I've got a '53 3100 that's been converted to 12 volts. I still have the original radio and I've had it reconditioned. It works pretty well. Probably as good as it did when new.
I put a big resistor on the power wire for the radio to cut the voltage down to 6V. But when I'd play the radio I get smoke coming out of it.
I finally figured out that the radio was still getting 12V through the light bulb circuit. I had just changed the bulb from a 6V bulb to a 12V bulb and hooked the light bulb wire up to the light switch. It took a bit of troubleshooting to realize that when the radio and lights were on, the radio drew power from both wires.
To resolve the problem, I replaced the 12V bulb with a 6V bulb (actually 7.5V), removed the light bulb wire from the radio and now I run both the radio and light through the resistor.
This seems to have helped. It used to start smoking right away, now I can run the radio for about 20 minutes before wisps of smoke start coming from it.
I’ve checked the voltages and everything seems to be right. Any idea what might be wrong and what to do to correct the problem?
