There could be two versions - I find a 5 valve set (including eye) a bit under engineered for a radio that big.

There'd be room to punch another hole in the chassis behind the large valve in the middle.

Well I'm sitting in my workshop listening to this old girl. It's got heaps of volume and the best tone I have heard on one of these old sets. The tuning valve shows no life but I haven't recapped yet. I am hoping its not a big issue . I just may need another valve or just contacts cleaned.

The big speaker makes a difference & that probably has negative feedback. With tuning indicators there is often a resistor of a round 1M on its socket: Rarely is that resistor in spec. Be careful with the metal Chinaman's hat on the small RF valve. Those can have the Bakelite inside the cap damaged easily by excessive force.

Thanks for the advice,that's the first thing I will check Marcc . There is no sign of life at all in the tuning eye. I'm hoping this set just needs a basic cleanup.

This one is a Six Valver I found two of the little buggers hiding from me when I pulled it apart.
I didn't do too much to it today I just replaced 3x .05s and cleaned all the valve sockets and plugs. It sounds a little better. I did check a .6 Meg resistor and a 150 ohm and both of them were in tolerance ( they were in the magic eye tube circuit. ) still no life from it. I will take it to my old mates place tonight and test the valve.

The green glowing stuff in the old-style magic eyes can wear out completely, so it appears to be not working. There's no way to fix except by replacement - if you can find one.

Robbert they are available but fairly expensive. Its worth the money to have it at 100% though. Its a EM1. At first we thought it was a EM4 but on closer inspection no.

I will have this baby completed very soon . All it needs is recapping and a tidy up plus some new speaker cloth and it will be pride of place.

There is a slight possibility the cathode has run out of steam.
I recall seeing some suggestions of increasing the filament voltage and seeing what happens.
The lurk was to full wave rectify the feed to the tube and filtering that up to the peak value and trimming with a resistor.
A bit like boosting the heater on a CRT to flog a bit more life out of it.
Could be worth a try to prove whether its the plate or the cathode tired out?
Cant hurt a dud valve.
Fred.

You could use a 6U5 but it appears it's the green screen material that wears out, probably due to ion bombardment.

Have a look at this idea.

http://electronbunker.ca/eb/6U5.html

Careful that we are not putting the cart before the horse here. I prefer to go through the set, perhaps test the valves, but when I consider it a viable repair, I will get rid of the dodgy wire, caps & resistors before fault finding: Often they are the fault.

Leaking paper caps (most do, and badly) can drag down the AGC volts & that will seriously impinge on a tuning indicator (As well a the AGC & valve bias).

Sort that out, then panic, if the problem persists.

If the EM1 has heater and target volts it should light up irregardless of AGC.

Check for HT voltage on pin 7 of the EM1. If you get 200 volts or more here, the heater is lit but there is no green light, the EM1 is worn out.

Those magic eye green screens were generally only good for a few thousand hours.

The Heater does light up. But nothing else.

Consensus: Speculation may be correct, but there is still the 1Meg resistor usually on the socket that has an attrition rate, plus what voltages, if any is on the pins?

Heaters light is a wonderful Flea Bay type statement.

Heaters light is a wonderful Flea Bay type statement.

That and "dial lights up and there was some humming -- probably needs a longer aerial".

I should say I have had this valve tested by a professional tech. Yes the filament does light up but it's emissions are very low.