Time to test fit the parts into the housing before alignment. I like to make sure all the wires are correctly routed and a good length because I don't want to do any soldering after the alignment procedure.
The spark plate and tuner unit fit well as expected. The chassis wires have to be crossed over in a specific pattern when the chassis is connected to the tuner unit. This step involves looking at the disassembly photos carefully and reproducing those wire placements. The wires will un-twist and be in their original locations when the chassis is rotated for installation. Some of the big ground braids require a propane torch to get enough heat to solder well. I find it useful to mask off the area to solder with some tin foil to protect parts and wires from the heat of the torch.
Once the chassis was installed I found a couple issues. Issue 1 I could really use an extra inch or two on the tone control wires. The tone wires are the gently twisted green and blue pair that go the long way around the tuner unit. These wires originally did not have to cut the corner behind the tuner unit as in my photo. Issue 2 A terminal on the speaker is crashing into the chassis. I will have to reproducing the magnificent factory bend that was present on the speaker terminal when I removed it. I thought the terminal was an accidental deformation, turns out it is required to clear the chassis.
The guts of the radio will be removed to have the issues addressed and will be aligned outside of the housing for easier access to the ferrite cores. In theory the best alignment would be done with all in the housing, but that seems like a tight fit and aligning it while apart seemed to work alright on the last one i did.
