Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

The Main Set Receiver and Remote Receiver are finally now running pretty much parallel to each other in their restoration process. It took a little longer to get the Main Set Receiver up to match the Remote Receiver than I had initially anticipated, but we are there now.

The next thing I plan to do is clean all the switch contacts on all the rotary switches of each receiver. I know the meter switches on both receivers are not as responsive as I would expect them to be, and a few positions on both require a bit of fiddling to find their sweet spots in regards to getting a good connection for the electrons to travel through. Some oxidation of contacts is to be expected, but it has to go.

Once that is done, my British Valve Adapter will finally get its workout and all valves will be tested in both receivers. While testing the valves, I thought I might as well take advantage of that opportunity to clean all the contact surfaces in the valve sockets and the pins on the valves themselves. If oxidation can build up on the inactive switch contacts over time, there is no reason it could not have built up in the socket connections as well, so best get rid of any that is present. I should be able to complete all of that work in the next couple of weeks or so.


David

[David Dunlop]

Thanks, Bruce.

You are right. When I first saw a colour photo of one years ago, I fell in love with it. Always thought a restored one sitting on a bench with some 19-Sets beside it, would be like it had had 'puppies'!

Rhett is not amused by my having just said that, but our cat is smiling!

David

[Wayne Hingley]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Thanks, Bruce.

You are right. When I first saw a colour photo of one years ago, I fell in love with it. Always thought a restored one sitting on a bench with some 19-Sets beside it, would be like it had had 'puppies'!

Rhett is not amused by my having just said that, but our cat is smiling!

David

It does look nice David, but I really think you should have it mounted in an M42 command truck. Then you can take your show on the road, with the dog, cat and puppies too.

[David Dunlop]

Funny you should say that, Wayne. I almost bought one at Shilo in the early 1980’s, when they auctioned off dozens of long term storage vehicles. Later bought an ex 2PPCLI M37 that turned out to have been converted for Wireless. It had a Canadian designed wireless shelf mounted across the upper front of the box, two ceiling lights mounted on the wood top bows, all sorts of steel fittings welded to the box floor, and that delightfully classis Driver’s Door Spare Wheel Mount. It was a great truck!

David

[David Dunlop]

The Illustrators that worked on the 52-Set Parts Lists did an amazing job, both in the accuracy/detail of their work but also in getting the background scale for each drawing correct. A good example of this is in the attached drawing of the ¼-pound tin of Kesters Radio Solder that was part of the kit in the Spare Tools Box.

Based on that drawing a few weeks ago, I started monitoring eBay for possible matches to that drawing. Some very similar ones popped up almost immediately, but the wording in the little ribbon was wrong. I started to doubt the accuracy of that particular feature of the drawing until 10 days ago when these items turned up. Spot on to the drawing, and it was even more interesting to find Kesters had a plant in Brantford, Ontario, which was noted on the back of the tin. Seems Kesters colour coded the tins of their solder line to make it easier to recognize the correct solder for a particular job, and that policy continued well into the 1970’s, long after they had switched to small cardboard boxes for their solder products.

David

[David Dunlop]

Well, the plan had been to start the switch and socket contact cleaning next, for both the Remote Receiver and Main Set Receiver, but when I sat down and reviewed my project notes, I remembered a more important task needed to be done first. The big bakelite Socket, 7-Point on the back of the Remote Receiver had to be replaced. I had forgotten that earlier in the project I had discovered it had some sort of interior shorting issue and the Terminal Leaf Assembly for the ‘R’ circuit on the socket had been snapped off, which meant potential loose hardware rattling around inside the assembly. I had also noted that one lead on the S5A Relay Switch, mounted on the back of the Socket had broken free and another on the No. 7 terminal of the socket was close to coming off.

As shown in the first three photos of this Post, the Socket 7-Point on my backup receiver was minty and still sporting the original Terminal Identification label on the back of it. For comparison, the 4th photo is the sad looking Socket, 7-Point on the Remote Receiver. So the first phase of this task was to figure out how to carefully uninstall this Socket, undamaged, without making use of wire cutters at the very least, and hopefully not having to do any unsoldering either. It was going to be good practise sorting this all out on the backup receiver, as it was vitally important not to screw up any aspect of this work on the Remote Receiver.

