Ferguson 382U

The Ferguson 382U is one of a range of a.m/f.m receivers that were built by Thorn Electrical between the mid and late 1950's. They look good in appearance, but can be difficult to work on.
My receiver was introduced in 1956, and has f.m, medium & long wave band reception. The Ferguson 382U is of course an a.c/d.c mains valve radio.
The valves used are as follows:-
UCC85, UCH81, UF89, UABC80, UL84, UY85.
The main problems on these receivers are:-
(a) The wave change switching. This is carried out by a control knob (behind the tuning knob on the r.h side of the radio). There are grooves behind this knob to activate a small cog which sits on a shaft for the switch, this cog is of cheap material which is usually found to be broken. A brass replacement was used in my receiver, but if the original can be repaired then use that!
(b) F.M Tuning. The F.M Tuner is housed in a strange screening can which is difficult to access, and you have to remove both a.m & f.m tuning cords to do it. In most radios, lack of F.M can often be traced to a faulty UCC85 (ECC85 if a.c mains), but not in this case. Thorn, like others used cheap resistors & capacitors at this time. They go way out of tolerance levels. If you get in the f.m tuner, check the grid resistors of the UCC85 valve (surprise!)
(c) The Loudspeaker can be troublesome in these radios, replace it!
(d) As said earlier, check all the small resistors for tolerance, and replace them. Same with all the Hunts capacitors.
A great looking receiver. I remember my maternal grandparents having one of these Ferguson 382U radios at their cottage in Suffolk when I was on holiday there in 1961.
The Ferguson 384U replaced the 382U in 1959. Whilst the 384U had "piano-key" wave change switches (so Thorn Electrical learned their lesson about the wave change cog), it stilll had that awkward to access f.m tuner

FERGUSON 382U "FIREFLY" valve mains radio -additional information.

Due to an advert, which I placed in a recent B.V.W.S bulletin, with regards spare nylon cogs for actuating the wavechange system on these sets - as these cogs get brittle with old age !. I managed to get a reply from a fellow member, Mike Field, who said that he could manufacture me a replacement cog, in brass. I have received the new cog, and after fitting it on the wavechange switch shaft in the set, found that the cog teeth (although slightly larger than that of the original) meshed with those on the back of the wavechange knob, and hence operated the switch, so making the project a success !.

I coated both the brass cog, and the teeth of the activating knob in grease, so they mesh with ease.

Mike Field can be contacted by telephone, on ( 01886) 832107 (he did give me permission to put this information on the site). If you have problems with the cog on this radio, do contact him, and he will endeavor to make you a brass replacement for a reasonable price. A very useful contact !