My first Silvertone

[holmesuser01]

If you've got room for it, I'd keep it. It looks fairly simple in design, and should be a good set with a little TLC and parts.

I've never had a set of my own of any kind that had a rectifier installed on the power transformer.

[charokeeroad]

It's a set that I think I can work on. The layout is pretty clean not like a lot of sets that the components are so tightly packed in that they would be difficult to replace. It also looks like a set that would be fun to watch on a reqular basis. If all goes well this will be my first restoration. I don't have much is the way of equipment, just some basics. I'll see how far I get before I have to buy any or take it to an expert for help.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Rather than use the parts list to plan what to buy and replace, I recommend that you look at each part on the chassis itself to read its value and make your own list. That way, you will easily see what type each capacitor is, and you will get lots of hands-on practice with the parts as well. As you do this, also try to look for repairs done in the past-often, shinier solder blobs, parts that look cleaner or not matching most others, parts with wires twisted inline with the old ones, etc. The one item where this will not work is with any electrolytic capacitors that have cardboard covers over them. Their values are marked on the can itself underneath the cardboard.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by charokeeroad

Thanks Tom, I'm guessing that C1A and C1B are in a silver can. Since the cap rating doesn't have a leading decimal point they are Lytics. Same with C2A,B,C. All five should be replace as they all show voltages. They are lytic also, and they are in a silver can to right ? Then C4-C6 Lytics.

C7 through C37 are probably ceramic or mica so those don't necessarily need to be replaced?

Since C38 has a leading decimal point It's not a Lytic. Same with C39. C40 doesn't have a leading decimal point so it would be a Lytic? Same with C41? Each of those shows a voltage rating so they should be replaced?

Thanks again.

C1 and C2 are multi-section caps and are probably in metal cans.

C39 and C40 are NOT lytics they have too high of part numbers to be. They are likely to be ceramics or micas, and I'd not worry about those* unless after replacing the papers, lytics, bad tubes, and off tolerance resistors there are problems in the stages containing those parts.

*The three digit or less caps are almost always micas or ceramic and you need not worry about them, BUT the four digit and higher MAY be paper types with pico farad value labeling (ie 2200pF -> .0022uF/MFD). You will have to be wary as paper types with 4 digit pF labeling often are packed in mica style cases and are tough to tell apart from micas.

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by charokeeroad

Which caps should I replace?

This article explains how to identify old caps and order replacements:

http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm

As Chris noted, you need to look under the chassis in addition to looking at the parts list. The article shows photos of paper capacitors, electrolytics, micas, and so on.

If you have the Sams manual, that usually includes photographs of the chassis with arrows pointing to every component. That will help you match up what you see under the chassis with components in the parts list.

The basic drill is to replace electrolytics and paper caps (including plastic-coated paper caps). Leave mica and ceramic caps alone until you get the TV showing some signs of life.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[charokeeroad]

Thanks everyone. Is there one supplier that carries most of the caps?

[Phil Nelson]

http://justradios.com/ and http://www.mouser.com/ are two good ones.

Phil Nelson

[charokeeroad]

Thanks again.Can you recommend an all around good tube tester that would cover most or all of the tubes I would find on sets pre 53 and might be available on ebay for a good price?

[Sandy G]

You'll do fine ! The Tech Gurus will be here to help you, & when you get it done, we'll ALL be happy for you !!

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by charokeeroad

all around good tube tester

Sencore "Mighty Mite." I spent about $25 for mine. It's new enough that it didn't need any restoration (unlike many old testers you'll see for sale).

It's an inexpensive emission type tester, nothing fancy, but all I want from an everyday tester is a basic dud-or-not reading. Post-WWII TVs don't use the really old tube types (4- or 5-pin, whatever), so there's no advantage to getting a really old tester, which will need the same restoration as a radio or TV of the same vintage.

I also own older, fancier tube testers, but as collectibles, not working tools.

I imagine there are others comparable to a Mighty Mite (there was more than one version, by the way), but I just happen to own this one.

Phil Nelson

[Eric H]

I have an "Accurate Instruments" model 257 Tester I use for most of my testing, it's very compact, new enough to be reliable and simple to use, I paid $10 for it at a swap meet but that was a long time ago.
They turn up on eBay from time to time, usually not for a lot of $$

$53:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...vip=true&rt=nc

This one went for a whopping $173!:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...vip=true&rt=nc

$50ish seems to be the norm.

There's a nice Mighty Mite on eBay with five days to go:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SENCORE-MIGH...item3f14fb41e4

[maxhifi]

I have a TV-7 and an EICO 667 - both are great to have. Ebay sure doesn't have any deals on TV-7s these days, but maybe you can find one through another source like a hamfest, or a craigslist ad. I got both my testers cheaply and use them often. The good thing about having a popular tester, is lots of service info and tube data can be found on the internet.

[charokeeroad]

Thanks Phil, Eric, maxhifi, I found a EICO 667 on ebay 50 dollars with three days left. Just looking at it it doesn't look like it has very many different socket bases. Nothing on the Accurate Insterments model 257, found several Mighty Mites and a very pricy TV-7. The Mighty Mite is probably what I'm looking for. There are several different versions for sale on ebay right now and looks like manuals are available too. This one looks like a good one to go after..http://www.ebay.com/itm/SENCORE-MIGH...fb41e4&afsrc=1

[charokeeroad]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

Rather than use the parts list to plan what to buy and replace, I recommend that you look at each part on the chassis itself to read its value and make your own list. That way, you will easily see what type each capacitor is, and you will get lots of hands-on practice with the parts as well. As you do this, also try to look for repairs done in the past-often, shinier solder blobs, parts that look cleaner or not matching most others, parts with wires twisted inline with the old ones, etc. The one item where this will not work is with any electrolytic capacitors that have cardboard covers over them. Their values are marked on the can itself underneath the cardboard.

I'm having trouble identifying some of the components. I took Phil's suggestion and read through the antiqueradio website on identifying the caps and it helped a lot but I see a number of components that I can't identify. They look like ceramic covered coils, or resistors with coils on them. The check marks on the Sam's sheet are caps that I'm pretty sure I can identify.

The picture that came with my Sams folder isn't clear enough for me to identify all the items I'm looking at. I took some close ups of the area but that didn't help much. Maybe I'm taking the wrong approach. Should I just look for the caps that I know need to be replaced as described in the antiqueradio website? Following the information given in the article and looking at the photo I would say there are no caps that need to be replaced in the area shown. At the same time I think I can identify about eight caps in the picture.

[charokeeroad]

In this photo, just north of the first photo, I can Identify four paper caps that should be replaced, right? The Pyramid being a lytic. What about the dark brown rectangular one in the upper right corner? Is that a plastic covered paper cap or a Mica?