Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

I first posted on this back in 2022, on Page 27, Post #782, when I first got enough useful information sorted out.

Since that time, this project has been plodding along and as I found situations anywhere in the 52-Set where none original washers had been installed, made notes of the locations so they could all be replaced once I had sourced the required correct washers.

For the most part North American Standard Shakeproof Washers (usually called Internal Tooth Lock Washers) are easy to find but in the modern, prepackaged hardware world, are rediculous in price, often working out to a dollar or more each. While reaching the web again recently, I discovered Graingers, here in Canada, carry many of these washers in Lots of 100, for typically less that $4.00 per Lot, and they have a store just 10 minutes from home. Bonus!

I have been ordering these washers over the last few weeks and my wife donated a surplus crafting supplies box to my cause to store them in. The box was a great choice because the dividers are fully molded into the case so the smaller washers cannot slide between the compartments. And rather than labeling each compartment I simply did a single ID Sheet on the computer to pop into the lid, which can be easily changed out if and when needed.


David

[David Dunlop]

I picked this item up today at our local Prairie Command Spring Get Together.

My days of WIRE 5 work are over, but this chimney will be cleaned, primed and painted gloss white inside and an appropriate CMP green for 1944 on the outside. The 9-inch square steel plate on top, that has been factory punched to accept a 19-Set Aerial Base for the A-Set will be replaced with a 9-inch square of 1/4-inch thick brown phenolic resin plate and the vehicular aerial base for the 52-Set mounted in place of the original.

Put a couple of angle brackets on my Wireless Room wall to hold the chimney and the 52-Set Aerial Base can be displayed effectively. So the plan goes at this point.


David

[David Dunlop]

When removing the front panel from the Coil, Aerial Tuning Unit No. 2 A, it is important to remember the Tuning Counter Dial assembly is fitted to the Front Panel and will come off the Coil Chassis assembly with the front panel. If the Tuning Counter gear box gets bumped at all, the calibration between the dial readings and the actual position of the tuning V-Wheel along the coil will be lost. Not a good plan.

Before removing the front panel, it is best to dial the counter back down to its ‘0000’ position, which places the V-Wheel against its Stop at the left end of the Coil. See the first two photos attached.

The interface between the Dial Counter gear box and the Coil gear box is a simple, black Bakelite disk, free floating between the two gear boxes. It will easily fall out when the two gear boxes are separated. See the 3rd photo.

The simple solution is to tape the Bakelite Coupling to he Coil Gear Box arm, so it stays with the Coil Gear Box on the chassis. Then, also tape the Dial Counter Drive shaft to the back of the Dial Counter to keep the Dial Counter held in its ‘0000’ position. See the last two photos.

With all this prep work done, the front panel on the Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A can be removed from the coil chassis.



David

[David Dunlop]

The Front Panel assembly is mounted to the Coil Chassis assembly by eight round head, slotted, brass, zinc plated machine screws. See the first two photos.

The red highlighted ones in two vertical rows are made up of 10-32 x 3/8-inch screws with matching Shakeproof washers and hex nuts. The screws pass through two sets of holes in the brass angle frame of the sides of the coil chassis and are secured with the washers and hex nuts.

The two yellow highlighted screws across the lower edge of the front panel are 8-32 x 3/8-inch and thread directly into the two brass angle brackets mounted along the front edge of the bottom plate of the coil chassis. These two arrangements are shown in the 3rd photo of my spare parts coil assembly.



David

[David Dunlop]

I worked on getting the Front Panel assembly removed from the Coil chassis this morning.

I started by removing the top two sets of 10-32 hardware down either side. Relatively easy with a small adjustable wrench on the inside. Not so much with the bottom two sets of this hardware. Not much access room at all for anything other than a very this wrench or spanner. What eventually worked was jamming the hex nut with a small screwdriver through small corner holes in the chassis base plate corners so my large screwdriver on the 10-32 machine screw could break the tension of the Shakeproof lock washer. Getting these two sets of hardware reinstalled later is going to be a VERY interesting exercise.

With the six sets of 10-32 hardware removed, the two 8-32 screws at the bottom came out very easily and the Coupling assembly on the Gear Drive for the Counter disconnected quite nicely. A few years of dust and dirt have accumulated on the faces of the Coupling assembly, but that should clean off easily. The hardware was all reinstalled where it came from, with the exception of the two problem sets in the lower corners, but they were bagged and tagged for dealing with later.

When I discovered this front panel was aluminum plate a while back, I realized a suitable aluminum primer was going to be needed for the repaint, but decided the cost of aircraft green chromate primer was not in the books and chose a modern cream coloured primer. My plan was to aluminum prime first and then overcoat with standard grey primer to keep away from any possible variation in the top coat colour due to what it was sitting on top of when applied. It was quite surprising when all eht mounting hardware was removed from the front panel. The two problem sets of hardware had cut deep into the panel paint and the aircraft green chromate that was common from the 1940’s through to the era of the 1960’s rebuilds of the 52-Sets showed up clearly. The other hardware, which had not cur as deeply into the paint, revealed a grey primer over top of the green, and directly under the top coat grey.

The interesting thing now will be to see how easily the Dial Counter assembly wants to come off the front panel. It will not budge on my spare parts coil front panel and I am suspecting it is a result of brass, steel and aluminum bits all in contact with one another since the 1960’s rebuilt. I had no problem at all removing these items from the Sender front panel when I was working on it, but all the metals were steel with those two. Tine will tell.


David

[David Dunlop]

This morning was a good one.

The plan was the removal of the Dial Counter assembly from the front panel of the Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A and it all came together perfectly!

Three screws secure the Dial Counter to the front panel in a triangular pattern and all three sit underneath the Knob assembly for the counter, so the first step is removing the Knob. It is held in place by a ½-inch long Grub Screw located just below the hinge for the High Speed tuning handle and requires use of a Bristo Key to loosen it. Backing it up flush with the side of the Knob will work.

Once the Grub Screw has been backed off, flip the High Speed Handle up to its operating position. This will reveal the screw that secures the tension spring for the High Speed Handle, which threads into the shaft of the Dial Counter. Remove this screw completely and the Knob assembly will pull free of the shaft exposing the three mounting screw for the Counter. The top one sits flush on the front panel but the lower two are recessed into the reinforcing plate spot welded to the front panel to prevent it from flexing. The Locking Plate can be moved from side to side to expose the lower two screws for removal at this point.

On this assembly, all three mounting screws popped free very easily, which was a huge relief. The last step will be to remove the Locking Mechanism for the Knob.


David

[David Dunlop]

The first step in removing the Locking Mechanism from the front panel is to extract the small steel D-Ring from the end of the brass post that keeps the burled brass Lock Nut from getting lost. My wife’s collection of small jewellery pliers are great for this and I usually work with the curved ones to get the job done.

Once the D-Ring is removed, the Lock Nut can be backed off the post. There may be a nit of resistance as the nut moved up over the empty hole where the D-Ring sat. This is to be expected. After decades of the Lock Nut being backed up against the steel D-Ring, the ring will have mushroomed the brass post a bit and the Lock Nut is riding up over this mushroom for the first time. I usually run the nut up and down a few times to clear the threads and it then passes up off the post quite easily.

With the Lock Nut off the post, the spring locj plate can be lifted free of the post.



David