How to repair a broken Vintage Tube AM radio volume control power switch method

Another cool repair situation hits the bench of D-Lab electronics. This time a flaky power switch ganged on the back of the volume potentiometer. Normally, this is no big deal, however in this case the pots shaft was approx 2" long. Try to find a replacement these days with the spline shaft for the knob, NOT! Well, I have a possible solution. Watch this video, pour a glass of wine, open your mind, enjoy the vintage technology. Thanks for your support. TD

[@12DGJB21]

That radio has a gorgeous cabinet and deserves to be fully restored. Thank you for sharing the tip about extending the length of pot shafts.

[@garysmith8455]

Terry, always love the element of VINO in your videos. And those would be wine 'serviettes' ..... Enjoy, my fellow ham (O: Now, back to fixin' a radio........

[@preiter20]

Very tenuous situation for D-Lab when Marsha intercepts the mail! Oh my... I like the proper wine safety guidance. No brass dust in your wine! I also like the solution to the potentiometer issue.

[@iangray7410]

I always enjoy your presentations, no matter how corny. Or viney. Like they say : "Hava Negila, have two Negilas have three or four.."

[@jcampbell2481]

Great job on the repair! Yes those brass couplers come in handy. My fellow hams may be aware that the Kenwood TS 830S often has a broken band switch coupler. It breaks because its nylon. My 830S had the broken coupler. Purchased a brass coupler from K4EAA and replaced the broken nylon coupler with a nice brass coupler. Thanks to K4EAA. John VA6JRC

[@daveogarf]

Extremely clever MacGyvering, Terry!

[@rciancia]

I was worried that Marcia was going to give you a wallop with a boat anchor... thank god its only wine napkins.... LOL Good stuff Terry... easy fix for sure.

[@barbmelle3136]

From Leo: Good instruction on saving the shaft with a coupler. When it was still worth the effort to repair portable televisions, I ran into a lot of similar problems. Many times I would pry the back housing and switch off of a new potentiometer assembly, and crimp it onto the original potentiometer wafer and shaft. That may help you some time.

[@hestheMaster]

I really hate those cut off discs. They also make reinforced cutoff discs which are very strong and slightly thicker but boy I have never had one break on me. This is a Wards Airline 64WG-1809A. Amazing that it works with all those crapacitors in there!

[@danielthomas791]

...nothing worse than dusty wine...great video, as always......THANKS....

[@elkabong6429]

Nice job, Terry!

[@TheRadioShop]

Great tip Terry. Thanks for sharing that. BTW, sent you a mail but now sure you received it. Have a great week.

[@RODALCO2007]

Great repair.

[@richardreiter9821]

Hi, thanks again for the continuing education. See you next time. Rich AC2JD

[@allanjohnston8049]

Awesome tip bud I have run into that issue but I dont have your old stock of couplers thanks for sharing

[@electronicdiy3738]

Nice workshop and professional job,you are apparently specialized in antique devices,why not repair modern electronics?it would increases your viewers and makes your channel more popular.

[@CLP2102]

another excellent video, i learn something every time.

[@billyrey9679]

I want my shop to look like yours! Say hello to your family. Who does you nail’s?

[@user-bg3fi8gy7w]

In japan, we often use normal aluminum pipe inside 6.5mm and glued with instant adhesive. It was easy and low cost, off course strength is nothing to be desired.

[@stephanc7192]

Great video!

[@RobertKohut]

Nice!! You got the 'shaft' on that repair... :-)

[@jimburns348]

A great bottle of thunderbird wine.

[@d-labelectronics]

I would have a hard time drinking it, but I bet people would love it featured!

[@circuitblog01]

Nice video my freind god blesd you and bless your family

[@ewerton8463]

i laughed so hard when i noticed you were shaking while opening the box

[@d-labelectronics]

Marcia does that to me...

[@RobertKohut]

Nice!! That was a close one, you were lucky to 'coast' through that. Too funny... :-) The Post Master must give a wink... LOL

[@hpelisr]

Great modification,

[@lwilton]

I'd bet that the original repairs included the new dial cord, fixing a tear in the speaker cone, replacing the main filter cap with that universal replacement cap, and possibly replacing that 39 ohm 2W 10% resistor. It looks too new for the rest of the chassis. Probably last repaired in the first half of the 1960s. Interesting, that radio must have got A LOT of use. The J-hook in the wire to the volume pot means that pot was almost certainly replaced once before. And that 1.5K 1W resistor also looks like it was replaced, with a big solder blob on the tube pin.

[@reginaldoc.6357]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. I always watch your videos here in Brazil and I like it. 73! PY2YRC.

[@d-labelectronics]

Excellent! More to come, my friend

[@1967250s]

I am surprised you did not open up the pot and switch the shafts. Have you ever done that? Those couplers can come loose, too.

