I had a pocket sized 1960s Panasonic transistor radio that wasn't working fully. Using a probe, I got a good signal off the wiper of the volume pot, but it wasn't appearing at the output. I was playing around with a jumper lead, experimenting with jumpering the signal I had with the positive terminal of the speaker (because, why not), when I jumpered the speaker terminal with the spot on the board that was attached to the 3 volt supply from the batteries. The set suddenly jumped into full life and is still going strong now that I've reassembled it in its case. So...what did I do right? Why would a 3v jolt into that section of the circuit suddenly make the radio work again? Should I now name it the "Frankenradio"?

If the radio uses metal cased germanium transistors you may have shocked one that was suffering the whisker problem, back into life.
Not a good idea to jumper solid state equipment. But you have got away with it this time.
JJ

You may also have zapped one of the coupling electro’s back into temporary life.

Thanks for the reply. I'll keep those things in mind for the day it dies again. The transistors are metal can germanium types. On one leg of one of them (I don't know which it is since the board is extremely closely packed) I wasn't getting a signal before, but now I am. I used a probe connected to a battery powered amplifier to test this. Maybe that's the dodgy one.

I'm betting on a coupling electro, and Johnny is right---you are very lucky. (Good fun though,huh?)

Another thought Zee,

if you are going to shock old solid state gear into life, get yourself a can of freeze.

Great stuff, saved me hours of anguish.

Oh, and an excellent mate with freeze is a hair dryer.

Electrolytic caps were used to couple stages in lots of transistor stuff of that era & I am finding car radio's with them drying out. Beware of round axial caps about 3/8" x 1/2". They crack, they short, they burn up. Hunts were one, there were others just as bad, as were some ceramics & tantalum's.

Hunts will not be in Panasonic.

Marc