I have just purchased a Majestic "Melody Cruiser" on ebay, that was advertised as fully restored. Beautiful shape, but when plugged in, sparks flew and breakers tripped! Found out that the pilot light had come loose in transport and one of the wires from the light socket came loose and shorted. Lost several tubes as well as the pilot light. I've replaced the tubes, replaced the faulty wiring. The radio works fine when I bring up the voltage slowly with my variac, but when turned on to 110 V power right away the pilot light blows quickly and the radio won't function. I've looked at a schematic but I can't seem to find the problem. Any ideas? Thanks!

:I have just purchased a Majestic "Melody Cruiser" on ebay, that was advertised as fully restored. Beautiful shape, but when plugged in, sparks flew and breakers tripped! Found out that the pilot light had come loose in transport and one of the wires from the light socket came loose and shorted. Lost several tubes as well as the pilot light. I've replaced the tubes, replaced the faulty wiring. The radio works fine when I bring up the voltage slowly with my variac, but when turned on to 110 V power right away the pilot light blows quickly and the radio won't function. I've looked at a schematic but I can't seem to find the problem. Any ideas? Thanks!

By the way, this is model 1S49, not 921. Thanks again.

Hi Jeff

If this is an AC/DC radio, one without power transformer, you will have a 35Z5GT or 35W4 rectifier tube. These tubes have a pilot lamp filament tap. A section of the filament is wired across the lamp.

This section of filament may be open. If you have a 35Z5GT check continuity between pin #2 and #3. For a 35W4 it's pins #4 and #6. If you have a different rectifier post the number.

Norm

:I have just purchased a Majestic "Melody Cruiser" on ebay, that was advertised as fully restored. Beautiful shape, but when plugged in, sparks flew and breakers tripped! Found out that the pilot light had come loose in transport and one of the wires from the light socket came loose and shorted. Lost several tubes as well as the pilot light. I've replaced the tubes, replaced the faulty wiring. The radio works fine when I bring up the voltage slowly with my variac, but when turned on to 110 V power right away the pilot light blows quickly and the radio won't function. I've looked at a schematic but I can't seem to find the problem. Any ideas? Thanks!

With this particular radio, one side of the AC line is connected directly to the chassis (some AC/DC radios have a condenser to the chassis, which eliminates some trouble). As Norm said, the ballast filament in the 35Z5 is probably burned out--replace tube--should correct pilot lamp trouble. I just wanted to make a note, though, about this particular situation with the chassis. With this radio, you can get sparks and tripping breakers if the pilot lamp socket touches the chassis in any way. If one side of the socket touches the chassis, you'll have a direct short across the line cord. If the other side of the socket touches the chassis, you'll have a blown pilot lamp and a blown ballast filament in the 35Z5. Of course when adjusting the pilot lamp for proper aim, if this is possible, be extremely careful. You will receive a shock direct from the line cord if you happen to touch the socket and the chassis at the same time. Very dangerous. The socket should be securely mounted so that it cannot move and touch the chassis. In radios where the chassis is isolated from the line cord with a condenser, the shock hazard still exists when adjusting the pilot lamp, but a direct short is not possible, and so in these radios you will not blow things up. Do not worry about any freak accidents happening while the radio is off. There is no risk of the pilot lamp suddenly touching the chassis and starting a fire while you sleep. When the switch is off, the chassis is disconnected from the line cord. If the socket is securely mounted, you will never have this problem anyway.

Just a small note if you don't understand how the 35Z5 operates the pilot lamp: the filament of the 35Z5 is divided into two sections--the large heater section and a small section. The small section has just the right amount of resistance to operate one #47 bulb in parallel (you may also use a #40, which has a screw base, but these are the only bulbs that will work properly). Current for the rectifier (plate of the 35Z5) is also tapped off after the ballast filament, so both filament current and plate current flow through the ballast and the pilot lamp. Once the radio is fully warmed up, all of this current will cause the bulb to burn at full brightness. Should the ballast filament burn out, the #47 bulb will receive too much current, and will burn out. This is especially true when the radio is turned on cold, as the tube filament resistance goes down as the tubes cool off, which causes them to pull a lot of current. This is why, when the radio is operating properly (new 35Z5), the pilot lamp glows brightly when the set is first turned on, and then dims down as the filaments light, and doesn't reach full brightness again until plate current starts to flow. Study the circuit diagram and you will better understand how this all works. Modifications to the filament wiring should never be made. The tubes must be strung in series exactly in the order they are now.

T.D.

It was the 35Z5 tube. It was replaced and all works fine. By the way, the problem was that, during transport, the bracket supporting the pilot light broke off and the light socket touched the tuning capacitor, and sparks flew. You know the rest. Thanks all!

Hi, Jeff. If I were ever going to commit burglery, I would want to start with your house and your Melody Cruiser.