[@d-labelectronics]

The shafts are normally a press fit. Plus different manufacturers use different construction methods. Easier to install a coupler

[@leannmeixner8073]

The shaft coupler trick you do will work for long shafts but most are shorter and there is not enough room for the coupler. I can help, see my comment below....

[@pibbles-a-plenty1105]

Nice job but I would first have attempted to repair the faulty switch before replacing the volume control with a NOS pot, the likes of which are near impossible to find. You never know what you can fix if you don't try. Viva la radio!

[@joeosborne2518]

Good tip. Thank you sir.

[@leannmeixner8073]

I can supply just the power switches for most controls too.... see below

[@macgvrs]

Thanks for the tip. Could be useful at some point.

[@notforkids4796]

I had a similar moment, when one of my subs sent me electronic nose clippers

[@fabinhoosmar]

Muito bom trabalho, como sempre

[@Only1Shadow]

I have a parts drop for my work and a PO box for personal mail at the same UPS Store and my friends know it. Been waiting for somebody to ship me something embarrassing for ages... but they also know I can one-up just about any practical joke, and they're justifiably frightened.

[@tpcdude]

i bought a radio the other day and nothing is made in USA, it said "built in antenna" and i don't even know where antenna is!

[@Sergio_wolfgang88]

Hahahaha jesus! You got me right there for a moment

[@83roadstar]

Naughty Betty,that's funny!

[@dhpbear2]

8:10 - Wouldn't it be easier to just replace the switch rather than replace the whole assembly?

[@d-labelectronics]

If you had an exact match, yes, not the case here

[@DennisMurphey]

I had a Grundig 7005 and the phono would not fire up. the on off switch was dead, but it was so unique I had to drill out the rivets and clean the guts real good then screw back together with #2 screws. reinstall and viola it was also repaired. Was very happy to have seen enough of you video to give courage and an idea what to do. My radio expert did the power front end but did not want to touch the phono. Feels good. this a terrible video of a test after the repair, kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnfNdYFvmr56bcU your videos have helped so much in knowing where to look and how to fix stuff, thank you D-Lab

[@MickeyD2012]

Your wife is a good sport, LOL.

[@JosephLorentzen]

With digital A.M. very likely and supposedly incompatible with analog, what is the point in keeping these old rigs alive?

[@d-labelectronics]

Still have the old style stations here. Ive never heard digital AM

[@mfbfreak]

In the USA you can legally operate your own little AM radio station. Everywhere else you can also do that, if your transmitter is small enough not to be noticed. I use one of my old radios as a loudspeaker for my computer. Aside from that, fixing stuff is fun.

[@JosephLorentzen]

@@mfbfreak But the fun of DXing with these will be gone.

[@mfbfreak]

@@JosephLorentzen That's definitely true and sad. But with radio as a whole kind of dying, not much we can do about it. In my age bracket, broadcast radio is mostly cast aside and replaced by on demand music sources, even in the car. Still, there are quite a few stations on the air we can enjoy, and the radio itself is usable as an amplifier when used with a modulator (or the appropriate safety transformer)

[@Brandon-youtube]

Oh my you couldn't pay me enough to work on that rats nest

[@Mr71chevyvan]

i would think a vtvm would do the job better :>).

[@uwezink]

Why is it that the majority of guys working in Americas "Consumer Electronic Service Business" have no real training or very limited knowledge about the fundamentals of electronic. The amount of "How to fix an AM Radio" videos always explaining to replace capacitors 1,2,3,5,6, resistor 2 and 3 or tubes seems to underline that fact. Never heard a technician with real training/schooling saying "just replace all capacitors" or "replace the tube because it's not glowing". You get a detailed explanation like "The mixers oscillator is not working because the filter-capacitor for UA is defective and therefore pulls down the anode voltage UA for the oscillator to operate." or "The audio output distorts after a while because the couple capacitor is leaky and passes some of the preamps DC to the control grid G1 of the output tube moving the bias to positive and therefore raises or overdrives the anode current which results as distorted audio signal, sometimes also indicated by overheating of the anode plate". Try separating your videos by sharpening your fundamental knowledge while moderating your repair effort. My take, making the video clip 6* of 10*, technical expertise 4* of 10* overall "Average Good"

[@d-labelectronics]

Yep, Im picking up what your putting down. This channel is dedicated to common sense troubleshooting & repair, not overloading my viewers with high power BS. I get enough of that at corporate america. There are plenty of channels that will pitch that at you so they feel good about themselves. D-Lab is the common folk electronics channel & I will not change that. TD

[@uwezink]

Oh I see, just another PG13 tinker channel, ok than ...

[@120barrywilde]

Brain juice 😆😆