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Old 12-04-2016, 09:02 PM
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Tubejunke Tubejunke is offline
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Help with Airline 14WG-806

I recently purchased one of these sight unseen. It's a beautiful design, and very well built. However, some bad packing led to the heart of the beauty (the dial plastic got cracked in transit. I'm wondering if anyone here may know where to obtain one of these or if anyone has an extra laying around.

Also, upon powering the radio on my variac the proper way, I discovered that either the power tranny became the victim of the famous 5Y3 short OR the else was powered at full AC potential from a wall outlet with some VERY leaky filter caps. Either way, around 70-80 VAC the tranny gets hot and even sounds like eggs frying on a skillet. The tranny will need replacement. Does anyone have one of those that would be suitable. I don't know what specs to look for when searching Ebay, or anywhere else for that matter. The schematic I obtained from Nostalgia Air doesn't give specs.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated as this could be a very nice piece for restoration, but with no tranny it's not hitting on much.

Many thanks,

Tube
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Old 12-04-2016, 09:22 PM
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Electronic M Electronic M is offline
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I own a similar Airline, but I think my dial is different.

Did you pull the rectifier when you variaced it?...I've variaced a set that had shorted lytics and a plate-cathode rectifier (6X5) short. Results were as bad or worse than you describe...Until I unplugged the rectifier then all went back to normal, and it was able to work with just a new set of caps and rectifier.

It may not be as bad as you think.
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Old 12-04-2016, 09:50 PM
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Findm-Keepm Findm-Keepm is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tubejunke View Post
I recently purchased one of these sight unseen. It's a beautiful design, and very well built. However, some bad packing led to the heart of the beauty (the dial plastic got cracked in transit. I'm wondering if anyone here may know where to obtain one of these or if anyone has an extra laying around.


Tube
Dial cover? http://www.dialcover.com/

Radio Dial (band scale) http://www.radiodaze.com/dials/

Contact them with your needs - they do more than the websites show...
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Old 12-05-2016, 10:15 PM
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Thanks Tom and no, I haven't tried that yet. I did try a new lytic with a tube that I thought was a known good, but when I gave up and pulled the tube it was marked 6X5 with a Sharpee. It calls for a 5Y3, so I don't know what I really accomplished if anything.

Perhaps I will start over. There was plenty of tranny wax under the chassis, so somebody has let the thing run a while overheating. Even if it's a bad tranny I should be able to locate another I hope.
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Old 12-05-2016, 10:22 PM
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Brian, I will try contacting them, but I didn't see anything for that model in their list. Thanks either way. Looks like a great resource.
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Old 12-09-2016, 12:37 AM
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First thing is to do as Tom suggested and pull the rectifier, check your raw AC plate voltages on each side of the center tap. If it turns out to be shorted you could try posting a classifieds ad over on ARF for a parts set. Otherwise you can harvest a power transformer from a lot of radios of the same vintage provided it physically fits your chassis. Aim for something close to the same number of tubes. It would also help if you post pictures of your bad transformer, including outside dimensions and mounting bolt spacing.
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Old 12-09-2016, 10:37 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Originally Posted by Tubejunke View Post
I recently purchased one of these sight unseen. It's a beautiful design, and very well built. However, some bad packing led to the heart of the beauty (the dial plastic got cracked in transit. I'm wondering if anyone here may know where to obtain one of these or if anyone has an extra laying around.

Also, upon powering the radio on my variac the proper way, I discovered that either the power tranny became the victim of the famous 5Y3 short OR the else was powered at full AC potential from a wall outlet with some VERY leaky filter caps. Either way, around 70-80 VAC the tranny gets hot and even sounds like eggs frying on a skillet. The tranny will need replacement. Does anyone have one of those that would be suitable. I don't know what specs to look for when searching Ebay, or anywhere else for that matter. The schematic I obtained from Nostalgia Air doesn't give specs.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated as this could be a very nice piece for restoration, but with no tranny it's not hitting on much.

Many thanks,

Tube
Wells-Gardner built radios are great performing and worth restoring. There's not many table radios the have push-pull output stages.
It's actually a console chassis in a table cabinet. Original, of course. Should sound great.
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Old 12-10-2016, 07:47 PM
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I didn't know that Wells-Gardner built the thing for Wards, but it's plain to see that the thing was built with the utmost of quality. I really hope I can get this thing going. Thanks to all for the comments. Btw, I did pull the rectifier and threw about 70 volts to it and after a few minutes the pilot lamps start flickering and the tranny heats fairly quickly to eventually smoke. It's toast! I hope I can find one reasonable.
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Old 12-11-2016, 08:14 AM
WISCOJIM WISCOJIM is offline
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I didn't know that Wells-Gardner built the thing for Wards, but it's plain to see that the thing was built with the utmost of quality.
Now in the future you'll know that the "WG" in any Airline radio model number means Wells-Gardner built it. If it had "BR" in the model, it would have been built by Belmont Radio. Also, the "14" in the model number identifies it as a 1941 model.
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Old 01-20-2017, 04:45 PM
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toxcrusadr toxcrusadr is offline
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Any numbers on the transformer on this thing?

