Thank you FlaCharlie!! I think I'll be okay, at least for now. Thanks again!
Although I can appreciate your enthusiasm for rebuilding your 185, I would suggest that you slow down a bit and spend some time reading some of the numerous threads on here about rebuilding / modding the 175/185 and about vintage restoration in general.
At this point (which is exactly where we all started) you don't seem to know the difference between a cap and a resistor or where certain parts are located in the circuit. Do you know how to identify the pin numbers of the sockets? Or how to read a schematic? Or how to safely measure voltages? Or how to drain voltage from charged caps before you work on an amp?
I would also hold off on ordering parts until you have a handle on which types might be best. Hopefully you know that replacement caps need to be at least the same voltage (or higher) than the originals.
Ordering a few parts at a time can get expensive too. Here's one way to save on shipping:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/in...hipping-on-parts-orders.739513/#post-10018562
Unless you have the equipment to test the power supply caps thoroughly (for value, electrical leakage, and ESR) you should plan on replacing them all, as well as the cathode bypass cap.
Then you need to decide whether you want to use a replacement can or individual caps mounted under the chassis. There are differences of opinion as the what's best, usually based on ease of installation. Space is one factor. Another is that, if a can is soldered to the chassis, you might need a more powerful soldering iron to remove it. There are also large differences in cost between these two approaches.
Individual caps are best sourced from a major supply house like Mouser or Digi-Key rather than some place like eBay where you are likely to find many that are poor quality or "name brands" that are actually counterfeits.
Have you measured the resistors to see if they're in spec? The carbon comp types used in these are often out of spec or barely in spec, at which point you might as well replace them. And they can be noisy even if they're in spec. Fortunately, there aren't that many parts in these console amps. I recently rebuilt a Motorola and I ended up replacing every carbon comp resistor except the grid stoppers, whose exact value isn't critical.
Another thing you might have noticed is that many of these console amps, including the 185 and the Motorola I just restored, don't have fuses. So you should learn how to wire one in correctly.
Some voltages, especially the tube heaters, will also be too high because of the higher modern wall voltage. You need to know how to deal with this.
In the case of the Motorola, it wasn't just the heaters because the amp supplied power to other components (tuner / preamp) so, without them drawing current, voltages were too high everywhere. This won't be as much of an issue if you're restoring a complete console but if you're rebuilding the amp for stand-alone use it can be. I ended up putting in an additional power supply section (another cap and dropping resistor) and changing the value of one of the existing wirewound resistors to compensate.
Bottom line . . . You certainly don't need to be an expert but, if you're not aware of issues like these, do some homework first. I'm sure you're capable of getting this amp up and running but it will be much easier, and safer, if you're better informed.
