1955 Chevy Radio

OK ~ Can the old radio rancharoo do anything with THIS beast?  Hummm 'cus you want an original in that '55 Chevy?  Sure, Why Not?

Front - I like the cold war CD markers!

 Yup that is a radio all rite....


The main things,  I think,  will be the capacitors, vibrator, and controls.  Hopefully, the tubes should be common ca. 1950's:

Oh yeah man,  we've seen these tubes before down on the R/R.  That should be no problem.  Humm are there any schematics?

Yeap, thar she blows!  Chevy changed the electrical design very little even with the pushbutton version, that almost makes it easy.  Oh, and I found some (mostly un-needed) alignment data!

Test Points/Adjustments

Voltages

This is a great source of old chevy radio stuff right here and now (woof!-woof):

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/radios/index.htm

As they say: "...Stay tuned"  I'll put up some progress reports for those brave enough to follow this rebuild!

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MK-III Panels...Pt. 2

We tried  some different Mk-III layouts:



This one was from Gary's site (with some minor corrections):

 It is pretty amazing to see the size difference from the SCU-009 types, of course the power supply is in another chassis but the combination of the two seems easier to deal with.

The copy of the panel used on the prototype, w/ some slight adjustments:



This version was based on one of the Mk-III examples that uses meters vs. Frequency range for the crystal:

 We are willing to make copies of these panels ~ or even custom~  if anyone is interested?

Eagle Eyes (Pt 2 - The Truck)

The 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel Get NEW Headlamps!

THE BAD:
OK so it was 3 mo. since the Escape got its new eyes. We have not been idle at the radio ranch either...  After one false start from a stupid company (who shall remain nameless).  It is a shame, because they were fast ship and had better Tyco parts...



Update: 5/6:  OK, the first company is in contact with me so we may be able to get the restock fee issue worked out!  Well then,  I still need new fog lites... hint hint ;-)


As it turns out; the Dodge Ram 2500 changed the mounting details of the headlights in 2002.  I am (un)lucky enough to have the transition model year!  The further complication of "Sport" or "non-Sport" packages.  Anyway, as we say down on the Rancho Radio; live and learn, I guess some folks are happy sending the wrong parts and then collecting a 12% restock fee even after their parts match says "perfect match!" I can totally see if I order wrong model year parts or just don't like the looks. OK charge away, but If that is the way they want to do business then fine. I will take mine elsewhere; 'nuff said.

So... if you have a 2002 Dodge Ram  P/U just be careful; it looks like the ones that fit 1994 - 2002 models could fit your particular mounting, especially if you have an early 2002 then it may NOT be able use the 2002 - 2005 headlights.  It is hard to tell when and with what exact production models Dodge rolled in the new mounting.  So just take look at the your headlamp assy's and compare to the pictures before you order.

THE GOOD:
The guys I got these from are actually on e-bay this time (vs. Amazon) HeadlightsDepot The set I got is really a "Sport conversion"  which changes the non-sport package to the cleaner one-piece sport look.   It was listed as "Buy it Now" item number:  380330840315.  


They also come with these harness assemblies (more on these later):

THE UGLY:
Yes folks, this is the high beams!

 Yeah, its time!  There may be a slight hazing?

 Yes, the light is ON!  This all I see in daylight..pretty pathetic!

DO IT:
Complete kit arrives OK and on time by Fed Ex!  (whatever happened to UPS or USPS?) It took a while to arrive thanks to the distance (cost-to-cost) and a few storms along the way. But they got here on Saturday. Now on to removal and install!

The little plastic buttons  which hold the rubber gasket need to be removed.  I had to pry them up a little with a large screwdriver then pulled them out with the needle nose pliers. 
.

Same with the trim fasteners. You may want to pick up a couple of these plastic bumper trim holders.  I think most auto parts stores have them.  It really helps to get the plastic trim out of the way first.

 I also loosened the torx screws on the bottom but this proved to be unnecessary.

Three 3/8" (10mm) cap bolts hold the lamp holders in place. You need a series of extenders to reach these.

