I'm going to suggest a way to tackle this beast. I can see how some of the wiring goes, but some parts aren't clear from the pix. Can we do it section by section? Some of this will be going over sections that are already working, but may not be quite right. I'll number the items for reference. Please confirm or explain each.
PLEASE anyone chime in here with any suggestions or if I flubbed anything.
All tests with set unplugged.
1. The tech who wired this for 120VAC made it into a hot chassis set. Notice that one side of the line goes to the power switch and the other side of the switch is grounded to chassis. It is dangerous like this in that if the hot side of the line goes to the switch, the chassis with the switch on will be a shock hazard with respect to ground. Even with the switch off it will be a shock hazard if the hot side of the line goes to the rectifier as the chassis would be hot back through the heater string. You can find the other errors and get the radio to work this way, but you should use an isolation transformer between the set and line. Also you should be insulated from a concrete floor and be careful and don't rest your arm or other hand on the chassis when taking readings. The live chassis can be made safer with a floating B- bus but I'd say get the set working first and tackle that as a later project.
2. 25Z6: pins 3 and 5 are tied together and one side of the line cord goes to them.
3. 25Z6: pins 4 and 8 are tied together and go to the + side of the first electrolytic cap. The - side of this cap goes to chassis ground. Be sure you have + and - correct on all electrolytics. It looks like you have two electrolytics with their + sides tied together. Why is that, and where are they in the circuit? There's another underneath them. What are the mfd values and voltage of each?
4. 25Z6: cannot see but there should be an approximately 1000 ohm 1 watt resistor also connected to the + side of the first electrolytic cap and the other end of the resistor should go to the + side of the second electrolytic cap. The - side of this second cap goes to chassis ground. Where does the + side of this second cap go?
5. 25L6's: tube at front of chassis near speaker plug let's call tube A, other one tube B. Tube A has a wire from nearby input transformer going to pin 5 (grid 1.) Should be another transformer wire to pin 5 on tube B? What is resistance between the two pin 5's? Is there a third wire from the transformer on the same side as the other two and if so, where does it go? What is resistance between this wire and each of the two other ones going to the two pin 5's? Transformer can't be open or shorted or there'll be no audio.
6. 25L6's: each tube should have separate wire from pin 3 (plate) to speaker plug. Another single wire from speaker plug to both pins 4 (screen) jumped together. Pin 4 on tube B appears to have another wire which should be going to B+ (the + side of the second electrolytic.) Does it?
7. Unplug the speaker. Determine which wire going to the output transformer on the speaker is the one that goes to pin 4 on tubes A and B. Connect one lead of your ohmmeter to this wire at the plug. Check the ohms between this wire and each of the other two wires going to the transformer in turn. They should be about the same.
8. 25L6's: there is a resistor (what ohms?) from pin 8 (cathode) to ground on tube A, and an electrolytic cap (what mfd. and volts?) from same pin 8 to ground. Is there a similar arrangement on pin 8 of tube B?
That's enough for a while!
