Solid state vibrators for Hudson radios

53Hornet

A Hudson original radio is comprised of vaccuum tubes and an electromechanical vibrator amongst other capacitors resistors and the like. The vibrator looks like a tin can and internal has points or contacts. Thes contacts become corroded over time and the radio can stop working as a result. Some have taken the tin can apart and cleaned the contacts then tried to reassemble. Does work if you can pull it off.
Easier solution. Purchase a solid state vibrator for 6 volt negative ground radio at the following link.

www.radiosforoldcars.c...terpwF.htm

or www.antiqueautomobileradio.com/

Same place! One has list of Canadian distributors the other US direct.
If you converted your vehicle to run on 12volts and did not hook up radio because of that. All you need to do is drop radio line voltage to 6-8 volts
to have radio operate safely. To do this I used 2 resistors in Parrallel to give me desired drop. I have lots of them you need 2 to do it. Have about 80 in stock.

Vaccuum tubes can be sourced or searched by tube number on Ebay try to get military spec tubes if possible they usually are in black tin can versus glass tube and are built to military spec.

51hornet

Thanks for the info and links Ray. I contacted a dealer in Calgary that has the replacement solid state vibrators but they are pricing $69 and he won't guarantee it unless he installs it.

I am still running the original 6Volt pos setup. I will pull the vibrator first and see if I can fix it. If not I will break down and get the new Vibrator. Almost seems better to have them convert it to stereo for $250.