DAC90a Number Three.

[Yorkie]

You're right about the filter cap on the top of the chassis Joe - it looks done to a crisp! Not worth replacing unless you want to preserve originality as it makes no appreciable difference in or out. The top two sections of the dropper look as though they've had a hard life, perhaps through drawing excess current. The wiring is in the usual state, and I wonder how many restorers who cut their teeth on the DAC90A as many seem to do, realise the dangers of decayed wiring on the dial light bulbs, which is quite close to the speaker frame and mesh grille. Some may think what's the big deal - it's just two 3.5V bulbs in series, but given that the mains connector is reversible and the set works with it either way round, if the chassis live, and decayed wiring on the dial light leads comes into contact with the speaker frame or expanded metal grille, it could have tragic consequences. True, it may seem an unlikely possibilty, but the risk is there to be seen.

I've always wondered - even back in the less safety conscious days of the late 1940s - how Bush got away with that shocking (pun intended!) two-pin reversible mains connector, but then many radios of that era which were wired directly to the switch on the voluime control simply had a tight knot tied in the flimsy twin core mains lead as a means of cable restraint. It was an era when many electrical items were pluged into two-pin connectors which in turn were plugged into light bulb sockets - sometimes a 'Y' shaped twin connector, allowing the light to function as well as whatever was connected to it - an electric iron, radio, fire - whatever! But then as pre-teen kids in that era, we used to walk into Boots Chemists and buy all the chemicals to make our own fireworks and no-one bothered us. How times change.

I think that Ray at Worthing, who refurbishes and sells DAC90As always removes the mains connector and directly wires the mains lead to the mains switch so that when he sells the radio it conforms to current requirments, as well as fitting a small transformer to power the dial light bulbs. The two pin connector has a very poor cable restraint arrangment, as witnessed by most of them showing the two conductors with the outer sheath and the two conductors unrestrained, as in Joe's example (which doesn't actually look like the usual right angled Bush 2-pin connector unless there were two designs).

Best of luck with the restoration Joe, in particular the cabinet.