Replacing a Philips V5A tuning drivecord.

[Darren-UK]

Having had to replace the tuning drivecord on this peculiar radio, I've managed to sorted out the path of the cord.

This info may be of use to someone in the future. Both Trader 220 and the actual Philips data are as much use as a chocolate frying-pan when renewing the drivecord.

My drawing skills are zero, so I'm adding a written description to accompany my rubbishy sketch. The two photos show a close-up of the tuning gang pulley ( with tuning knob spindle thoughtfully positioned right in front of it ) and a general view of the tuning drive area inside the radio, complete with broken cord.

Accessing the drivecord isn't the simplest of jobs. The V5A has its power supply department mounted on a wooden base which is affixed to the cabinet by four bolts. This needs to be removed. To do so, first disconnect wires to earth, aerial and gram sockets. Next, disconnect wire from aerial socket to wavechanger. Next disconnect wire from C20* smoothing cap to anchor tag on loudspeaker housing.

( * C20 is Trader 220 ident. This differs from that used in the Philips data ).

Next step, disconnect metal rod from tuning cursor guide plate to voltage adjuster plinth. This is soldered to the cursor guide plate and may break off - mine did. I've yet to fathom out the purpose of this rod, but there we are .

Now disconnect the four wires to the on/off/vol switch ( alternatively remove the switch with wires connected; there's enough free movement of the wires to allow for this ).

Next, disconnect wire from C20 smoothing can to base of V2 ( VP4B ). The four bolts securing the power department can now be removed and the power department withdrawn from the radio.

Finally, to gain clear access to the drivecord it is easier to remove the translucent backing behind the tuning scale. This is located by two bolts and washers which also secure the ganged and single drivecord pulleys - take care not to withdraw the bolts too far as the pulleys and their spacers will drop off and vanish into the bowels of the radio ( I worked with the radio laying face down on the bench - much easier ).

Now to the actual drivecord, after all that rigmarole . Ref my attached rubbishy sketch. The large pulley with its drivecord anchorings is fairly conventional with two exceptions; the cord is anchored to a spring-loaded toothed 'rack' rather than the more usual single hook, plus there is the damn nuisance ( thank you Philips ) of the tuning knob spindle right in front of it where you need to work .

Ok. Load looped end of drivecord onto rack at the end nearest the spring, over the top of the divider and anticlockwise round the tuning gang pulley. Next wind cord anticlockwise around the inner ( No1 on sketch ) of the small ganged pulleys at the lefthand side of the tuning scale ( looking in back of set ). Moving to the tuning knob spindle, wind the cord 3½ times clockwise around the spindle, working upwards ( the 3½ winds is the only useful bit of info on the Philips data ). Next, take the cord over the top of No2 ( outermost ) of the small ganged pulleys, past the cursor and then clockwise around the single pulley at the righthand end of the tuning scale. Next, feed the cord back to the tuning gang pulley and load+anchor it in the same manner as at the beginning but around top of pulley and beneath the divider.

Due to the awkwardly placed tuning knob spindle I found it easier to begin threading the cord with the tuning gang set roughly in mid-capacitance. Final task is to either set tuning gang close to either the fully open or fully closed positions and then attach the cursor in the appropriate position on the scale.

All this took me around 3 hours to fathom out and set correctly. As said earlier in this posting, I hope this info may be of help to someone in the future and I've detailed the procedure as clear as I can.....so sorry if some feel I've waffled on a bit .