Hey all, anyone here rebuild a tube radio out of my 1961 super 88, or know some place to send it? Many thanks in advance.

 

Classic Car Radio Service near San Francisco will do either a REPAIR or a RESTORATION on your radio. It's a family owned business and has been around since the mid '50s as I recall. Good luck with whatever you decide to put the sounds back in your ride.

Nufo (Fred)

 

Not sure of your skill level, but the things that go in these tend to be the tubes (check them on a tube tester), the large electrolytic capacitors (replace them with inexpensive modern equivalents), and the vibrators (there are replacements available).

If you check the tubes, replace the electrolytics, and test the vibrator, she'll probably wirk just fine.

- Eric

 

Oh, you mean the one I happen to have handy in my shop? It's been a while since I've seen one of these in a drug store, so taking my tubes there is probably not an option.

 

Yeah, haven't noticed one in a drug store or Radio Shack lately, but I've had a nice Eico 667 for the last 35 years or so, so I never have a problem when I need to check a few.

- Eric

 

http://www.turnswitch.com/

This place did a great job on my radio and 8-track.

 

Can you tell us what it's doing or not doing? Maybe we can point you in the right direction without you sending it out.

 

Good point.

First thing: If you hook the radio up on the bench and remove the top, when you turn it on, you should be able to hear the vibrator buzzing. I haven't taken apart a car radio this late before (I've done ones from the forties), but the vibrator is usually a round metal can that unplugs like a vacuum tube. It has contacts that cyclically open and close a switch, like a buzzer, which creates pulse-DC so that the 12vdc from the car battery can be stepped up to the higher voltages required by a tube radio.
If the vibrator isn't vibrating, it can often be carefully opened and the contacts cleaned, and will work fine. If it can't be fixed, replacements are stil available, and I think there may be solid-state replacements now, too.

- Eric

 

Also the usual problems are a lack of reception due to Antenna connections, no speaker operation due to a bad speaker, humming due to a bad filter capacitor, or static when moving the volume control due to dirty a potentiometer.

 

Hey guys, thanks for all the tips, I have not had a chance to get it out of the car yet, but i did see that the tubes were lighting up, but nothing at all out of the speaker, which has one wire running to it, and looks like the other side of the speaker is simply ground?

 

Take a known good 8 ohm speaker and hook it up and see if you get noise out of it. One side is amp output and the other is ground.

 

I have dealt with these guys before. Greg is very helpful.

 

Google "Electro-Tech" in Blaine Minn. They did a repair on my 64 and added an MP3 connection. Nice work, no BS