dodge59 Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 (edited) on my 1954 dodge am radio with 6 volt positive ground started to work on the am radio at first the light only came on , and the vibrator did not hummmmmmmmmmm .. no sounds of audio al all....... so I got vibrator working and it hummmms fine .Now when I turn the radio on I can here the vibrator hummmmmm and the the radio just goes to a full volumn noice .. no signs of changes when you move the volumn knob h lo to high .. just stays on a full volumn schreaching sound . moving the station selector has no change in the volumn and pulling in any stations.. tried a couple different antennas and no changes there.this unit has 2 vac tubes and are glowing orange appears to fine by site ..anyway to test these vac tubes to see if they are fine ?before I have to take the system all out of the car . I like to see if I can repair in the car if posible.only thing left to do while in the car would be to replace the vac tubes ........would these 2 vac tubes control the sound of the radio the way it is on full volumn and I have no control of that?anyone have any idea where I should look next . Thanks !john Edited January 10, 2013 by dodge59 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Commodore Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Back in the day they use to have tube testers to check tubes. Maybe there is an antique radio club in your area that you can borrow tube tester from one of the members. But I don't think your problem is a tube. I think you have bad filter capacitor. To replace this you need to remove the radio from the car. It would also help if you got the Sam's Photofact for your radio. A Photofact is the shop manual for your radio. You can get them on Ebay or from Sam's. See link. But you are going to need the model number of your radio.https://www.samswebsite.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodge59 Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 hello commodore .... thanks for the reply .I have that manual coming from ebay you speak of.. I did some more research on radios and I don't think it is a compacitor now.. that just stores energy . like a back up .. becasue when the radio is blairing away, I can turn it off and on suddenly and the power is right there ,it does not fad away.. .. My theory anyway. oh well .. looks like it could be a costly ordeal . thinking about going another route of some kind..as far as testing the tubes .. i can check around and see who might do that.. I talked to my local radio repair shop and they did not even want to check the tubes for me .. they wanted to do the whole job.. go figure ..john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drwatson Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 It's not uncommon for (old) capacitors, especially the electrolytic type to "short out" or become low in resistance to electric current trying to pass through. When any go bad, things go haywire. With that said, the easiest first step would be to test all tubes (given tester access). ( I don't think yr model has transistors?)I prefer to have it on the bench and rigged up to bench-play. If tubes test good, it's likely a cap or caps. An ohm meter can be used by an experienced person to pass judgement on good or bad caps, unfortunately it might be necessary to disconnect 1 lead to test it outside the circuit (so to speak). That gets into soldering skills etc. Another important (and easy) consideration would be the possible existance of a "cold solder joint" This is where solder bond between wire and/or componant lead is cracked or non existant. Such a fault can be discovered by careful eyeballing each joint connection and there's plenty of 'em. But your symptom does not sound like one. no pun intended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodge59 Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 Thanks for the info you guys !I think I can live with a portable battery operated radio .. they have come a long way and you can get them with any accessory now. I just can't see sticking $500 into this radio that can barely pull in a am station.Just my thought. Thanks ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty_OToole Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 There should be a radio hobbyist or technician in your area who can fix your radio. Other than the vibrator they are much the same as a home radio. The tubes seldom give trouble and almost all of them are available for $5 or $10 apiece. Capacitors are cheap, 20 cents to $1 and there are 10 to 20 of them.I saw an ad a while ago for a radio repair shop that does the work by mail order. They charge $35 per tube plus parts so a 5 tube radio would cost $175. If you can take the radio out without breaking anything ask around and see if there are any antique radio clubs or repair men in your area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty_OToole Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 You will be amazed how well that radio works if it is in top shape. A friend had the same experience a few years ago, he had the Wonderbar radio in his 53 Buick rebuilt, the sound, the tone, and the stations it would bring in, blew him away. He had a new Chev pickup in the driveway and the radio sounded like a Dixie cup compared to the old Buick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rons49 Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 John, give Steve Engle a call at Engle Bros. Auto Radio, 909-543-6078 in Fontana Ca. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c49er Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 If that is a picture of the front interior of your car, well it looks to be a real "GEM" of a 1954 Dodge! I personally would not be so economy (cheap) minded on a nice car like that. I would fix that stock radio or even spend four or five hundred and update it internally to a FM unit .Jeesh, you will get a lot of satisfaction fixing that radio instaed of using a 9V portable radio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodge59 Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 (edited) I just got the service manual on my radio motorola 612 today I bought on ebay...I did not know there are more tubes in the control unit ( the upper section where the knobs and buttons are ) I thought what ran it were all down in the power unit where the vibrator is .. going to look the service manual over real good .. maybe take a better look at it out of the car . oh yeah .......... That is the orignal interior of my 54 dodge royal . it's in mint condition still .. not a nick in the dash and all the potmetal is Perfect. as well as the exterior trims . stored in a climate controlled climate most of its life. Edited January 20, 2013 by dodge59 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Walling Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 When you finnaly get your A/M radio working, you will find out why they went to F/M. There are few A/M stations worth listing to. Been there, did that on my 55 Chrysler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 The radio in my '56 Ford still works but as in most areas there really isn't anything worth listening to on the AM band. FM here has lots of stations but nothing worth listening to either. For that reason I have iPod hook ups in all of our other cars. I might look into an iPod hook up for my '56 that I read about in another thread here.For now, the sounds the Y-block in my Ford makes is music to my ears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty_OToole Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 PLEASE do not mess up your original radio! If you must have FM and your own tunes, use a separate radio, I pod or possibly a good tech can add a jack to play them through the original tube amp. That would be cool, an Ipod full of fifties tunes playing thru the original radio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD in KC Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 (edited) PLEASE do not mess up your original radio! If you must have FM and your own tunes, use a separate radio, I pod or possibly a good tech can add a jack to play them through the original tube amp. That would be cool, an Ipod full of fifties tunes playing thru the original radio..That's what I do. I use a product that converts the stereo output of my Ipod to a monaural AM 'station' that I can tune on the radio. The device plugs in between the car antenna and the radio. Completely removable with no permanent alterations at all.Of course this requires a working radio to begin with... Edited January 12, 2013 by JD in KC (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsb Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 A radio of that era, unless recently serviced, is almost certain to have bad capacitors. Particularly the filter and buffer capacitors. They tend to develop high resistance and/or short out. Any capacitor older than 25 years is suspect. If you operate the radio in this condition for very long, it will take out the vibrator & other tubes as well. A minimal repair would consist of new buffer cap (under the vibrator socket) and new filter capacitors. Then replace the rectifier if needed (typically a black metal tube with number 0Z4.) Then go from there. For best results, all capacitors should be replaced with the exception of maybe the micas in the tuning section. Don't waste your money on tubes until you get the capacitors changed out!Regards,Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodge59 Posted January 20, 2013 Author Share Posted January 20, 2013 Well here is the update on my radioJust as I was going to throw the rag in on this radio, I seen a gentleman on the internet that has a business repairing and selling these old vintage radios.. Called him and talked to him about my radio . he is sending a refurbished power unit identicle to mine . all up dated with newer style components. will have it in a few days and then plug it in.. hope that solves the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodge59 Posted March 3, 2013 Author Share Posted March 3, 2013 update on the 54 dodge radiogot it all fixed and playing ..it was some bad tubes and capacitors that was wrong with it.so it was updated with internals plays beautifully now...BIG Thanks go out to Fred at bstvintagecarradios.com He is the man to fix vintage car radios .don't hesitate to call him at 360-638-1278 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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