The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay The Radio Bench Nothing But Static

Hello all,

I have a 53 3100, with the factory 986443 radio in it. I had the radio restored by Ray Holland. I happened to live, not more than 5 miles from him, at the time. The rebuild was probably around 12 years ago. Just about one year ago to the day, I installed it in my truck. It worked great. I have probably only played it for a total of 3 hours. The last few times I drove my truck, it seemed to have far more background noise that it did previous. Today, I was driving my truck, radio had some background noise, but was you could clearly hear music. I shut it off, for about 10 minutes. Came back out, started up my truck and turned on the radio. Nothing but static. I wiggled the antenna wire around a bit. Even pulled the antenna wire out of the radio. There was no audible difference, if the antenna wire in plugged in or out. Anybody got any suggestions?

I would really appreciate any help or advice.

Thank you in advance.
Rugo

I actually had and repaired a very similar problem in my truck radio a few months ago. If you want to pull it out and run it on the bench I may be able to help you. Mine was due to a bad 100Pf capacitor in the final detector stage. They are tiny capacitors which are normally not replaced in a rebuild. To speed the process up, I pulled tubes one by one from the first input stage until the noise stopped. The one frustrating thing that can happen is that you pull it out and it might work perfect again. If it were mine, I would run it for a while in the truck to make sure it will stay broken!

truckernix

Thank for your response to my original question. I have just come in from the garage. I pulled my truck out of the garage, and onto the driveway. I know it doesn't seem to get a strong a signal in the garage. I shut the engine off. Also, I was able to extend my antenna all the up. I was able to tune in the station that I was listening to, prior to the radio going out. It is very week and lots of static. Not sure if that fits with the capacitor diagnosis or not. Given the new info, are you still thinking capacitor? Or, do you think it may have something to do with the antenna? Thanks again for your help.

Rugo

This is in my experience a fairly rare type of problem. The radio has an automatic gain control that reacts to the signal strength of a station. So with a radio operating correctly, the removal of the antenna pretty much removes any source of static. Sometimes with the antenna out you can here some power supply noise but this is irrelevant. If you wanted to pursue some trouble shooting I would suggest the tube removal sequence that I described. That would probably isolate the stage pretty quickly. If you a volt meter I could probably walk you through further steps. It does sound very similar to the problem I had and as I said it is a rather unusual one. I swapped out my radio for my spare maybe four times over a few years only to have it behave on the bench. In the end it malfunctioned on the bench and I was able to diagnose the problem.

I have a 49 Chevy 1-ton, My radio was done mostly by Fred. Thanks again!! And my radio worked but would pick only pick up one or two stations along with a loud hum. I just didn't use the radio. Then about a year ago I purchased the original type reproduction antenna for about 75.00 The radio now works perfect. The original reproduction antenna is very good quality, Fits perfect, And must be 5' long! Terry PS. I think I bought it from Jim Carter or Classic trucks.

491ton,

Thank you for sharing your experience. I am glad that you were able to get your radio issue resolved. Unfortunately, mine doesn't appear to be as simple of a fix. I already have an excellent reproduction antenna. I believe it was from Chev's of the 40's. The radio worked perfectly for almost a year. Then started the static, that I described in my original post. I even went out and purchased a inexpensive universal antenna, to use to test for a bad antenna. The reception was just as bad. The oldies station that I was listening to, isn't the most powerful station. I have since tuned it to a stronger station. While you can hear the new station better, it is still not nearly as strong and clean a signal as it used to be. Thank you again for taking time to share your experience.

Rugo