Tram Titan II...Carrier With No Audio?

[Crazy_D]

you got audio, good thing, sounds like it is a coupling capacitor in the path causing problems if it is fading in and out would be my best guess with the lower mic signal and then when you talk louder it is more drive/gain and this old worn down cap/part cannot take in the load of the previous circuit anymore.

 

[Crazy_D]

There is a grey 4 or 4.7uf cap on the rear of the radio is the one you need to check as thats in the audio line to the final tubes, it has a resistor over it.. My radio has blue Nichicon caps which are newer than the ones in your radio when they made it, but I am still replacing mine out. Also, make sure your 6gk6 final tubes are ok, especially V14.

update: I opened my radio and disconnected the ties to the mod/xmit indicators and it worked fine so as long as those wires are not touching anything your fine there. There is a red wire and a coax line, these essentially go back to the same place, the plate and screen of the two output tubes. my radio might have different colored wires than yours, as I am seeing alot of differences between titan 2 looking at pics online.

Today I bypassed the main 40uf/40uf/40uf large can cap with three smaller 47uf high voltage caps mounted underneath the chassis. also I replaced two .47 caps because I had them in my parts bin. I *think* I hear less ac ripple hum through speaker than before, but it was already well quiet before. I had a previous titan 2 that would crackle through the speaker very loud and bad, never got around to fixing that, some guy bought it and it still that way today.....

 

[Crazy_D]

There is a grey 4 or 4.7uf cap on the rear of the radio is the one you need to check as that's in the audio line to the final tubes, it has a resistor over it.. My radio has blue Nichicon caps which are newer than the ones in your radio when they made it, but I am still replacing mine out. Also, make sure your 6gk6 final tubes are ok, especially V14.

update: I opened my radio and disconnected the ties to the mod/xmit indicators and it worked fine so as long as those wires are not touching anything your fine there. There is a red wire and a coax line, these essentially go back to the same place, the plate and screen of the two output tubes. my radio might have different colored wires than yours, as I am seeing alot of differences between titan 2 looking at pics online.

Today I bypassed the main 40uf/40uf/40uf large can cap with three smaller 47uf high voltage caps mounted underneath the chassis. also I replaced two .47 caps because I had them in my parts bin. I *think* I hear less ac ripple hum through speaker than before, but it was already well quiet before. I had a previous titan 2 that would crackle through the speaker very loud and bad, never got around to fixing that, some guy bought it and it still that way today.....

BBB, Here are the pics of my Mint Tram Titan 2. Not a single scratch or blemish to the front faceplate and black chassis cover. Its like its a brand new radio in these regards. Build date was September 13, 1967. I seriously doubt one could find one as nice as this radio given its almost 50 years old, most of them have rust, especially on top of the transformer, that's a dead give away what the rest of the radio might be like...
I hand cleaned the entire interior. There was minimal dust inside this radio when I received it from the seller. You can eat off the insides and the bottom, so clean.

 

[Eastside]

I was sitting listening to it and it started smoking....I don't know what happened...but its a parts radio now.

 

[Crazy_D]

I was sitting listening to it and it started smoking....I don't know what happened...but its a parts radio now.

That sucks. The part that blew up could be in relations to the part or circuit you were having troubles with originally but with so many variables given here there is hard starting point. Its either a smoked resistor or capacitor. If these radios are to be used today they need to be recapped for sure. Too bad you didnt have the 6GM5 tube in that unit I am looking for one right now to do the swap for mine.

 

[Eastside]

That sucks. The part that blew up could be in relations to the part or circuit you were having troubles with originally but with so many variables given here there is hard starting point. Its either a smoked resistor or capacitor. If these radios are to be used today they need to be recapped for sure. Too bad you didnt have the 6GM5 tube in that unit I am looking for one right now to do the swap for mine.

It was smoking from those long resisters.

 

[Crazy_D]

It was smoking from those long resisters.

Long Resistors by where you plug in AC cord? This is easy fix, those are on the main high voltage power supply rail, 100ohm 7watts, 150ohm 5 watts, 300ohm 7 watts. If these are smoking you most likely will also need to bypass the large 40uf/40uf/40uf capacitor with 3 caps underneath chassis as well (I just did mine yesterday and I think it made a improvement, this could be part of your problem) and you might as well replace the input 0.0047 input dual filter cap because eventually those will blow apart (I have had it happen on many radios over the years) and also if you going to replaced the 40/40/40 you might as well replace out the 10/10/20uf and I don't trust these 48 year old multi caps. You can then drill out the pop rivets on the stock can caps and open those holes up for some more air flow. I use mine on top of a davemade supply so it sucks all the heat from mine and it runs barely warm.

Remember, just because you measure a cap or resistor and it measures fine, that doesn't mean much until it goes under LOAD in a circuit, and then the values of that part can change and the fool you...

makes sure those wires you clipped on the indicators do not touch or short anything or you will have problems

Also, I have measured ZERO volts across the entire Tram Titan 2 circuits when the unit has been turned off for atleast a couple minutes. so don't worry about anything zapping you when its unplugged.

