[NorthCapNerd]

Ok, I'm new to the forum and put my introduction in the "Introduce Yourself" section.

I'm restoring a 41-295. I have two of them and I've re-capped and re-sisted one chassis. The output transformer on the restoration unit had three output wires, with one going to the volume/tone pots. Unfortunately, that transformer was burned out, so I swapped in the donor transformer from the other unit which works fine, but must not be original, because it does not have the third wire on the output side. Still the radio works now and sounds good.

I read on some other posts here that the third wire is described as a "feeback tap" and while there are workarounds, it is not entirely necessary and some say it may not even be noticeable. I have not seen a specific workaround spelled out in a way that I feel I could follow through with.

Here's my symptom that I don't think is related, but I'll throw it out here: My big brown volume control seems to have a range from about 25% to 75%. If I roll it all the way to the bottom, the volume is still at about 25% (or at least it doesn't get down to silent) and if I roll it all the way to the top, it doesn't keep getting louder. The bottom end volume control issue makes me think that the gear has slipped a few teeth and even though the dial gets to zero, the potentiometer isn't getting to the bottom end. But I can't tell by looking whether there is an actual "stop" on the volume dial or whether the "stop" is the potentiometer getting to the bottom end of the wiper? The top end issue I thought could be related to not having the feedback tap, but honestly, I don't know enough electronics to make that assumption.

My second significant issue is while both speakers work, they are both torn. One is missing a few chunks, and one is missing a significant amount (like 30-40% including all the way down to the voice coil. I'm game for trying to re-cone the worse speaker and have watched a few videos. What I haven't seen is anybody use any sort of modern foam surround at the top which would seem to make sense. Otherwise, we're just cutting relief slits into the newly crafted cone paper and attaching it directly to the basket. But it isn't very pliable like the original which has the big rib formed into the paper. Assuming I can find anything close to a 14" foam surround, any reason why I wouldn't try to use one?

Final question (for now) is: Is there a process for cleaning the glass tubes to make them shiny like new again but not damage them? I saw the recommendation for Windex, but they seem to be a little more than dusty. Like they are etched from the heat and dust over the years. Would like them to look a clear and shiny again if that's achievable.