I have a 1946 radio #985792. It has been rebuilt. Problem: Volume level at the high point is very low. Volume changes as the knob is turned. Any suggestions as to what I should look for? Thanks, Harold
The first thing is to tune into a strong station. These radios are very dependent on the strength that is presented to the antenna terminal. If you are using an antenna on the truck, raise it as far as possible for testing. If you are in a garage with metal cladding, try moving the truck outside. Sometimes the signals are much stronger later on in the evening. One other thing is that the new solid state vibrator replacements are very sensitive to supply voltage. Sometimes it is necessary to have the engine running and the generator actually showing charge to get the radio to work properly. That provides an input voltage to the radio of over 7 volts.
I was bench testing prior to installing the radio. I had jumper wires going to the 6 V battery and using an old antenna from a 65 Mustang. Do not know if I had 7V or not. I used a different speaker. The original speaker on left in photo, new on right. Will this make a difference in volume?. Harold
Ok your old speaker has three wires attached, red for power, black for ground and blue for the speaker feed. Which ones did you hook up to the new speaker? By the looks of the photos I would say the black and blue wires should have been used. Also you need to make sure that the new speaker does not have one lead already grounded.
By the way I am only going by appearance. One of the original wires had 6 volts on it. You don't want to use that wire.
I will open the radio up and take a look. Will post later Thursday. Here are some photos pre-resto. The first photo shows new speaker wire color. Unfortunately, I did not do a new to old chart. Harold
Here is a photo of the inside of the radio and speaker connection. The Red wire is the "HOT" 6V lead. It is not connected to anything. Black & Blue to the speaker.
I also attached another photo prior to restoration showing the original wires.
I did check my battery and it is showing 6V. Harold
If you can hook it up to the truck supply and then start the truck and raise the RPM to where it is charging, you might see a change in the performance. Generally the charging voltage will be around 7.5 volts. Other than that I would would ask the person that restored it.
Don't connect it to 12 volts. If it has a new solid state style vibrator, it will burn out in a fraction of a second. You could try connecting a 6 volt battery charger across the battery while running the radio. That would probably be as good as the truck test.
There is actually another interesting thing to try. Try connecting the negative or ground side of the battery to a ground source inside your house. You might find that it makes a big difference.
