 300 monthly tech news, or whatever it was called maybe 25 years ago? Might find that issue in archives. .
What goes wrong, ---pass this on to him, if a good radio guy. Over 70 , helps with tubes….:)
1)just parallel all electrolytics (they are no good now for sure ) with multiple new Panasonic 25 volt two lead discrete caps from digi key . (many other brands are Chinese junk) ; do not try to remove the silver , large old one you WILL damage PC card , you can razor knife cut traces to + of old one . The traces WILL all lift if heated. New caps are tiny
2) replace output transistor , they get crazy, operating point drift cause distortion . New PNP Germanium auto radio outputs are available now , fairly generic for 57-65 radios. ; in that long ago article I changed to silicon , maybe do not have to do that now,. Ge were hard to find then. “obsolete”
3) check bias mA on output and adjust, sometimes low ohm emitter lead resistor will burn open, due to bad transistor. . Replace .
4)cork clutch in dial tuning drive often slips , = station knob does not move tuning ; easiest fix is add a light spring, maybe 3/16 diameter from actuating arm of that clutch to side case holes of radio. =Pulling harder, and put powdered rosin on cork face. Not really adjustable, you can hurt this easily, messing with it . ….any oil on it wrecks it. This from fixing ~ 25 of these ; first efforts were sad. Do not oil any of the parts near it. At one point I made a special stronger stock spring, a bear to change, inside the push button thing. realized adding one outside does same thing!
5) last, and often ok, --but should mention. … generally alignment of IF transformers is still perfect, in trying to tune up with “the golden screwdriver” (I cannot resist) , you can break the fragile cores = you are screwed. Often stuck solid . If low sensitivity on radio, and IF suspect, and good IF tube, or-- you can easily move them, yet they do not ‘peak”, --fairly common and labor intensive problem is “open to air” silver mica fixed value tuning caps mounted in the bottom of each IF can will corrode, lose pF. Black=silver oxide (tarnish) = caps are junk. Causes low gain, jumps in volume on bumps etc ... To fix that requires removing IF transformers , (arrgh..GREAT CARE---PC card damage) disassemble them , drill rivet, remove all those caps, and add discrete mica caps outside on card . You need good eyes….Hopefully your radio not like this. I would not do it routinely.
5 button is the best one really, 7 button a great radio , more tubes and more watt power, but all the power tuning parts are rarely functional , some severe design flaw issues show up (the flip over direction switch arms , it mechanically breaks, cannot be fixed, motor seizes, electric clutch setup , winding fails . ) and even when they are working , not very good feature in practice . I have OFTEN disabled all that to just get a better manual radio , but 5 button nice and simple can be made perfect.
Be sure shorting plug is in back socket on your radio , or a rear speaker kit , or you get nothing out to speaker .
Schematics readily available by Howard Sams Photofact, or often E bay . The one in the service manual may be correct…it has a number like Mopar 420 , aka Mopar xxx , also stamped in the cover of your radio?? same radio was used across line in different box.
Hope all this helps…..
John
From: Noel Hastalis [mailto:cpaviper@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2019 11:51 AM
To: John Grady
Subject: Fwd: Re: [Chrysler300] 1960 F radio -
Hi John,
See the following emails. I do see one schematic at the front of the 1960 Chrysler/Imperial FSM, that I'm emailing to my radio guy.
Noel
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Noel Hastalis <cpaviper@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Carl <cbilter@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: January 4, 2019 at 10:50 AM
Subject: Fwd: Re: [Chrysler300] 1960 F radio -
Hi Carl,
I see one schematic at the beginning of my '60 shop manual. Hoping it's the correct one. Do you have anything more specific for the 1960 Bendix radio offerings that Chrysler used?
Noel
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Bob Merritt <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Noel Hastalis <cpaviper@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: January 4, 2019 at 10:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] 1960 F radio -
Go to Carl Bilter.
He has had the radio schematics from John Grady for a long time,
plans to make a web page. Hasn't gotten to it....maybe needs a nudge.
Carl knows radios. He knows web pages. He is the guy for the job.
Alternate contact is John Grady direct.
Others that come to mind are Fern Rivard......he knows radio.
Tom White too. He is the guy that was able to rebuild the FI system
for his Adventurer.......he really knows radios.
R
------ Original Message ------
From: "Noel Hastalis cpaviper@xxxxxxxxxxx [Chrysler300]" < Chrysler300-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Chrysler300" < Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 1/4/2019 11:23:42 AM
Subject: [Chrysler300] 1960 F radio -
Good Morning Group,
I need the schematic for the Bendix radio - pulled it out of my F yesterday, and dropped it off for repair. It has an internal short. It's the standard 5-button radio. The old-timer at this shop has the schematics only dating back to '63.
I'd like to see this posted to our Club's online Technical site - for all Letter Car years.
Thanks!
Noel Hastalis
F Coupe
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