 

[Eastside]

Yup...those by the ac cord......I thought I mite have had it fixed...the contacts on the relay were corroded black and I was filling them off clean....turned it on and it started smoking.....that odd looking resister nearly melted.

 

[Crazy_D]

Yup...those by the ac cord......I thought I mite have had it fixed...the contacts on the relay were corroded black and I was filling them off clean....turned it on and it started smoking.....that odd looking resister nearly melted.

ahh, did you key the radio down after you cleaned the contacts? You need to do this as mine had no receive and acted funny when I turned it back on, keyed it up and fixed it immediately. if you shorted out one of the relay contacts temporarily somehow that could also cause the issue, if the resistor is all smoked and totally black its most likely due to the relay and the contacts esp after you just worked on it and turned it on. nothing wrong with relay, just need to key it up to make it sync back up and replace the resistor(s) you smoked for starters. if you said you had black on the relay contacts then your audio could have been having issues getting through the relays contacts. many possibilities.

 

[Crazy_D]

Yup...those by the ac cord......I thought I mite have had it fixed...the contacts on the relay were corroded black and I was filling them off clean....turned it on and it started smoking.....that odd looking resister nearly melted.

The odd looking resistor should not be odd looking it should be like the other two. look at my radio internal pics for a reference. Someone must have changed it prior. It should be a 300ohm/7W. You most likely will need to replace the other two resistors as well as they are also in line after that resistor. Something caused it to happen, either the resistor was aged and just took a shit coincidentally (anythings possible) or something else in the unit like that relay not latching right after you cleaned it and too much current pull or a tube related/or power supply transformer related issue.

 

[Crazy_D]

Todays Update: I bypassed switch that the output goes through on the back where the dummy load is, the contacts were all black. I noticed I got 1-2 more pep watts from radio after this, before it would whistle to 12 watts pep and now it goes to 13-14pep, drives my amp 10 watts harder output than before, all by bypassing a old switch! I removed the 6ba6 and 6ba7 tubes for sideband product detector and IF amp receive to allow for less current draw and heat from the unit as those would never be used anyways as there is no SSB activity on the 23 channels. I noticed since there was less load on the 6.3vac circuit that runs the pilot lamps and tube heaters, that the pilot lamps look a little bit brighter than before as there is now less load on that circuit. I also took a 5/32" drill bit and drilled out the rivets for the large 40/40/40uf cap that I bypassed the other day with 3 other caps underneath, took 20 seconds to drill it out and remove it and 2 minutes to clean the mess with a vacuum. Now I got this big hole for airflow right next to the power transformer, see attached pic....



When my capacitor order comes in, I will also drill out that 10/10/20uf cap in the center of the radio and it will open up another good size hole for airflow. Ditch those two sideband receive tubes 6au6, 6au7, not needed for AM operation, you will notice a marked reduction in operating temperature and the transformer runs cooler along with other parts, prolonging life. The unit will still transmit in double sideband but it won't receive sideband with those tubes missing.

Another tip for any Tram or Browning owner, the 6BA6 RX IF tubes can be swapped with the 5749W tubes which are the heavy duty rugged version of the 6ba6 and perform better and last longer, I just did a swap comparison and had lower background noise and higher signal capture with the 5749W in place.

 

[Eastside]

You have a nice titan...that radio is awesome.

 

[Eastside]

The black cap with the x on it is the one that melted....and I think your right...I did something wrong when I filed the relay contact....after that is when it smoked itself......also mine does have different caps in it.

 

[Crazy_D]

That black part is a power resistor that someone else had installed. it needs to be a 300 ohm/7W resistor, my underneath pics show mine. I felt my resistors after I disconnected the power and they were very hot. Also, the voltage inside ramps down fast after you disconnect power, so if you wait a couple minutes after you disconnect power, the caps and circuits inside will be drained. I have done so much research and testing recently with the titan 2 I really know this radio and circuits so much better than ever. Your grey caps have been problematic with other radios I have seen them in, consider replacing all of those as well as some of those grey caps are in series with your signal. Once you get all the small bugs worked out of a titan 2 it will run for a long time and its one of the easiest tube radios to work on.

EDIT: I tried swapping my 6GK6 audio tube over to one of the final 6GK6 tubes and the radio did less power and started smelling by those tubes so I switched back and fine. That tells me my 6GK6 audio tube is weak, but doesnt matter to me as I will be rewiring/swapping over to the double the size 6GM5 tube soon, its twice the power of the stock tube! I can't wait!!

 

[Crazy_D]

I am placing a tube upgrade order for the 6GM5 audio tube, which I can't wait for, and a bunch new tubes across the radio and also I am replacing those 3 power resistors with 10 watt versions to give them more headroom and will run cooler.