56 Buick Radio help.

[Guest gunjeep444]

My 56 Roadmasters radio did not work. I found the power wire was not there, I ran one to the fuse box, plugged it in with the clock fuse. Antenna was not hooked up so I plugged that in. Light now comes on, but no noise at all. Manual talks about the vibrator could be bad, where is that at? In the radio, or is it the round canister thing on the fuse box and I should hook the radio wire to it?

[Bhigdog]

My 56 Roadmasters radio did not work. I found the power wire was not there, I ran one to the fuse box, plugged it in with the clock fuse. Antenna was not hooked up so I plugged that in. Light now comes on, but no noise at all. Manual talks about the vibrator could be bad, where is that at? In the radio, or is it the round canister thing on the fuse box and I should hook the radio wire to it?

The clock fuse is 1 or 2 amp. If the radio draws power it will blow that fuse. The radio usualy uses an inline fuse holder with at least a 10 amp fuse. The vibrator is in with the tubes and is a metal can about 1 1/2 in diameter. It unplugs much like a vacuum tube.............Bob

[Guest NikeAjax]

You may want to have it recapped, with all new capacitors. Here's why: when the electrolytic capacitors go out and start to leak, they can short out internally, and literally explode: this isn't a small pop either! I've been told by old time techs that they can, and do make a big boom like a 12-gauge shotgun going off. Your electrolytics are incased in an aluminum, this aluminum will become fragmented, literally shrapnel, ripping apart the insides of your radio. It won't go through the steel casing of your radio, but it might scare the bejeebees outta ya while yer driving, KERBLAMOOOO, then you have to hit the brakes really hard because you're not sure what's just happened. If you get it working, and you hear a humming sound, that's them shorting, and only a matter of time until, they detonate. The other caps are paper and wax, these are just plain awful caps to begin with; the failure rate of these is extremely high, but they don't 'splode the way the others do, they just stop working, they aren't polarized like the electro's. The electro's are your "filter-caps", the high-voltage part of your radio, and have a plus and minus terminal, like the battery of your car, if they get put in backwards, or get an internal short, they explode, think about what happens when you cross the battery posts on your car, that power's gotta go somewhere.

If you're going to go through the trouble of putting in new tubes, you'd better put in new caps too, bad caps will dramatically shorten the life of any tube; unless you have an unlimited supply of vacuum tubes and time figuring out which one it is, and a good tube tester, and a capacitance tester, and even more patients while you take that heavy radio in and out of the dashboard, oh and lots of bandages while you cut your hands up reaching back there, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc, etc.

I don't mean to sound like a jerk; I know old electronics, because I collect them, and work on my own.

Do it right, it will be better in the long run,

Jaybird

[Guest gunjeep444]

Thanks guys. I do have a tube tester, but replacing capacitors is beyond me, I'm afraid. GUess I could send it off to someone to get it rebuilt. May be cheaper to just buy a new one that fits in the hole.

[Guest NikeAjax]

Read this tutorial, it's not nearly as hard as you'd think:

Capacitor Tips re Antique Tube Radio Restorations

You can get the caps there too, and more likely than not, a schematic for it, that will show you what value caps, what tubes, etc. Your radio has maybe a dozen caps in it. Besides, if you can do this, you get to be in the he-man-step-aside-little-lady-I-can-fix-anything-club! Just as a warning, it can get a little addictive, old tube TV's are kinda fun to work on, ooooh-yeah!

You can do it!

Jaybird

[Guest gunjeep444]

Good hints there Nike.

[Bhigdog]

Or you can just send the damn thing to Alan Kriss, 570-376-3952. It will come back looking and working like new for a very reasonable price.................Bob

[Guest NikeAjax]

If you're diligent, you won't need a schematic; just write down ALL the values of the caps before you order them. You'll know it's a cap because it's covered in a sticky wax, bee's-wax a lot of the time!

It will say something like .1MFD 250VDC, or just .1 250; the .1 is your capacitance, measured in microfarads, and the 250 is the working voltage (volts direct current), which you want to match or surpass, so you'd replace it with a .1 @ 400, or a .1@600, but NEVER a lower such as .1@200, or .1@100, that would equal POW! Cut them out and replace them ONE AT A TIME!

