[Guest]

Hello All!

After years of looking at old philcos I finally found one in metro detroit for a steal of a deal! Naturally the transformer capacitors need to be replaced, I just need a little direction on what i need to order. I've been soldering since I was very young, but I haven't worked on anything this old before. I see justradios has a lot of caps for old radios, I'm just curious if anyone can direct me to what I need to order. Thanks!

[Raleigh]

You should get a schematic for your radio. There are some sites on line that have free schematics of uncertain quality. Try http://www.nostalgiaair.org/ . Click on "Resources" and then navigate to Philco Radio and Television Corp, and then look for your model number. The information for your radio does not include a parts list, so...

Nostalgia Air is a great resource, but I'm a big fan of Chuck Schwark's Philco service packages. They are more thorough than most of the free ones on Nostalgia Air and are quite reasonably priced. http://www.philcorepairbench.com/ . Click on "Schematic Info."

I'd get a hold of a parts list before ordering too many parts, but It looks like you need at least 3 aluminum electrolytic capacitors rated 450 Volts with capacitance values of 10, 20, and 25 microfarad. You can probably get these values at Just Radios. You will also need two .01 uf X/Y safety caps, also available from Just Radios. MOST of the rest of the caps can be the polypro or polyester tubular type, or "Orange drops", or some other non-polarized types. I like the yellow mylar tubular type because they are axial leaded like the originals, but others like the orange types. Electrically, it doesn't matter.

Make sure you order caps rated 630 volts. Your radio might have a few 1000 volt caps, which you can also get from Just Radios. Then you might have some mica caps associated with your push-button tuning. I can't tell from the schematic, but you could from a parts list.

If you plan to do much work on radios from around WWII and earlier, Just Radios's capacitor packages are good. I bought their prewar values kits of electrolytics and yellow axial polys. If you don't plan to do much restoration, buy Chuck's package and then order caps for your radio from the parts list.

You can get most common resistor values in 1/2 watt at Radio Shack, but some antique values aren't available.

[Guest]

Thank you so much for your help! I'll look into that stuff right away.