tube type radios

[Booger]

had to get to my non working vacuum wiper motor which meant removal of my non working radio. 

first a general shout out to you wise old geezers that got my wiper motor going with some MMO. and it works great!

found some great info from  the stovebolt.com  guys troubleshooting old radios. no I dont want a blue tooth gizmo.Try it out before you hand over your radio to one of the few remaining tube geniuses out there, as they can get spendy. worth a try

[keithb7]

I replaced all the capacitors and tubes in my stock 1953 radio. Some out of spec resistors too., Now it works fine and I get the one AM station that is left around here. I work M-F so I tend to get out cruising on Sat and Sunday. Saturday the station plays paid infomercials all day. I get hours of why I should buy little blue pills or rogaine. No thanks. Sunday morning it broadcasts church praise services. Sunday afternoon is football or hockey games. Nothing there interests me. What old car owner, who looks after, maintains or restores his own cars is into professional sports? Not many. 

So yes, it is cool that I fixed my old AM radio. Was it a good use of my time and money? That's questionable. My next car is getting a Blue-tooth sound board. $10/month for Spotify gets me virtually every song over the past 100 years. Great set lists. Music that I want to hear when I am out cruising. 

Edited February 26, 2020 by keithb7

[casper50]

I wish that I'd added FM when I had mine done.  The only AM stations around me are strictly sports talk.  Can't listen to it.

[Los_Control]

I am really looking forward to fixing mine. My other truck and wifes car both have new stereos/cd players, and they are tuned to the local am radio station.

It may sound strange in 2020, but living in a small town there is no local fm station, closest one is over 60 miles away.

And am lucky they play decent country western, a mix from the 50's to modern ... I get to hear the local police reports, who got drunk last night .... local sales, news reports .... My fm stereo has been on am station for the past 2+ years.

[Booger]

hey, no doubt am frq programming sucks. Im lucky to live around a large metro that has am stuff. Its nice to listen to a ballgame. thats about all thats out there for sure. Like LC sez theres some stuff out there, but not much, (chick talk, ligion,) I just want my stock stuff to work, before I get all tech'd out. Anytime I can fix sumpin myself iz cool

[Merle Coggins]

1 hour ago, keithb7 said:

... What old car owner, who looks after, maintains or restores his own cars is into professional sports? Not many.

 

This one is... Follow my Green Bay Packers closely. Also a big baseball fan, especially the Milwaukee Brewers. But then again, I'm a truck guy, not a car guy. ??

[JBNeal]

Bob Uecker on the radio? That must be a hoot and a half...Astro radio has been so-so for years, Ranger broadcasts get really interesting when they are getting clobbered cuz it turns into story time and joke contests...same goes for Cowboy games, especially preseason...what AM stations remain hereabouts are sports talk, dittoheads, tribbleheads, Tejano, and the holy roller channel...FM has 2 old country western stations that fade out on windy days, a so-so rock station, and alotta trash...as much as I'd like to fix up one of the tube radios on the shelf, I'd rather just clean up the exterior and get some FM board with an aux.port to hook up to the mp3 player on my phone so I can enjoy my cruise with less static

 

 

[Sniper]

I have been known to put the Texas Rangers on the garage TV while I am working on my cars.  I don;t really watch it, just listen to it.  takes me back to the days of my youth listening to Harry Caray shouting "Holy Cow" when the Sox or the Cubbies did something worthwhile. 

 

For sound in the Plymouth I added a couple of speaker to the rear shelf below the package tray and a bluetooth amp to drive them.  I use the old wiper switch on the dash to turn the amp on/off.  Unless you open the trunk no one can see anything.  And when Zeppelin is blasting no one suspects the old car of rocking.

 

 

[Merle Coggins]

13 hours ago, JBNeal said:

Bob Uecker on the radio? That must be a hoot and a half...

 

Yup... I was listening to him calling a spring training game just yesterday. He's winding down a bit in the last few years, and doesn't travel for road games anymore. (He's 86 years old) He just does home games, but it's always a treat listening to him call a game.

[rekbender]

I pulled my non-working Model 807 radio last Monday to adjust the cowl vent. Since its was out, why not open it up and have a look? The "OFF" and "DIAL" pushbuttons weren't working - the soft metal arms that work the switches had been bent, so I straightened them, and the pulled the vibrator and tubes to clean the pins. When it was back together, it actually turned on, hummed, and started to play. Someone had the pointer string loop wrapped backwards around the dial stem, and that was corrected. Two new light bulbs and the dial lit up.There was a small screw on the bottom of the chassis that looked like and adjustment of some sort, so I tuned in a powerful station (WLW) and turned the screw - it played louder. Wow! There appear to be two exterior antenna trim screws, but only the bottom screw had any effect (the trim instruction label is mostly missing). The speaker output was badly distorted so I replaced it with an old Ford 4Ω speaker. With the antenna trimmed, the radio has been playing on the bench for four hours now. Adjusting the preset buttons has no effect, so I'm limited to manual tuning. This is way more than I ever expected from the old radio, so it's going back in dash for the time being. At this point, I don't have the heart to alter it. Any advice on a procedure for setting the preset buttons?

[JerseyHarold]

You pull off (straight out) any one of the middle 5 buttons and there is a small knob inside.  You turn the knob to the station you want, and then put the button back on.  As I recall, each button has a range of frequencies.  You can't/shouldn't (let's say) use the far left button for a station on the far right of the dial.  Your owner's manual should have the procedure in it.   If I can dig up one of my manuals I'll post a pic of the page.

[rekbender]

JerseyHarold,

Thanks for the info. I'll try it later this afternoon.

[50mech]

For about $20 you can get a low power AM transmitter that plugs into any headphone jack (or rca)  to transmit whatever you'd like from another device. (Little FM radio,iPod,phone,zero..whatever) Then listen to it through your nice old tube radio.