Restored and old Zenith console radio 7S323 Ch 5714

[walterbeers]

I guess I just wanted to toot my horn about a restoration that I did on an old Zenith console radio from 1938/39. I found it for a friend on CL as he was looking for a Zenith console that has a tuning eye tube, AM and SW. Well he bought it with the idea of me getting it back into operation. We hauled it to my basement shop, and so the task at hand was upon me. Although I have done many radios in the past, I don't believe I have ever worked on one this old. It turned out to be a very tedious and yet a very rewarding project. The cabinet was in reasonable decent shape, (as I am not a furniture finisher) so other than some touch up where the veneer had pulled off, the majority of work was on the electronics. Getting into it, all the old wax capacitors, brittle wires, a dead 6U5 tuning eye tube, made me wonder if it would ever play and tune in stations like it should. (only minor IF alignment was required) Then on top of that I found a dead mouse in it, and it had chewed up a coil and some of the wiring in the preset tuning circuit, and the push buttons for the presets were un-repairable. Luckily my friend found another chassis like it, and bought it also off CL, hoping it had some good parts. I removed the dial plate, took some windex to the front of it (to clean it off) and the markings started to come right off. He got the other chassis, (no cabinet), and it luckily had a good dial plate, coil and push button assembly. The dial cord and belt were obviously rotten, and the original dial glass was gone. After doing research, found it was risky to replace the 6X5 rectifier tube, as they are known to short and take out the power transformer. Speaker was in good shape, only one small hole which some silicone glue took care of. Also the power transformer was good as well. Found a solid state replacement for the 6X5, which worked out great. Did a good cleaning of the chassis, and complete recap. The run down of parts, well lets say it wasn't cheap, but it is now a radio to be cherished. The parts I replaced, well here is a list. The dial cord, dial belt, 6X5 solid state tube replacement, power cord, dial glass, 6U5 eye tube, band switch lever, volume and tuning knobs, dial light bulbs, station tabs, tone tabs, and buttons, grill cloth, and lots hook up wire and contact cleaner. From the other junk chassis, I used the push button assembly, push button tuning coil and dial plate. Finding all of these were a challenge for both me and my friend, but they were available from various sources. Radio now plays great, and sounds as good as a modern stereo, even though it is only mono. I also added a 1 amp fuse for protection, as the unit had no fusing. Without help from my friend Rick, I don't know if I myself could have found all the sources for parts, and also the cash to purchase them. It was quite a challenge and enjoyable to get it going again.