"PeterD" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:23:32 -0000, "Arfa Daily"
wrote:



That is about where I have arrived at now Jeff. This week, I will spend a
little more time on it just for my own interest, but if it is not giving
up
its secrets in fairly short order, then the job will get knocked on the
head
once and for all.

Arfa


Try using a (strong) magnet around that 'leather' back and see if you
can detect screws under it. That may work.

OK. I'm in ! Based on the fact that if I couldn't get into it, it was
knackered anyway, I had another go today. Using your idea of a very strong
magnet around the leatherette back panel (which is aluminium underneath) I
could *just* detect a very slight 'pull' at each of the four corners.
Several minutes of quite intense heat on the leatherette, just resulted in
it getting too hot to touch. No signs of any glue melting, so I took my
blunt curve-bladed scalpel, and dug in at the edge, slowly working the blade
under. Turns out that under the leatherette is a layer of some fibrous
cardboardy-type material, which is a good thermal insulator, so no heat gets
through to melt the glue ... Total thickness of material, probably about
1.5mm !

Anyway, once the corners were peeled back, a Philips head screw was revealed
at each corner. Even after these had been removed, the back still resisted
removal. After more work with the scalpel blade in the crack, followed by a
screwdriver tip, it finally came away, after breaking the seal made by the
Space Shuttle tile fixing-grade double sided adhesive tape that had been put
there.

Now call me picky if you like, but I consider this to be taking the **** by
the manufacturer. By using this sort of fixing method, they are clearly
defining this expensive radio, as fundamentally non-repairable.

But here's the real bummer. The original problem was that the unit was dead.
Not just a bit. Totally dead. The coaxial type DC socket felt a little
loose, and I was quite convinced that it would have nicely cracked
(lead-free) joints on it, once I got in there, but no. The joints look fine.
And guess what ? With the PCB out, it now works. Absolutely solid, not the
slightest sign of intermittency. Has run for hours without any sign of a
problem at all. I will go over all the joints in the power supply section
anyway, and maybe replace the little tactile switch that controls the
electronic power switching circuitry.

I think that the leatherette is going to be difficult to glue back down as
neatly as it was originally, because of the cardboard substrate. I think
that I might just poke a tiny hole through it above each screw position, and
tell the owner that if it has to come back, I will be cutting a small cross
in the leatherette above each screw, to allow them to be removed without
repeating the destuctive removal process.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. Got there in the end ... :-)

Arfa