Help me save this Genalex!

[sonicmojo]

Here is a weird tube issue that was driving me nuts while the tube was in an amp. Then when I pulled it, it came apart from the base.

This is a working tube other than the fact it has come completely out of its pins. I thought about pre-tinning the leads and then applying heat to the pins after to get them soldered back in. Is there any other trick to reattaching? It is a vintage Genalex KT66 otherwise I'd not bother trying.

[martin manning]

I would try to clear the pins of old solder (using solder wick or solder sucker), then clean the wires and resolder them, applying heat and solder only at the tip of each pin. You will also need some kind of high temperature adhesive to reattach the bulb to the base, applied at the time you insert the wires into the pins. I don't know what might work there. I've heard people say that cyanoacrylate can be used to stabilize a loose bulb, but I'm not sure it would stand the temperature.

[sonicmojo]

I went ahead and tried to tin the leads and solder that way and no luck so I cut little bits of solder and dropped them in the pins and there was still room for the leads to insert. Then I heated each pin on the outside for 20 seconds each to be sure. On the tube tester it was then working but I still had some play in the base since I did not glue it yet and when twisted a little I'd lose emission. So I twisted one way to get some extra physical tension between the leads and pins and it seems consistently working like that. I used a little 2 part epoxy in the base gap to see if that holds it. The heat may be too much for that to last but it's all I really have on hand. Once the epoxy dries in a day or so, I'll test again. It's not ideal probably.....