Back to the rectifier. Having already replaced the filament wiring, I now soldered that to the socket. That brought me to the wiring under the socket, which connects to the HV capacitor and HV tower on the side of the cage.
I never really liked the way the HV capacitor was connected under the rectifier cup, with an 'X' shaped solder lug. It screwed into the capacitor, then the rectifier cup and HV tower connection soldered to that. This made wire breakage an issue, since to remove the cage means leaving the tower flapping in the breeze.
So I made a short wire with round terminals on each end: one screws into the cap, the other end goes to the top of the rectifier cup.
This does 3 things for me:
1. I can pull the rectifier cup and the cap doesn't fall out now, because there's still a screw and a lug holding it in.
2. It also allows me to remove only the cap if I choose, since I can put a phillips screwdriver down the center of the tube socket (no need to pull the cup if I just want the cap out).
3. the HV wiring is now modular. The HV tower can be disconnected from the rectifier cup, so the tower and shunt reg cap all come off in one piece. Very neat now, and I no longer have to pull the cover of the cage to get the cage off the chassis. I simply remove 1 screw from the rectifier cup, and the whole cage comes out in one piece.
The pics below show what it looks like now.
