Philharmonic tuning dial and access to shaft

[Ken Carr]

My Philharmonic is missing the tuner knob for changing the received frequency. It appears that this is a concentric knob set, the inner one a 1/4" shaft for fine tuning and a larger diameter outer shaft for coarse tuning.  I have a 1/4" to fit the smaller shaft. It does not cause any movement of the dial. So, how does this work? (BOL model)

 

There is no dial string behind my dial although the disk that the beam of light shines through does seem to rotate around the main tuning shaft and it runs through several pulleys. Are these pulleys supposed to be connected by a dial string and spring? Or do they just turn with the shaft by friction on the disk?

Also, I wanted to open up the central rectangular box that contains the tuning capacitors so I might inspect it and lubricate the shaft. I was not able to do this since several adjacent tubes have grid caps on them. The wires from the grid caps enter this cover to the tuner area but the connectors on the end of the wires will not pass through the hole in the cover. I really did not want to cut the wires. I must be missing something here.

All answers appreciated! Thanks.

[Ken Carr]

The Philharmonic tuning dial now works just fine.

I removed the tuning capacitors cover by desoldering the grid caps as suggested in the previous thread (see above). I was then able to lubricate various friction points along the shaft. This did not appear to help. I next lubricated the shafts of the 3 trollies that surround the disk behind the dial plate. This helped a little since now the plate moved more freely when I turned it directly by hand. Still, the tuning knob did nothing. Finally I lubricated the end of the tuner shaft that the knob attaches to. I was able to push and pull on the shaft enough to allow oil to be sucked in between the concentric shafts. I also scraped out some dirt. The dial now turns easily and all sections of the air vaiable capacitors turn together and mesh nicely.

[David C. Poland]

Congrats.

It was not convenient to inspect mine, but I expected it to much like the Sixteen and Super Twelve 2 speed dial mechanism meshing the disk behind the dial, and you confirmed it. The Philly has a great looking dial.

Mine has the Chicago dial (band above the Broadcast band showing Chicago station call letters) . Curious who else has the Chicago dial, west coast dial or east coast dial. Be interesting to get large detailed images of the dial variations along with the red band and FM/AM version into the photo archive.

[Ken Carr]

David,

 

Thanks! Your encouragement helps.

I have one photo of my dial in my photo section. A copy should appear below this text. It's not my best photography (I took it while on crutches and with the dial facing a wall ... long story). I'll get a better shot eventually. There are no station designations on this radio but it does have that red band (television & ultra shortwave).

 
David C. Poland said:

Congrats.