The one inside the engine compartment is a bit tight.  This is the one I tried to move the lower trim to get a better view of, you can reach it with a small extender on the socket.  You only get a partial turn on it at that.  

Mercifully, these only take a few turns to loosen...

 Finally, the last bolt requires a longer extension to reach it...

 The parking bulb twists out and unplug the harness on the main bulb by carefully prying the little plastic tabs and before they know what hit them...

...Done!  Yeah, see the light hazing I was complaining about? 

OK a word about the quality...

These assemblies are not as nice as the Eagle Eye replacements I put on the Escape. They are definitely knock offs.  They were shipped, well packed but only poly bags, not the nice protective cling wrap the others had.  The harness wire cables assemblies are not so neatly taped together with electrical tape.   Heatshrink would have been more professional, and the spice jobs on the connectors leave a little to be desired...I don't really like to see wire exposed. but they were only $169.95 with FREE shipping...so what can I say? 

There is a method I found to insert the assemblies...first start in towards the center as shown:




Then slip the assembly to the fender side....attach the parking lamp  (twists in place) and attach the harness.  Reinstall the three bolts and...

 COMPLETE! 
Moving the plastic out of the way really helps, and I am not sure if you can install without loosening it.

 Now, I need to try them after dark and do any alignment. ( I did place some blue painter's tape on the garage door centered in the old beams, but it was too bright when I finished to see even the new lights to see if they needed adjustments)  

 Not too shabby!

 Here is really all the tools you need.  It really helps to move the bumper trim out of the way so be prepared for those plastic nut thingies.

BTW: You will need a TORX driver to adjust the alignment.  I marked the original centers of the beams with some blue painter's tape on my garage door of the old lamps prior to removal - this needs to be done after dark or in subdued light.


WIRING HARNESS:
The harness plugs into the existing plug socket.  I had to scratch my head to decide which bulb was intended for which circuit! There is plenty of slack on both connectors ~ so that is not a clue either. Anyway, the bottom line is it looks like the bulb in front of the smaller (upper) part of the reflector is intended to be the HI BEAM and the bulb in front of the main reflector is intended to be the LOW Beam or normal driving light.  

You can see the three circuits; HIGH (blue) , LOW (White) and two GND (Black) wires.  But with the poor quality of workmanship, I would not rely on the wire colors alone either. You'll know and if you use the wrong connectors it is totally fooked up! You get a dim light out of the top bulb and a bright one on the lower bulb!

It looks like they intended to mark the sockets but forgot the labels on the headlamp assemblies, at least me or my helper** never found any corresponding 9004 / 9007 circuits labeled on the headlight assemblies.

But that does not matter anyway because the thing about these harnesses (IMO): they are not wired correctly!   I see what they were doing, I guess it is OK.  But there are now two halogen bulbs in the new assemblies, which is cool.  One is operated by the  light switch and the other is connected to the BRIGHT switch.  

As wired --

Note: they grounded the center pin on the second connector but it shouldnot make any difference as long as the circuit is only connected to half of the filiments...

So, the point is; the way they have it wired only ONE BULB comes on at a time I want TWO! Even though I do not use the high beams much I want plenty of light when I do.  It just looked strange to me to see only the small part of the reflector illuminated with the high beams on.

~ that turns out to be totally inadequate for real country road driving, or retina burning "...do you see me now?" ...lights!  We need both bulbs on by using both filaments in the lower bulb.You'll need to re-build  new harness assemblies to correct this.


So, what is needed? To make  the harness to run the main bulb to both beams to the bulb's dual-beam filament (which is not even connected on this harness) If we connect both normally the bulb turns on but dimmed. When and we switch to the brights, that second filament turns on HIGH (just as it was in the original assembly)

Now I need to figure what I will do with the second bulb.  There are two options:

 1) simply run two dual filament bulbs in parallel.  This would make with both bulbs remaining on in LOW and in high as well in bright!

That'll be bright alright!  ...but the reflector on the upper bulb seems aimed high so it may not be good for normal driving.



2) The second option would be to connect only the BRIGHT circuit to one of the filaments on the HI bulb, this way the upper reflector is illuminated, as well as the original bright filaments will come on, in this way I can control the brightness of the second bulb.

