"mm" wrote in message
...
AIUI, when soldering to an enameled wire, there is no need to remove
the enamel first. It just burns up and disappears when one is
applying the solder. Is that true?

Otherwise, are there any tricks to repairing a small transformer**
such as used to power an audio device such as a clock radio from
110VAC: I take the cover off and the first layer of "tape" and if
there is only a half inch of wire going to the priamary winding, and
if when I try to solder to it, it breaks off just as it goes into the
winding, under other stuff, I haven't been able to fix them in the
past. But maybe there is a trick I don't know.

**The one in question today has 3 secondary windings,
green-yellow-green, red-red, and blue-blue. Does that indicate what
the output voltages should be?

It's 1 3/4 x 1 3/4 x 1 1/2 inch and it runs a high-quality Panasonic,
clock-radio, sterero cassette player/recorder. Model 680-3870


Some enameled wire can be soldered without stripping , but I doubt it is the
case in your transformer. Most o f the time it will have to be dipped in
special stripping liquid or removed by scraping it off with a knife or
sandpaper. It can also be removed by burning it off with a match , but with
small wire , the wire will probably burn before the insulation.

The colors of the wire only mean there are 3 seperate windings and have
nothing in general to do with the voltage. You will have to find the maker
of the transformer and see what they used the colors for.
In the days of tube radios, the green was usaully 6.3 volts , the red was
for the high voltage (again voltage by the maker) , yellow was 5 volts, the
black was for the primary voltage. Again even that was not 100% all the
time.