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  #16  
Old 12-27-2013, 09:24 PM
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Snelson, I have to thank you for pursuing this point with me, I am happy to have seen this, But for the life of me, I can't imagine where that ballast resistor was....?
Was it as big as in the Dodge cars...? I don't remember ever seeing it.....
Hey there squirrel guy ,

The ballast resistor on those cars was a piece of "resistance wire" of the exact same type as on the cords of the "curtain burner" radios of the mid to late 1930s . The wire would outwardly appear as a normal wire , but when cut into was revealed to be a finely wound coil of wire under that insulation , and thus a "wired in" ballast resistor was provided . truth be told , in my days of yore working on cars , I only ran into a couple of Fords with an open ballast wire , VS literally DOZENS of failed Plymouth ceramic block style ones .

Classic symptom was , car would start and run as long as the key was in the start position , but when let to return to the Run position after starting , the engine would instantly quit (as the boost 12 volts went away and the ballast wasn't there to provide the running voltage)
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  #17  
Old 12-28-2013, 09:50 AM
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Originally Posted by init4fun View Post
Hey there squirrel guy ,

The ballast resistor on those cars was a piece of "resistance wire" of the exact same type as on the cords of the "curtain burner" radios of the mid to late 1930s . The wire would outwardly appear as a normal wire , but when cut into was revealed to be a finely wound coil of wire under that insulation , and thus a "wired in" ballast resistor was provided . truth be told , in my days of yore working on cars , I only ran into a couple of Fords with an open ballast wire , VS literally DOZENS of failed Plymouth ceramic block style ones .

Classic symptom was , car would start and run as long as the key was in the start position , but when let to return to the Run position after starting , the engine would instantly quit (as the boost 12 volts went away and the ballast wasn't there to provide the running voltage)
Yes I remember the Chrysler ones, and in most cases when they went bad, they were cracked, and easily spotted. I didn't know about the radio wire, what was the purpose of that wire in radios...? Most had a big power transformer so I can't imagine a reason for a ballast resistor....
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  #18  
Old 12-28-2013, 03:09 PM
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Hi Squirrel Guy ,

When the manufacturers were first attempting transformer less radios , the tubes such as 50L6 and 35Z5 didn't exist yet . They had mostly 25 volt heater types such as the type 43 which was an output tube and the 25Z6 for a voltage doubling rectifier . Now , in the later "All American Five" sets , using 50L6 , 35Z5 , 12SA7 , 12SK7 , and 12SQ7 , the sum of the voltage drawn by the series connected heaters was 121 volts , just perfect for our 120 volt wall outlets . But the older , 25 volt heater tubes , usually used with 6 volt heater types such as 6A7 , 6K7 , 6Q7 , and then 43 and the 25Z6 only added up to 67 volts in series and thus needed some means of dropping the additional line voltage . Some sets used ballast resistors that looked somewhat like tubes , and some used a piece of resistance wire in the line cord to drop the difference and allow the tubes to draw their 67 volts . The cord would have three wires , one all of it's own to be one side of the line , one on the other side of the line that fed directly to the rectifier's plate , and the third one which was the resistance wire coming from the same plug blade as the one for the rectifier's plate . To most old radio guys , the term "curtain burner" refers ONLY to sets with the dropping resistance in the line cord , but some folks mistakenly seem to call ANY "AA5" set a curtain burner even the later ones with no dropping resistance needed at all .

Funny thing about the tube type ballasts was , that certain manufacturers got caught lying and calling them tubes (as in active receiving elements , not just glorified "dim bulbs" which the tubular ballasts were) and got in legal trouble over it . When tube count reigned supreme in the choice of which radio to buy , and one could easily up the tube count by a few by using some glass encased resistors , whose gonna notice , right ? Well , the other manufacturers who weren't falsely inflating their tube counts let the Govt in on the secret and a few went out of business .

Ya mean our generation DIDN'T invent corporate greed ?
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  #19  
Old 12-28-2013, 05:45 PM
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WoW ! ! ! That is some story..... I never knew about that !

My only really old radio is a GE floor model radio where at one time the guts were replaced with a Stromberg Carlson model 60.

I think it was called "tone equalizer" somewhere around 1932. But the '60 fits well, you wouldn't know it unless you read the ID stickers on the back.... All the knobs and dial fit well.... I've had this radio since Jr. High school, it was thrown out next to a dumpster at a VFW right near the school, sat there for a week and I convinced mom and dad to go get it with the old Dodge Wagon...

-------------
I looked up curtain burner radios on google, found a few good restoration pages, and more info about them.... Thanks again !
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Last edited by Username1; 12-28-2013 at 05:57 PM.
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  #20  
Old 12-28-2013, 08:57 PM
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I was working under the hood of my old Chevrolet one day and noticed this one wire harness getting very hot-actually too hot to touch. I spent a lot of time fretting over it until I realized it was the resistance wire (you see, I had the ignition turned in the on position at the time, engine off...yep, good way to burn the points. Learned that trick at the same time.)
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