Recapping a 180 amp

[ma214]

I am working on recapping my 180 amp.  I looked at the schematic from cb tricks and ordered two 40uf 500v and a 20uf 150v cap. Now when I opened it up I see three filter caps with three resistors instead of two and the relay cap is also not the same value. They look to be the original 50 yr old CDE caps. Should I rewire to match the schematic?  
The relay cap from the schematic is larger than the one in my amp so would this add more delay for ssb? I checked the tubes and they are ok. Any other suggestions I should do while I have it opened up would be appreciated. Thanks

[2600]

At times in the past the 500-Volt parts that match the factory spec were hard to locate, really expensive or both. Three 450-Volt, or even three 350-Volt parts would do the job. You just needed to be sure each capacitor had a proper bleeder/equalizing resistor wired across it. Your amp was repaired by someone who didn't have the 500-Volt rated caps on hand.

Your idea about a delay for SSB has a fatal flaw. The tubes are pure grounded grid. There is no fixed negative bias voltage in this amp needed to hold down the tube current when no drive is present. The AM carrier holds down the tube current, but a sideband transmitter will overheat the tubes. First hint is usually an exploded plate choke coil.

If you're serious about using it on sideband, it needs to be modified by taking the two grid pins on each tube socket loose from ground, and adding that bias circuit. The input-side SWR will be higher than it already is, but this is fixable as well.

I seem to remember posting a "how-to" about that, but it's my bedtime. I'll do a search for it later.

73

[ma214]

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't planning on using this amp on sideband. I was just wondering why my amp has a 2uf across the coil and the schematic I found on  cb tricks has a 20uf across the coil.  Obviously this isn't the original schematic-says redrawn by cb tricks.  Just curious if this was someones mod for ssb.

[2600]

My copy of the factory schemo also says 20uf. The cap is there only to prevent chattering. I thought sure I had posted the 45-year tuneup we do on that model at this forum. But it's bedtime, so I'll research it later.

73