Repair Of A 1940 Philco 40 180 Tube Radio

This Philco console is in for repair. Let's see what it'll take to get this really nice set back working again.

[@dfirth224]

At age 13 in 1963 our next door neighbor gave me her old 1937 Philco console. My dad took it to the TV-Radio repair shop around the corner and they still had some old 1930s tubes on hand. In high school I did more work on it.

[@hestheMaster]

Great analysis of why you didn't get a signal. All paper caps should be replaced and the electrolytics too. Check for out of tolerance resistors then do an alignment and it should work and sound great for many years. Transformer operated sets should get a properly sized inline slo-blow fuse. The owner should be happy with all your dilengence on the excellent chassis work!

[@richardhines]

Nice job on the radio. Those push buttons must have been replaced with repros since the originals are always crumbled.

[@batman387]

Great video. I learned a lot. My M/W 62-329 took me a good month to get working. Thanks & take care! 🤠

[@mattkolb1191]

Wow, I wish they all looked like that one. Looks well cared for for sure. Sounds like a solid performer as well. Nice work!

[@patfromamboy]

I have several of them including the one my grandparents bought new in 1940. I wanted to work on a few to learn before I worked on the historic family radio. I bought several of the table top models because I am hooked and they use a lot of the same parts. I got a few up and running. They are fun to work on. I had a professional work on two of them thinking that I could see how it’s done but it was very expensive and I think mine are better!

[@MowerJunkie]

Nice old radio! Thanks for sharing the repair.

[@AllAmericanFiveRadio]

Nice work and troubleshooting, I'm sure the customer will enjoy it. When capacitors turn into resistors,,, another book title.

[@45AMT]

HA HA! That'd be a great book!

[@edmccormick8024]

another great job ive got a lot of old stuff been collecting 42 years

[@skullheadwater9839]

I have the exact radio, i bought it for $70 a few years ago, there was one bad tube maybe a 7B7 and broken dial string.. i reformed the caps and it waka perfect. Oh and the buttons had turned into what looked like chewed up red gummy bears.

[@gordondolph7938]

Great video. The converter tube was changed from a type 7J7 loktal to a 6J8G octal beginning with production run 4 of this model.

[@THOMMGB]

Thanks for a very informative Radio Rescue. That original radio looks amazing for its age! I'm curious if you have a label inside the cabinet that shows the correct tubes and their location on the chassis? Sometimes you'll find someone installed a totally inappropriate tube that sorta works and they leave it at that. Right now (01/31/23) you're at 6.99K subscribers, so congratulations are in order, I would think. 7K is so close you can taste it!

[@ESDI80]

I have that same radio! Hopefully I can get around to restoring it soon.

[@janbill79]

I found a philco 1940-156 built a little diff. Has the whole top cover lift up Because it has a turn table in it ( or did have It's missing) but about same radio as other 1940 thumb wheels instead of knobs for volume ect. It's 4 hrs away could,t talk my wife into saying go ahead . I said it's only1 dollar/ but 4 hrs away as gas is $40 + dollars

[@a587g]

Philco made a few variations of this chassis from 1939-42. I've got a 40-190, which is this set in a different cabinet, as well as a 41-255 I recently restored on my channel. Both great playing sets. Philco used a strange implementation of push-pull with no phase inverter, but it works well and sounds nice. You're lucky you didn't have to deal with bad rubber wiring, but with the cabinet as nice as this I would think it was kept in a climate controlled environment. The other common issue is an open output transformer, in about 50% of these sets they're open. These are common sets, but they play extremely well and with this being in such nice shape, I'm sure the owner will really enjoy listening to it for years!

[@nicklikesradio]

Is the 40-150 the same chassis in a table top model?

[@seantonnesen1636]

Hey Mr Radio Rescue, Thanks for all of your great videos. I am working on rescuing a GE 547PH with SMD. I attempted to replace the mica caps like you did in a previous video, but ended up with a complete miserable failure. My question to you is do you have and are you willing to part with a replacement IF can that will work in the radio? There are no radio swap meets in my area so old radios are very hard to come by without going to the thieves at EBAY.

[@45AMT]

I don't know if I have any. I'd have to see the style can you have. email me @ [e-mail] send me a pic of what you have.