The easy part was the first step: removal of the three countersunk slotted screws that secure the socket backing plate to the receiver chassis. Two are located at the top corners of the plate, attaching it to the upper chassis cross frame. The third is located in the bottom right corner of the backing plate, attaching it to a long support post. Once these screws are removed, the socket assembly will drop away from the chassis slightly, along its top edge.

At this point, it is important to remember one is dealing with 75 year old wiring that for the most part was stuffed into a particular position and has stayed that way largely undisturbed. Soldered connections can develop a degree of corrosion and the small bits of exposed wire at these soldered connections have grown comfortable sitting still. They may, or may not, react well to suddenly being tugged and twisted (as I eventually discovered). In order to create a little more manovering room to do further work behind the socket backing plate, you can carefully pull away part of the wiring shown in Photo 5, which has been tucked back between the large three capacitor mounting panel on the side of the chassis below the socket, and the chassis corner. That section of harness has only been laced up to the bottom of the cap panel. The wires you need to release are easy to identify and as they come free, the socket assembly will relax downward to allow you a good view behind it.

To be concluded.

David

[David Dunlop]

With the wiring loom released from the left side of the chassis, the Connector Socket Assembly should relax enough to sag down and you can carefully rotate the top edge towards you to expose the rear portion of the socket and the attached S5A Relay Assembly. You will see the thick, brown, phenolic resin backing plate for the connector, sandwiched under the base of the relay and the four spacer posts for the relay. First photo.

The two spacer post assemblies on the right hand side can be easily removed with a slot head screw driver and a ¼” very thin spanner. There will be a lock washer under the forward post hex nut and none under the rear one as there is a wiring connection there with a locking ring terminal. Once that hardware is removed, you can access the ¼” hex screw holding the connector in place to remove it with the same spanner. Second photo.

On the left side, things are a little bit trickier. These two post screws are spot welded in place on the connector mounting plate. The front hex nut has a lock washer under it. The rear one does not as it also has a wiring terminal located under it. Because the two screws are fixed on this side, the hex nuts will ride up the screws as you undo them. You need to apply some tension to the backing plate to keep it directly behind the hex nuts as you unscrew them. If you don’t, the nuts will ride up and jamb against the two round head slotted screws on either side of the relay return spring. Photo three.

Once you have the hardware removed, you have full, but careful access to the terminal strips inside the connector, for whatever maintenance you need to perform. In my case, in Photo four, you can see the broken screw and nut assembly roughly in the centre from the terminal the leaf connector had been broken away from. I also found a fine coating of dirt and oil inside the connector. I am almost certain the oil came from copious amounts of it being sprayed on the back of the Remote Receiver case when somebody drilled a series of holes under the Connector Socket to add a modern aerial coax cable socket. I found oil and metal shavings everywhere inside the case and lower parts of the chassis when first cleaning it up. The crud inside the connector was actually acting as a high resistance conductor and is likely the cause of the weird shorting out I was experiencing. Once everything was cleaned and replaced. The problems went away. Photo five,

When it comes to reassembly of the connector and relay assembly, get the backing plate portion done first with the two ¼” hex screws. Then replace the two right hand relay post assemblies, but only tighten the hex nuts a few turns onto their screws, leaving lots of wiggle room for the time being.

Then go to the left side of the relay, lever the bottom of the relay up enough that there is just enough screw thread for the front screw to catch the hex nut and run it down a couple of turns only. You still need the wiggle room.

Next, carefully slide the top spring loop off its stud at the top of the relay contact plate and let the spring drop to the right, over the hex nut you just installed. Then remove the round head slotted screw on the lower left side of the spring location. This will give you more access to get the rear hex nut started on its screw. Once it has been started, keep tension on the base plate of the relay to keep both hex nuts snug and alternate running them home, carefully to tighten them down, replace the round head screw and reconnect the spring carefully. You can then tighten the two hex nuts down on the right side of the relay.

Final step is to rotate the complete assembly back up to the rear of the chassis and replace the three mounting screws and tuck the wiring back in the left side chassis frame.

David