Philco 38-3 ?

[butch4695]

i hit a couple of yard sales yesterday and came across an old philco 38-3 and the guy was asking $5 for it , so i said what the heck and loaded on my truck and took it home . he said it was working about a year ago and he put a new power cord on it .well the power cord he put on was a new cord spliced onto the old cord and the old cord part looked to be in good shape and the splice looked to be safe enough to try it out . so i plugged it in and turned it on , and it worked , i was listening to a local broadcast of a minor league baseball team for a couple of minutes before i noticed that it started to smell like it was getting hot . so i turned it off and unplugged it . i am a total newbie to tubes and radios like this , so what i am asking is what should i do with a piece of equipment like this if i would want to get it back to safe listening operation , as i really don`t know anything about them ?

[truetone36]

Nice radio. The fact that it works is a good sign that there are no problems with the transformer, etc. The first thing you should do is replace all of the paper capacitors as well as the electrolytic capacitors. The electrolytics are the silver cans on top of the chassis. This radio will be a good performer for years to come after a recap.

[butch4695]

where would i get the proper caps for this ?

[radiotvnut]

First off, nice radio & you did not go wrong at $5. The tubes alone are worth that!

You can get capacitors from www.justradios.com, www.tubesandmore.com, or www.radiodaze.com. You should also get a schematic for your radio. Try www.nostalgiaair.org. When changing those electrolytics, observe polarity. If these are wired in backwards, they may explode. You don't have to worry about polarity with the paper capacitors.

You should also invest in a can of Deoxit and clean all the controls and the tube sockets.

[Tom Bavis]

The Philco service bulletin for this set is on my web page: http://www.audiophool.cjb.net/Philco.html

You'll need the DjVu browser plug-in from Lizardtech.com to view or print it.

[butch4695]

thanks tom !

[KOGO600]

I have a 38-3 PC with the Capehart Phono changer that is stock. Great radio the cabinet for the phono model was made by radiobar.

But it still could be a transformer buring away, I had a 1938 Zenith child's console that I was listening to, and I smelled something burning, and IT WAS the power transformer. Take the chassis out and turn it on and look to see where it is burning (at this point you can't do much more damage to it if it is the transformer), it can be a resistor that a mouse urinated on, it could be a cap, but it can definetly be a transformer! Don't rule it out.

If you are going to replace the electrolytics OBSERVE THE POLARITY! get plus and minus right, look it up on the schematic because the positive sometimes goes to ground on a Philco.

[gadget73]

Zeniths were more known for transformer failure, though apparently its due to a funky rectifier tube that they used. The rectifier would short and blow the transformer. Leaky capacitors will also cause additional load on the transformer which can take it out.