[@vicmabus1532]

Nice!

[@greggaieck4808]

Radio rescue I like your utube videos

[@johnnoland4249]

If you don"t replace the filters you run the risk of taking out the field coil, then your up a real creek!

[@1950sFordGuy]

I have one of these but the buttons on the front are all ruined, is there anywhere i can get new buttons for it?

[@Opigoink]

Where can you find one of those for sale?

[@fredmartin153]

I find that common capacitor values are not that common today, so some of the values like .003 mf or .005 mf can be replaced with a more common value that close, as they are not that critical in coupling or tone circuits. However, I would not substitute different values into the RF section where capacitor values and coil values are critical. I also put a fuse in the chassis a also a 3 prong power line cord

[@45AMT]

Replacing a .05 with a .047 and so on, makes no difference regardless the section of the radio. As long as the values are close. It makes no difference. As far as the power cord. I don't replace them unless the customer wants it. Many of my customers are collectors and like the originals.

[@fredmartin153]

@@45AMT The majority of the radios I have restored and it's more than 25, are mine that are attic or basement finds, and I would not think about plugging it in without replacing the line cord . A 3 prong cord adds a needed ground for the chassis for better performance as well as protection. The radios that I have restored for others, they didn't care about how authentic the line cord was, they were thrilled about their 80 year old radio working after rotting away in their basement or grandparents basement.

[@gtrplayr1976]

I know this is kind of old ,but I am working one that belongs to an old friend ,and I have some questions. I have replaced all the wax ,and electrolytic caps as well as resistors ,and some wiring. I had some help from a gentleman that walked me through an alignment as well. I cannot get any stations as of yet. (could be where I'm located partially.) There is something that I'm curious about ,and I'm trying to confirm it with someone that actually has a 40-180. On the one I'm working on there is a connection that that goes from the heater wire to the ANT terminal. Why is that there? Why put AC voltage on the ANT terminal? Out of curiosity I disconnected that wire. I was getting zero radio noise ,so I connected a 20' wire to terminal #1 on the four terminal strip. I can get one station that barely comes in ,and it's noisy. Does this radio you have repaired have that same connection to the heater? Thanks !

[@45AMT]

This was a customers radio that has long been picked up.

[@jim8230]

I don't know what the issue is, but this is now the second video of yours that refuses to load. No other video has this problem. I even turned off the ad blocker which allowed the first ad, but not the video itself. Obviously this is something gong on here since I see all of the comments. I'd actually love to watch the video...

[@45AMT]

Sorry.I don't know. No problems here. Nobody else has mentioned anything.

[@jim8230]

@@45AMT So, now I know what it is. After a couple of other videos had the same problem, I looked up Windows 11 video playback issues. The issue Windows 11 in Firefox (and Chrome) all of a sudden doesn't like having the playback set to auto on 1080p. I had to move it down to 720 for the videos to load. This is obviously a known issue with Windows 11. Anyway...tonight I should be able to finally watch your video.

[@LanceHall]

I have a 41-280

[@patfromamboy]

I have one that year that’s probably the same one or close to yours. I found it in Portland and the same family had it since new. They said it didn’t work but it looked like new. I took it home and hit it a few times and moved the knobs and it started working great! It’s a 10. 50 dollars so I felt guilty and paid them 75.

[@THOMMGB]

@@patfromamboy I hope your radio is still working. If it hasn't been serviced, it really needs to be. Replace all the wax and electrolytic capacitors and out-of-tolerance resistors. It should be serviced just like this video shows.

[@patfromamboy]

Exactly right. I have about 10 of them between the full sized and desktop versions. I’ve replaced capacitors in a couple and it really helped. Thanks

[@petepeterson4540]

I got one just like it ours is little worse for wear

[@greggaieck4808]

Radio rescue the owner vintage philco 40 180 shortwave radio Receiver from 1940 is cool

[@rogertyler3237]

It Could Be A Bad Speaker.

[@jtr760]

Do you buy radios? I have a large console aja radio I'd like to find a good home for. Let me know if you are interested

[@1957kwick]

Even when these things are working to there full potential they still don’t sound that great😞