This might be of interest to some. My neighbor down the block is restoring a 1969 GM pick-up truck, and brought me the vintage radio from it to see if I could do anything with it. He had *NO* interest in converting to FM, much less stereo, all he wanted was to get the AM back.

The radio looked like it had been ridden hard and put away wet each and every day since 1969, fully encrusted with filth, grease, what looked like melted sugar, plastic and more. To the point where the tuning knob was locked, as were the preset buttons. This is a solid-state radio, not tube, of course.

I took the attitude of kill or cure, so after partial dis-assembly, removing the top and knobs, I put it on the top shelf of the dishwasher (Bosch) and ran it through a full scrub cycle (alone), then dried it in the oven for 2 hours at 175F. It came out sparkling clean, and with (thankfully) the back-painted numbers on the dial intact.

NOTE: Do not try this with dishwashers that have exposed heating/drying elements. They get too hot in some cases.

Applied power and got hiss. Check the 4-section cap, ESR was good, but by resistance, two of the internal sections were shorted such that capacitance was high, but they were, effectively, the same cap. I replaced the entirety with new caps rated slightly higher in capacitance, twice the voltage.

Applied power into a very inefficient speakers and got HUMMM - under a fluorescent shop light.

Installed an antenna - got reception across the band. This is the 6th bit of electronics I have put through the dishwasher. Two Zenith TransOceanics, one Dynaco FM5 tuner, one Dynaco PAT4 pre-amp and one other US tuner. Haven't lost a patient yet.

Don't be afraid to take heroic measures if the alternative is landfill.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA