This radio reminded me when I was a kid and we had a 1952 two tone blue Ford. It was the first car we had with a radio. It absolutely fascinated me to the point that I'd sneak out and listen to it without the engine running and the battery would be toast in minutes. It was so comforting listening to the vibrator purring away making magic. It was the closest I could imagine a kitten must feel when hearing it's mother's heartbeat. Naturally the unit was superhot on the reception side. It even made static sound better. TY for the follow up on the manual. Definitely the cherry for the sundae.
3 years ago | 3
"20 seconds for the receiver to reach operating temperature"...ummm, hello? Am I microwaving a burrito? I need my Chuck Berry NOW.
3 years ago | 16
I miss the days that electronic device manuals came with a schematic. Now all you get is a couple pages of questionably accurate incomplete information in Engrish.
3 years ago | 21
I would like to say, a big thank you. It was a video i enjoyed watching, i am the owner of a Philips 6v car radio, that got a solid state vibrator replacement made to fit the original can. There was a way to convert it to both positive earth or negative earth.. same for 6v to 12v. It is history worth preserving.
3 years ago | 1
I remember way back when that even cheap transistor radios had a schematic glued to the inside of their back covers, and usually also with the owner's manual. Those were the days!!
3 years ago | 10
Oh wow. I had completely forgotten about the antenna trimmer on old AM car radios. It made such a huge difference, and yet so many people, including installers, didn't even know it was there. I wonder how many people were driving around with lack-lustre reception for the sake of a little tweak.
3 years ago | 1
That’s so great you can find original tech information for something so obsolete! That’s part of the restoration process.
3 years ago | 2
More than disappointed that you did not decide to do a full restoration on this beauty. Bet a lot of 50 -60s Ford owners would pay top dollar for this.
3 years ago | 6
For the vibrator thing, it could be done with a 555 and a couple of power transistors, or maybe, just power transistors to drive the current of the transformer using the vibrator as a signal generator.
3 years ago | 4
You are a Very knowledgeable engineer. Therefore, you are numero 1.
3 years ago | 0
It's sad that nowadays even with a schematic people wouldn't be able to fix newer stuff
3 years ago | 3
I remember a 20 inch CRT tv I purchased back in 1996 did come with a schematic folded up and sealed A3 sized with the instruction manual booklet....one time the tv broke down while I was away and it got repaired with out the presents of the schematic
3 years ago | 0
How odd. I don't see "Dealer service item only." written anywhere.
3 years ago | 11
That is extremely cool, I always wondered how those automatic buttons worked
3 years ago | 0
Owners manuals these days only tell you how to throw it away kind of sad I guess but at least you found a nice manual and call radio to bed at six for the volt though
3 years ago | 3
I had a feeling that the radio was positive ground. I wonder if thats what made the electrolytic can short. Reversed polarity could definitely cause the cap to draw a heck of a current too on the vibrator contacts. Found that out the hard way with my GE 250 radio.
3 years ago (edited) | 2
shango066
I found the original owners manual for the Zenith tube car radio from my latest video here are five pictures of it
3 years ago | [YT] | 618