Connector on RT is the  high beam 

Of course, that means locating some of these connectors and/or pins! That may turn out to be more cost as much as the assemblies...I suspect the connectors (new) are in the $20 range.  

The way I may do it is to simply splice the second connector for the high beam into the existing plugs...

That way the lower bulb is on both HI/LOW and the upper bulb then turns on also when HI beam is on!

It is an easy install for the second option, just cut out one of the connectors and splice it in, but using the pins from one plug to add the third circuits for the first option may work as well by splicing all three in.  That way both bulbs are always on either HI or LOW settings ( If I can remove two of the pins from the other housings  --they usually have a special tool to do this but they look like they will come out with a small screwdriver by pushing a tab on the pin) Anyway - we will update this story when we get one working!

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**Hardly anything for my helper to do but watch out for bunnies and lizards on a sunny Sunday *Mayday* morning!

Yup, none bothered me at all..

Later!



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Mk-III - Chassis Parts

I finally got the chassis and panel mechanical parts fitted today:

 The plate choke lead eyelet has been moved.  The 20 Watt dropping resistor is the large resistor mounted in the lower left of the photo.  The 12 Watt resistor was originally intended to be under the chassis, and still will fit but I am concerned about a few clearances so I put it on topside for now, I don't think is looks too bad there?  The grommet on the left is for HT leads and the one on the right is for the keying side of the 12 W resistor and the meter leads. The eyelet on the far right is intended for the Crystal socket's leads and the OSC INDIC lamp leads, which may be passed though the grommet as well, depending on the space.

The sockets are in place.  I have #6 Screws with some homemade about 1/8" brass spacers on the porcelain 807 tube socket.  This is to give more clearance for the top grid cap connection of this rather large tube.  The 6V6 octal socket is also  temporally in place. It was originally intended to be riveted into the chassis.  The holes may now be too large to accept the rivets correctly, and on second thought I should have simply used  #4 flat head screws in order to pick up chassis ground,  The other #4 screws used for the solder tags were recessed and fit nicely into the chassis, they should provide good ground connections.

The wiring side layout turned out to be pretty clean.  Each circuit (the Oscillator and Power Amplifier) have adequate solder tags and grounding points, which should provide a good clean layout, both mechanically and RF wise,  for the remainder of the components and wiring harness. 

In this view looking to the front of the chassis shows the oscillator coilform in place.  I decided to try a toroidal core for this coil. It is non-period (not from ca. 1939) but the inductance is easy to control and it will produce a good stable coil with a well contained RF field.  I can always replace it with a standard cylindrical coil later if I ever want to. 

Looking to the rear the also non-period BNC RF connectors are in place, one is for antenna and the other for the receiver.  The 1/4" key jack is on the far right. The large power connector is a 4-pin Cinch connector.

It took a while to locate this connector.  I originally intended to house the 20-Watt dropping resistor in the external power supply and run both the HT supplies  (620V HT for the Power Amp and 230V Oscillator supply HT-LOW) to this chassis. 

Note:  I also used the male or plug version (series 304-P) of this connector as a saftey feature.

From the front, the openings for the panel controls can be seen.

The tubes and coil plugs are shown ~ test fitted!  The solder tag in the front center will be where the front panel's shield connects to the chassis ground. 

Here is the almost complete front panel and the chassis.  The 5" x 7" compact size of this unit was one of the reasons I wanted to build this transmitter.  Also note they are sitting on top of the companion receiver; The 1935 Black Chassis HRO! 

The front panel with the crystal holder and OSC INDIC bulb in place.  The controls are not mounted yet as they pass though both the chassis and panel so they are mounted last, as you can see by the marks around the holes, they have been test fitted to the chassis before. 

Also, HRO style knobs still need to be located but these knobs from BC-610 TUs are the exact same size.

The tin shield is shown now in place.  This shield is actually made from 20AWG steel plate, it is intended to be grounded to the chassis. A "safely circuit" capacitor will be required to isolate the high voltage DC from these capacitors.

 Also shown is my home build crystal socket.  It is the same design I used on my Paraset so the crystals are also interchangeable...