I just wanted to post some pictures of the Zenith 9-S-262 I am currently working on. I acquired this back in the middle of 2008 and began the disassembly process, but life took over and I just did not have the time to work on it for awhile so in the closet it went until March of this year. Luckily I took detailed notes and created a wiring diagram so I could remember how to put everything all back together again.

Here is the set when I first purchased it:





Note the scorched area near the antenna coil...



After removing the dial scale assembly...





Here is the fried antenna coil. It took me 2 years with a saved search on eBay to find a replacement!



More detail of the scorched area...



The rusty band switch mechanism...



The chassis, totally stripped of all components...





Disassembling the tuning capacitor and gears for cleaning, step-by-step. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the spring...

























Here is the crusty band switch in need of some serious cleaning...







Band switch disassembled...



After lots of cleaning and polishing followed by clear acrylic spray on the silver pieces...





The mechanism for the motorized tuning. Again, very filthy...





The pulley AFTER cleaning. Still looks pretty bad so I just decided to spray paint it (see later pitures)...



After cleaning and polishing. The brass components were sprayed with clear lacquer. The rod that goes inside the brass tube received a thin coat of grease prior to installation.











And now for my first big goof up. Here are some pictures of P/N 22-558 (C7 on the schematic). This was covered with what seemed to be a light oil and it was very filthy. So foolish me, instead of just wiping it clean I totally disassembled it, cleaned it, and put it back together again. I assumed that this padder was covered in the alignment instructions and I would just reset it when I was done. Well, guess what? It's not.







Per Dave Mc:

"The dual padder ensures correct tracking on the low end of the dial for the two short wave bands. It is (was) factory set! Ideally, it would NOT have been touched. I suppose you could adjust it just like the broadcast band padder is adjusted, only set your signal generator to the low end of each short wave band, tune for a signal, adjust the padder while "rocking the dial" for the maximum signal you can get."

So I'm not totally without hope. I'll follow Dave's advice when performing the alignment.

Well, that's it for now. I've already cleaned, polished, lubed, and reassembled the tuning mechanism but I need to take some pictures. I'll post more as time permits. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I have.

- Geoff

Nice progress Geoff. I personally wouldn't go as far as you have in disassembing the bandswitces, etc. That was quite a job to remove every wire from the bandswitch.

If something doesn't work after the reassembly, you may not know exactly where to look.
I made the same mistake as you before, as far as removing trimmer mica sheets. Now, I count how many turns it takes to bottom the trimmer out. Then upon reassembly, just bottom it out, and bring it back out the proper turns.

I am going to assume you have fully documented where each wire goes, like for the coils. Lead dress is important too when you reassemble.

Keep us informed on your progress.

Holy cow! You got some big ones stripping it all the way down at once. I would never have the nerve to do that.

I've gone to this extreme before on a Philco 71 awhile back. I totally stripped everything out, clean, polished, and then put back together again. This is the one that got me hooked on radios:
























Yes, that's exactly what I did so I should at least be in the ballpark when it comes time for realignment.


Yes, I took a lot of photos when taking this apart.

- Geoff

Hi Geoff,
That's some amazing and beautiful work!
I wasn't syaing anything negative about your work, and happy that you do follow through with the job. I know what it takes to do a set like that, lots of time and dedication. I commend you for that.
The reason was that in the past, we have seen a 'collector' take an otherwise good radio, then start stripping it down, never to be finished. One of the biggest blunders in memory was a guy that took a nice resotrable RCA(?) cathedral, promptly started cutting out coils, and all the parts. NEVER thinking to label where the wires went. Last I heard it was abandoned and never finished.

By the way, I have a 9-S=262, my only shutterdial set. I did totally disassemble the shutter mechanism, as one blade was slightly bent. With the wonderful help of John Goller, I was able to confidently reassemple theparts after cleaning and lubing.
I believe I also restuffed the caps.

Please keep us informed about your latest set. I'm sure it will turn out beautiful!

+1, now I'm really looking forward to more pictures on the 9-S-262!

Man great work! I really have a lot of respect for someone that has the patience to take a radio completly apart to the bare bones like that. The Philco looks increadible! Good Job! Can I ask how long it took you from start to finish on the Philco? Keep it up!

If I remember correctly start to finish was a little over a year, off and on (mostly off). This was back around 2000 or 2001. If I had really dedicated myself it probably could have been done in a couple months. I remember the tuning capacitor took me 2 weeks to clean up at about an hour per night. For me this is strictly a hobby so I spend an hour here and an hour there slowly working. I've just got too much going on between work and family to dedicate any more time. Like I had mentioned above, I got the 9-S-262 in mid-2008. I just slowly worked at taking it apart step-by-step and documenting with pictures and drawings what went where. Each part was identified and recorded and stored in its own separate little plastic bag with a number on it. Then life took over and it sat in a closet until March of this year. Then I started taking out a part every now and then and sit in front of the TV cleaning and polishing it. Almost all the individual pieces and assemblies have been cleaned up and put back together again, including the shutter assembly. I need to finish reinstalling everything back onto the chassis and then start the rewiring process.

If I have time I'll try to post some pictures of the completed tuning capacitor tonight.

I hope that by posting these pictures here that someone will find them helpful in their restorations and maybe learn something along the way.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

- Geoff

There are guys that slap a paint job on a car and call it restored and there are guys that do a ground up restoration, every nut and bolt gets refinished, Its great to see somebody with the patience ( and balls ) to do it to a radio.

Great work.

Well keep up the posting. You have no idea how inspiring it is to see someone restore the radio in this way. I dont know if you have ever seen any of the Youtube viseos posted by a fellow member bandersen but he always goes the extra mile as well. My problem is that I don't mind doing the work but I am always in a hurry to see and hear the finished product. So sometimes I follow the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" idea. But it is clear when I see your photo's that the extra time, care, and work is well worth it when you see how awesome the final result is. Thanks again.

You sir, Should get some kind of award for that type of restoration. Just beautiful craftsmen ship. Did you ever think about not putting the chassis in the cabinet ? Just to be able to show people what you did. Have to ask what do you do for a living?
Stan Ski

Engineer.

Also, I see you are from MI. I spent 6 months in Okemos last year working on a project. I thought MI was beautiful! And, I got a chance to go to the radio meet that goes on in Lansing which was a very fun experience. I'll be heading back in the fall and am looking forward to it.

- Geoff

I was hoping you would say that you are one of those guys that use the torch at a scrap yard.
Stan Ski

When this is done I'm going to try my luck on a Philco TV from 1952 so I've been watching bandersentv's videos quite a bit lately. He does great work!

- Geoff

Yes I watched his Plico 60 video series at least 3 times!

Here are some pictures with the IF transformer and coil assemblies installed. I buffed the shields out on a buffing wheel followed by hand polishing with Simichrome. All of the nuts were buffed out on the polishing wheel.





Here is a picture of the volume control, band switch, and the Local/Distance/Power switch. All of these were polished with Simichrome and then sprayed with clear acrylic.



Here is the underside with the band switch mechanism installed as well as the motorized tuning mechanism in place.



I was hoping to get the tuning capacitor installed last weekend but didn't have time. I'll try and get that installed over the 4th and upload some pictures.

- Geoff

Yes please more pics, I'm really looking forward to watching you restore this

Holy moly!!! Those cans look great. Yes more pictures please. This is good stuff. Keep it up.

Those cans are so reflective, they look chrome plated! What a particularly unique way of restoring a radio. Great job, and can't wait for more! The Philco was spactacular, too.

Man everytime I look at these I am just totally blown away how great everything looks when you are done! I personally have never seen a better job. Please keep the pictures coming!