Jewel 500

1948 five tube AM BC band radio
Electronic restoration

This was the chassis as received, no speaker, tuning dial unattached, and the tuning dial pointer missing.

After cleaning the chassis, and treating the rust, the next job was to replace the speaker. I found that a 'standard' 4" speaker from a 1950's radio of would fit the screw hole spacing in the chassis and the tuning dial, so it was stolen from that radio for this repair. But, I found that the back of the speaker would not clear the output transformer, then after looking closely at the chassis I realised that a replacement transformer had been fitted. The original transformer had been fitted to the front left side of the chassis where solder can still be seen.

So the transformer was moved back to it's original location, and now the speaker would fit. Some experimentation with spacers was required to get the speaker the correct distance from the radio case and to get the dial string pivots lined up with the tuning condenser. A dial pointer was stolen from a 1940's Philco radio, I'll have to fabricate a replacement later.

Electronic restoration presented no real problems. The mess left by old repairs was cleaned up, electrolytic and paper capacitors, and a couple of resistors, replaced. Fuse and new power cord with a polarized plug fitted. The 12SA7 and 35Z5 tubes had to be replaced, together with the pilot light.

The pictures below show some detail of the chassis before and after the work, before is on the left.