One place you might look for one is Play Things of Past. That guy has boatloads of transformers, all catalogued. If he's still in business.
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Old 01-21-2017, 07:51 PM
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Tubejunke Tubejunke is offline
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Any numbers on the transformer on this thing?
Yes, there are numbers on it. They are 53X245 followed by (under) 5 41. When I started this thread, I hadn't unbolted it and moved the wires to clean the wax and debris to find the numbers. A VK member well versed in all of this has a unit that will require the use of a 6V rectifier as opposed to the 5Y3. Namely the 6x5. He has a larger unit with a 5v tap, but I want to get the correct fit as there isn't a lot of room before the tranny would be all over the rectifier socket. I don't want my rectifier any closer to the trans. than it already is. I have always wondered why some manufacturers placed the rectifier as close to the trans as possible. I like the design I have seen in TVs where the rectifier is actually mounted on the top of the transformer. Now there's a way to sink that heat! Probably awful to try to find a direct replacement for though.

If memory serves me right, that would be an improvement. I think the 5Y3 is famous for taking out transformers. I need to get my info straight as it may be the 6X5 that is the problem child. It's a pretty common topic in the radio world. It's just been a while since I read up on it. I'll check it out and say for sure so I don't mislead anyone.
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Old 01-21-2017, 08:35 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tubejunke View Post
Yes, there are numbers on it. They are 53X245 followed by (under) 5 41. When I started this thread, I hadn't unbolted it and moved the wires to clean the wax and debris to find the numbers. A VK member well versed in all of this has a unit that will require the use of a 6V rectifier as opposed to the 5Y3. Namely the 6x5. He has a larger unit with a 5v tap, but I want to get the correct fit as there isn't a lot of room before the tranny would be all over the rectifier socket. I don't want my rectifier any closer to the trans. than it already is. I have always wondered why some manufacturers placed the rectifier as close to the trans as possible. I like the design I have seen in TVs where the rectifier is actually mounted on the top of the transformer. Now there's a way to sink that heat! Probably awful to try to find a direct replacement for though.

If memory serves me right, that would be an improvement. I think the 5Y3 is famous for taking out transformers. I need to get my info straight as it may be the 6X5 that is the problem child. It's a pretty common topic in the radio world. It's just been a while since I read up on it. I'll check it out and say for sure so I don't mislead anyone.
The 5Y3 and its Variants the G and GT and its cousin the 80 Rectifier tube are known to be very reliable tubes, its the 6X5 that's known to be the bad boy of the Rectifier tube world, the later miniature version of this tube the 6X4 was known to be a good trouble free rectifier tube, but if you want to try and keep the radio as original as possible I would either keep the original 5Y3 Setup or possibly modify it so it would run off of an 80 Rectfier tube which is a UX base (4 pin) version of the 5Y3 tube, both tubes of which were in use during the time period this radio was made, and are like I said known to be good tube designs that don't flake out and ruin transformers like the 6X5.
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Old 01-21-2017, 09:19 PM
old_coot88 old_coot88 is offline
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Yup, the 80/5Y3 lineage were very reliable. Don't forget the 5Y3's lesser-known sibling, 5Y4. Same octal tube but different pinout.
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Old 01-22-2017, 01:47 PM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Yup, the 80/5Y3 lineage were very reliable. Don't forget the 5Y3's lesser-known sibling, 5Y4. Same octal tube but different pinout.
My favorite would be a 5V4, slower heating, easier on electrolytics
The newer generation 6X5's were a lot more reliable. The 6X5G's seemed to be the real problem, especially in the pre-war Zeniths.
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Old 01-22-2017, 05:23 PM
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My favorite would be a 5V4, slower heating, easier on electrolytics
The newer generation 6X5's were a lot more reliable. The 6X5G's seemed to be the real problem, especially in the pre-war Zeniths.
That's what I was thinking because I had a 6X5GT tube in an old 1940s vintage Philco floor model radio (it was a later Delco replacement tube and not the original Philco 6X5G tube) and someone told me when I asked about it that it would still be a problematic tube because of it still being a 6X5 tube, but I had read on here and other antique radio forums that the 6X5GT tubes were more reliable than the 6X5G tube was.
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