Stewart Warner A51T3 1947

Stewart Warner A51T3 Air Pal - 1947


A nice small art deco radio. Measures 9.5"W x 3.5"D x 5"H. An AA5 that uses miniture tubes 12BE6 1st detector/oscillator, 12BA6 IF, 12AT6 2nd detecor,50B5 audio and 35W4 rectifier.

	Here's the front of the chassis. This has just one band, standard broadcast. The dial pointer was missing when I got it. I had one that I had picked up at a antique radio swap meet. It was a lot longer and black. So I cut it down to size and painted it red. Works just fine.
A pic of the back. Looks crowded in there! In fact it's so crowded that I had to remove the speaker to get at the 12BA7 tube to test it. All tubes except the 35W4 rectifier tested good, so I only had to replace one.
	A view underneath the chassis. Very tight under there to recap. Instead of unsoldering the capacitors I used the J hook method. That's where you cut the wire a bit up from where the cap is soldered to the tube socket and bend a J hook in it. The take the replacement cap and bend a J hook to the lead, put the two J hooks together and solder. It's a lot easier to do than unsoldering in a tight chassis.

Here's both sides of the bottom plate covering the underside of the chassis.
One problem is the side twards the chassis (on the right) has an asbestos pad on it!
Yikes! It wasn't in bad shape and asbestos is only harmful if the particles fray apart and
become airbord. keeping the pad in one solid piece is a very good thing to do, and
messing with it (remove) can be dangerous. So since it was in realitivly good shape
and small I opted to seal the fibers together. Some suggestions include spraying
it with lacquer, If your hardware store carries sodium silicate, it will do a good job
of sealing the asbestos. Amberiod Hobby Glue or Deco cement is also an excellent safing
agent, and can be thinned for a good "soak" and dries water-tight and fire resistant

If you decide you want to remove it: Put on rubber gloves and wear a dust mask. Wet a
rag then wet the asbestos. Use a putty knife. If you are lucky it will be only held on by
staples, so pry it off & place it in a plastic zip top bag. Clean up with a wet rag and be
carefull not to get too wet & damage the finish on the radio. Place the rag, gloves and mask
in the bag and dispose of it. If you need thermal protection in the area originally provided
by the asbestos, modern ceramic and fiberglass insulations should be used. If you do find it
is glued down then consider sealing it with one of the methods mentioned above.

For more detailed info see this entry from the rec.antiques.radio+phono newsgroup. Asbestos FAQ

I made a new dial cover since the origional one had yellowed and slightly shrunk.

Ok, there it is. I'm done. And now it has joined my other radios, playing
the sweet sound of music. Just as this radio was originally made to do.
- Mike

For anyone interested, here is the schematic
and service data for this radio.

Service Data Page 1
Service Data Page 2

Rider PDF File - Thank You Nostalgia Air !

Stewart Warner A51T3 Air Pal - 1947

For anyone interested, here is the schematic and service data for this radio.

For anyone interested, here is the schematic
and service data for this radio.