VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 1941 Radio Lighted Dial, No Sound

I have a 1941 Master Deluxe. I removed the radio, and now sitting on my bench. When the radio was in the car, there was no sound, just lighted dial. I also saw nothing when I turned the tuning dial. The tubes that are in the radio have the initials "GM" printed on them.
The preset tuning buttons on the front of the radio are sprung. While two of them, when depressed, stay in. The radio model is 985695. There is also a small, black slide type switch on the bottom of the radio.
That is all I know.
Gus......

If it were my radio I would box it up and send it to Ray for repair.
Say hello to Pete D. for me. I sold him tools when he worked at Hall Chev. and at the station on 27th st.

Restoring the electronics of your radio is similar to the work you did on a tube amplifier. Basically you would want to replace all the paper capacitors and the electrolytics. Buying a set of tubes beforehand would be a waste of money. Troubleshooting a radio is more complex than an amplifier and usually it is helpful to have equipment like signal generators, etc.

Good morning Gustave and old216

I agree. Since I was 14 (now 53) I began to work on old radios, I guess in US they are called "boatanchor radios" because they are mostly big and heavy.

Indeed the tubes are not often bad. Mostly that radios die by bad paper condensers. The worse what people can do is: "Lets connect it to electric power, lets see what will happen".
With decades of experiences I say: Only a desaster will happen!

If I get an old radio on my table I never try to see what will happen if I connect it to power. The tubes will have power, but the condensers are bad and worst case will be the power of the tubes is enough to get the whole unit on fire.

If I get one of these boatanchor radios for repair I check first some condensers on *let me say* known "key" positions and if they are bad as expected I replace all of them without any compromise. In a lucky case afterwards the radio sounds as new. In complicate cases lots of alignments are necessary. Radios coming from fools hands are even more complicate. In most cases they are misrepaired to death. But in general: Find somebody who is expert for tube radios or tube amplifiers and he will get your radio back to life.

Best regards
Stefan germany, working on old radios since 39 years now

Good morning Gus,

I copied and pasted/edited my previous answer on radios to your new post question.

"I would try to handle your radio's repair locally, although there is a very knowledgeable VCCA member who does professional repair work. His name is Ray Holland and he posts here on our VCCA website as AntiqueMechanic. He is also the VCCA Tech Adviser for radios. Like Gene "he's the man" for radio repairs. You can checkout his email address or send him a PM. Just click on his chat name and it will direct you to those addresses.

I have found the best local repair can be found through your local HAM Radio Club. They know who does this work, and knows what they are doing. I got mine repaired by a HAM guy that would not accept any money for his labor. He only charged for the parts. I decided to buy him a gift certificate and had a mutual friend give it to him."

This is a link to a wonderful on-line resource of old Chevy shop manuals and service bulletins. While it may not provide you all the info for your repair it will expose you to more info and is important to your overall awareness of another fine resource available to you. Chevy manuals and service bulletins

One of the common radio problems is identifying what year radio you actually have. A lot of radios were added to cars after the year of the vehicles. In my case I do not have a 41 radio in my car but rather a latter 47 model. What year radio do you have? Could you post a picture of it?

Have you had the time to look through our Mr. Goodwrench - Technical posts covering the topics Radios, Tools, Accessories?

Good luck, Mike

Your radio is a 1941 model, according to the number you gave. Here is a GM bulletin online which gives you the schematic and other data. Model 985695 data

Thank you, old216, for your reply to my post. As I can see from the other replays that this small radio is a complete differ from my 300 pound plus Seeburg AY160 jukebox I restored. "Ooooh Myyyy" As I read your post, and viewed the great diagrams, I realized this is beyond me. Once again, thaks a lot for helping me.
Gus

Gustave,

Here is what I would suggest:

a. Give it the smoke test. You have already done that.

b. If it doesn't hum stick in a vibrator.

c. If it hums but still doesn't plays then try an OZ4.

d. If that doesn't help then get a box and ship off to Ray Holland. Tell him to spare no expense. Money is just a detail.

I don't know which radio you have. Does it still have the little tag on the bottom with something like "E-41"? If you have the stick through hole without use of the on/off/volume and tuning knobs through their own holes, then I wouldn't repair it. Get a better model.

Good luck.

Charlie

Try these guys:

WARCI

Brian

I have model Chevrolet Model 985696. If I have already sent this to you, blame it on the skotch and water, three ice cubes please.

Gus...

You can look your radio up here. Radio Reference Guide

Gustave,

It's not worth fixing. Get a better model. You'll be happier with and it'll looks much better in the dash. Will too!

Good luck,
Charlie

What about this digital one I saw on eBay, where the man clicks the volume knob back twice, waits for two beeps, then adjusts the tone. Turns the volume switch to the left twice, waits for the two beeps, then turns the tuning knob to a digital radio/satellite signal. I hope I got this correct. Anyway, I guess you got the idea. Don't know price either, but I think it goes into your original radio from the car. Well, that's about it.
Regards...
Gus
Updated info: Bob's Radio and TV. The Chevrolet FMR-1, am/fm radio conversion. In California.