As for the electro's tie (twist and solder together) the ground leads together, that's the (-) side or end, that goes to your chassis, so solder it there. Don't try to replace these with a can-type cap, you're just wasting your money, because it's just a bunch of these stuffed in together:

the side of the old can-cap will show you where to tie the new leads in, and then marked on the bottom with a square, triangle, half-circle etc.

Example:

.9-300 (with a half circle after it)

1-500 (with a triangle after it)

.5-500 (with a circle after it)

Then look on the bottom, you'll see those same shapes that are denoting your working values: SIMPLE! Cut out, again, one at a time, and solder the old wires to the new leads. Get some spaghetti-tubing to slip over these leads, you need them insulated, as these are carrying your voltage, just like your car!

Let me know if you get stuck,

Jaybird

PS you might want to order here, as they don't have a minimum for orders!

[Thriller]

It will say something like .1MFD 250VDC, or just .1 250; the .1 is your capacitance, measured in microfarads, and the 250 is the working voltage (volts direct current), which you want to match or surpass, so you'd replace it with a .1 @ 400, or a .1@600, but NEVER a lower such as .1@200, or .1@100, that would equal POW! Cut them out and replace them ONE AT A TIME!

Good post. I'm interested in the markings between milliFarads and microFarads. I know today we use m and mu (or u to simplify printing). If they used M for micro in the '50s, did they use lower case m for milli? Or is the nature of the beast such that they were all micro?

Thanks.

[Guest NikeAjax]

As far as I know, it's all "micro-farads" when you're dealing with old gear, which is all I work on. I'm only 44, yet my hands shake like I'm twice that age, so I don't work on anything new, it's too small for me to work with confidence, yikes!

Here's something on Wiki, hope this 'splanes it better for you:

Farad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jaybird

[Guest NikeAjax]

Geez, I forgot to post the URL for where to get parts:

Home - Moyer Electronics

Jaybird

[Guest NikeAjax]

These folks are always very helpful with old electronics:

Antique Radio Forums :: Index

They have a lot of links to old time radio shows too, always a plus!

Jaybird

[Thriller]

I trained in electrical engineering, so I understand things generally, and it makes sense that everything would be micro. I was just curious about the use of the "M" on the capacitors...that threw me off a bit...milli and micro both start with m, but today we use the mu to represent micro (such as in the photo of the modern capacitor) and m for milli.

It's all good information.

[Guest NikeAjax]

Roger that! I've done this before, many times, but it's always good to have someone say, "Yep, you did it right!" As opposed to some blowhard nit-pick with semantics... thanks for not being the second guy!

Jaybird

[NTX5467]

Derek, all I remember from "ancient" high school electrical stuff was "micro". "Milli" was used for measurements, back then, or an innovative way to spell a female's name.

LOTS of "code" on those genuine vintage electronics! One time, I overheard a maintenance person say that he couldn't "read" a schematic as it was in German (as the consumer item was built in Germany) . . . I laughed. He obviously didn't understand the "internationallity" of those electronic road maps.

Enjoy!

NTX5467

[Guest NikeAjax]

Back in the day when you didn't need a degree to work on electronics! In some ways things have gotten better with miniaturization, but once they're broke, they are broke, which is a shame too, there's so much that is disposable today, that only the people who actually build them can repair them.

Jaybird

[d2_willys]

Roger that! I've done this before, many times, but it's always good to have someone say, "Yep, you did it right!" As opposed to some blowhard nit-pick with semantics... thanks for not being the second guy!

Jaybird

Nike: You may want to clarify that your re-capping applies to Micro farad caps only. If I was doing a recap of an old radio I might consider the old ARCO-ELMENCO mica caps that are valued in pico farads, or as they used to call them MICRO-MICRO FARADS. My father called them mickey mikes!

:eek:

[Guest NikeAjax]

Ummmmm, er, ahhhhhh, okay??????? If you read the entire thread, including, the tutorial, it says JUST THAT! Sorry, but I wouldn't do that to anyone, especially when they're not sure about what they're doing: that's why I gave a specific reference that makes it crystal clear in what needs to be done.

Jaybird