Zenith g724

Ok, I took the switch apart, and repaired it. I replaced the selenium rectifier, with a diode, and a 15 watt ,50 ohm resistor. The voltages are very close! I don't see any symptoms of silver mica disease. I learned a lot about troubleshooting, by getting it playing, without changing out,everything in it. I have since changed all the capacitors, and a few resistors.

@Rickey wrote:Here's a photo of the switch. Note the arrow.

Some "tech", in the past ,had put the wire from the mains from the top of the switch,to the bottom. This left the radio on all the time, virtually. The "tech" did this to compensate for a bad switch. Learned a lot, doing this set. These are good sounding sets, and very good reception on FM, which is a little unusual, for this era.

Rickey,

I'm glad you got it working. Hats off to you to go the extra mile and do "surgery" on the switch. The fruits of your labor paid off. Actually Zeniths of the late 1940s thru the late 1960s dominated in the area of excellent FM reception. Many have some not so pleasing designs (boxy, large cabinets), but the quality and reception is fantastic.

@Dr. Radio wrote:Rickey,

I'm glad you got it working. Hats off to you to go the extra mile and do "surgery" on the switch. The fruits of your labor paid off. Actually Zeniths of the late 1940s thru the late 1960s dominated in the area of excellent FM reception. Many have some not so pleasing designs (boxy, large cabinets), but the quality and reception is fantastic.

Thanks, Dr. Radio, I've learned a lot with this radio!

Just checking voltages ,and the voltages on pins 5 and 6 of the 12au6 read 45 volts ,not the required sixty. The voltage is close on the side of the resistor coming from the 1000 ohm resistor, but only the 45 volts at the 12au6. Interesting, my DVM reads the 60 volts for just a moment, and then drops to 45. The radio plays loud and clear on FM, and receives many stations. The radio plays loud and clear on AM, but only receives our local station. Earlier in my rebuild it was doing better on AM.
Thanks. The SAMs schematic shows 60 volts, the NA one 54.
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByModel/536/M0025536.pdf

Uh, oh... You got an easier radio to work on?
I know the problem, and, you ain't gonna like it..........
This radio is among the first of radios put out by them that has built in capacitors inside the bottom of the I F transformers. Apparently the silver mica caps in the bottom of the AM transformers have gotten leaky..
They are built into the the base that holds the terminals.
The only way they can be fixed is to remove the transformer, carefully take the base apart, cleanning the corosion off, and, re assembling it, then, putting it back together in the chassis.
It's called silver mica migration.
Sorry to give you the bad news.
Bill Cahill
They can be fixed, but, it's a royal pain..........

Sort of what I figured too, Bill ! Is the voltage falling suddenly a sign?
Thanks!

It can be becuse positive voltage is leaking to other areas that shouldn't have it.
Bill Cahill