1942 Philco Radio

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

This sort of thing happens as often as not.
When I found the dial glass loose, I just used a couple layers of electrical tape to hold it tightly in the mounting clamps. When working on radios or anything this old, you have to improvise. Look at the people restoring old cars. That's even a bigger PITA than these radios and a lot more costly.
Regarding the dial pointer not moving smoothly, check to see if the frame, where the pointer rides on hasn't been bent, after the fall.
If you read the other entries on this forum, regarding the restorations of the sets, you'll find that a lot of patience has been taken to get the results that they expected!

I actually did check that and the frame for the pointer isn't the problem (its as straight as an arrow yet) its just that the tuning knob for some reason or another isn't wanting to turn the string and the tuning capacitor to move the pointer and what not, because before the chassis took a fall it was working fine but then when it fell it for some reason stopped wanting to move with the knob it will move fine if you rotate the large pulley by hand (when you rotate the large pulley by hand then the knob turns with it but if you try to turn the tuning itself then the pointer won't budge except if its all the way at the top of the dial then it will move it down but only part of the way down before it gets stuck and won't move anymore.)
any other ideas as to what could of happened to the tuner when it fell besides the tuner assembly getting bent?

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

I actually did check that and the frame for the pointer isn't the problem (its as straight as an arrow yet) its just that the tuning knob for some reason or another isn't wanting to turn the string and the tuning capacitor to move the pointer and what not, because before the chassis took a fall it was working fine but then when it fell it for some reason stopped wanting to move with the knob it will move fine if you rotate the large pulley by hand (when you rotate the large pulley by hand then the knob turns with it but if you try to turn the tuning itself then the pointer won't budge except if its all the way at the top of the dial then it will move it down but only part of the way down before it gets stuck and won't move anymore.)
any other ideas as to what could of happened to the tuner when it fell besides the tuner assembly getting bent?

Try moving the tuning condenser by the pulley and see where it's binding. You should feel where it requires more effort to turn it. That's the only way you can do it. Try removing the dial cord that goes to the tuning shaft.
Going by what I stated before, dial cords were always a PITA and many times, they had to be restrung more than once.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Try moving the tuning condenser by the pulley and see where it's binding. You should feel where it requires more effort to turn it. That's the only way you can do it. Try removing the dial cord that goes to the tuning shaft.
Going by what I stated before, dial cords were always a PITA and many times, they had to be restrung more than once.

well when I turn the pulley/tuning capacitor by hand all the way up and down the dial it doesn't seem to give any resistance, and like I said when I do that the tuning knob turns with it, but when I go to turn the tuning knob it wont engage with the rest of the tuning mechanism, it just "spins freely" between the string even though the string still has two turns around the tuning knob and has plenty enough tension to cause it to turn the knob when rotating the large pulley by hand but the knob itself just doesn't want to engage the tuning mechanism itself...

EDIT: I completely took apart and restrung the dial string for the tuning knob assembly and it still isn't wanting to engage the tuning mechanism with the tuning knob, but yet the tuning knob will turn with the tuning mechanism if I turn the large pulley by hand with my finger so I'm still stumped as to what could of happened with this radio's tuning mechanism when it fell to cause it to do this.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

well when I turn the pulley/tuning capacitor by hand all the way up and down the dial it doesn't seem to give any resistance, and like I said when I do that the tuning knob turns with it, but when I go to turn the tuning knob it wont engage with the rest of the tuning mechanism, it just "spins freely" between the string even though the string still has two turns around the tuning knob and has plenty enough tension to cause it to turn the knob when rotating the large pulley by hand but the knob itself just doesn't want to engage the tuning mechanism itself...

EDIT: I completely took apart and restrung the dial string for the tuning knob assembly and it still isn't wanting to engage the tuning mechanism with the tuning knob, but yet the tuning knob will turn with the tuning mechanism if I turn the large pulley by hand with my finger so I'm still stumped as to what could of happened with this radio's tuning mechanism when it fell to cause it to do this.

By turning the big pulley, you're dealing with something like a 20:1 ratio. The tuning shaft doesn't present much of a resistance. Two turns sounds alright. A few times, I had to rough up the tuning shaft with a file. The area where the cord wraps around gets smooth, after a while.
It takes a lot of picky-picky experimenting to get if right once in a while.
Why it changed after the drop, is anyones guess.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

By turning the big pulley, you're dealing with something like a 20:1 ratio. The tuning shaft doesn't present much of a resistance. Two turns sounds alright. A few times, I had to rough up the tuning shaft with a file. The area where the cord wraps around gets smooth, after a while.
It takes a lot of picky-picky experimenting to get if right once in a while.
Why it changed after the drop, is anyones guess.

That's the problem I don't have a rat tail file to use on this, otherwise I would be trying to rough up the tuning knob to see if that works or not.
but yeah it is kind of weird that it decided to poop out on me following it falling on the floor.