I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today. I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't help.


Any suggestions?

Bob in Colorado

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Why ?

with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today. I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't help.

Any suggestions?

You're a nitwit ?

What on earth gave you such a monumentally bad idea in the first place ?

A competent tech may be able to recover whatever you've done to it fortunately.
It won't be cheap though.

Graham

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Google groups and gmail again !

Sheesh ! The new answer to WebTVers.

Graham

"Eeyore" wrote in message ...


Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Google groups and gmail again !

Sheesh ! The new answer to WebTVers.

I've blocked all posts from googlegroups in my newsreader.
It's by far the single largest source of trolls on usenet.

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Why ?

with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today. I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't help.

Any suggestions?

You're a nitwit ?

What on earth gave you such a monumentally bad idea in the first place ?

A competent tech may be able to recover whatever you've done to it
fortunately.
It won't be cheap though.

Graham

I did have a reason for cleaning. I was getting a popping noise from one
of the channels and I wanted to clean the pots. Apparently just because
it's recommended in the FAQ doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Thanks to everybody for the (ahem) constructive advice.

Robert

Bob wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Why ?

with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today. I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't help.

Any suggestions?

You're a nitwit ?

What on earth gave you such a monumentally bad idea in the first place ?

A competent tech may be able to recover whatever you've done to it
fortunately.
It won't be cheap though.

Graham

I did have a reason for cleaning. I was getting a popping noise from one
of the channels and I wanted to clean the pots.

Dirty pots aren't a cause of popping I'm afraid !


Apparently just because
it's recommended in the FAQ doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Thanks to everybody for the (ahem) constructive advice.

Does the FAQ advise drenching your gear in solvent ? I doubt it !

Graham

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 10:34:04 +0100, Eeyore
wrote:



Bob wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Why ?

with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today. I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't help.

Any suggestions?

You're a nitwit ?

What on earth gave you such a monumentally bad idea in the first place ?

A competent tech may be able to recover whatever you've done to it
fortunately.
It won't be cheap though.

Graham

I did have a reason for cleaning. I was getting a popping noise from one
of the channels and I wanted to clean the pots.

Dirty pots aren't a cause of popping I'm afraid !


Apparently just because
it's recommended in the FAQ doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Thanks to everybody for the (ahem) constructive advice.

Does the FAQ advise drenching your gear in solvent ? I doubt it !

Graham
does any of the other functions work like tape or aux inputs?

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Bob wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Why ?

with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today. I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't help.

Any suggestions?

You're a nitwit ?

What on earth gave you such a monumentally bad idea in the first place ?

A competent tech may be able to recover whatever you've done to it
fortunately.
It won't be cheap though.

Graham

I did have a reason for cleaning. I was getting a popping noise from one
of the channels and I wanted to clean the pots.

Dirty pots aren't a cause of popping I'm afraid !


Apparently just because
it's recommended in the FAQ doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Thanks to everybody for the (ahem) constructive advice.

Does the FAQ advise drenching your gear in solvent ? I doubt it !

Graham

Yes it does. Although the FAQ recommends soaking the equipment in a
solution of Fantastic (not electronic cleaner). See below:

"Eliminating tobacco smoke smell from electronic equipment:

First, unplug it. then open it up as much as possible. get a spray
bottle of Fantastic and cut the strength in half with water.

Put the thing over the kitchen sink and spray away. let it sit for a
minute and watch the yellow nicotine crud slither out. repeat if
necessary you shouldn't even have to do any scrubbing.

Avoid getting the stuff into inaccessible dial spaces, water spots are
inevitable.

Then, and this is very important, use the sink spray to thoroughly, very
thoroughly, rinse any hint of cleaner out. (it is NaOH, most all
cleaners are)

Shake it off, spin it around, whatever, to remove excess water.

Heat your oven to 140 degrees F. put in oven for 2 to 3 hours. use some
kind of metal cookie sheet between it and the oven elements to avoid
radiant melting."

Hi!

I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and let
it dry out.

Are you saying that you just held the can above the receiver chassis and
sprayed it? Or did you try to clean certain components with it, like the
controls?

Any suggestions?

My first thought is that this stuff may contain some type of lubricating oil
that isn't going to evaporate easily (or at all). If this is the case,
whatever has been left behind may be shorting something in the receiver out.

I think you're going to have to clean all of the stuff out of this receiver
before it will work properly. This is likely going to take a bit of time to
do, and may require substantial disassembly. I am not sure what you would
use to clean the receiver.

William

You need to clean & dry out the mechanical tuning capacitor.
The one driven by the dial string. Use a hairdrier, not too
close. Don't melt the plastic in it. Dani.



Robert wrote:
I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today. I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't help.


Any suggestions?

Bob in Colorado

I put the stereo back together today and everything is working again.
The mystery is that I had turned it on just minutes before I reassembled
it and it still had the low volume problem.

Thanks again for the help,
Bob

Dani wrote:

You need to clean & dry out the mechanical tuning capacitor.
The one driven by the dial string. Use a hairdrier, not too
close. Don't melt the plastic in it. Dani.

This is utter rubbish.

Graham

Eeyore wrote:

Dani wrote:

You need to clean & dry out the mechanical tuning capacitor.
The one driven by the dial string. Use a hairdrier, not too
close. Don't melt the plastic in it. Dani.

This is utter rubbish.

Graham


No, it isn't. The liquid contact cleaner will change the capacitance
and detune the front end. Sometimes it will stop a receiver from
working at all, till it evaporates.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

"Bob in CO" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Bob wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Why ?

with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today. I
took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and
let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only
comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is stuck
on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute
button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't
help.

Any suggestions?

You're a nitwit ?

What on earth gave you such a monumentally bad idea in the first
place ?

A competent tech may be able to recover whatever you've done to it
fortunately.
It won't be cheap though.

Graham

I did have a reason for cleaning. I was getting a popping noise from
one
of the channels and I wanted to clean the pots.

Dirty pots aren't a cause of popping I'm afraid !


Apparently just because
it's recommended in the FAQ doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Thanks to everybody for the (ahem) constructive advice.

Does the FAQ advise drenching your gear in solvent ? I doubt it !

Graham

Yes it does. Although the FAQ recommends soaking the equipment in a
solution of Fantastic (not electronic cleaner). See below:

"Eliminating tobacco smoke smell from electronic equipment:

First, unplug it. then open it up as much as possible. get a spray
bottle of Fantastic and cut the strength in half with water.

Put the thing over the kitchen sink and spray away. let it sit for a
minute and watch the yellow nicotine crud slither out. repeat if
necessary you shouldn't even have to do any scrubbing.

Avoid getting the stuff into inaccessible dial spaces, water spots are
inevitable.

Then, and this is very important, use the sink spray to thoroughly, very
thoroughly, rinse any hint of cleaner out. (it is NaOH, most all
cleaners are)

Shake it off, spin it around, whatever, to remove excess water.

Heat your oven to 140 degrees F. put in oven for 2 to 3 hours. use some
kind of metal cookie sheet between it and the oven elements to avoid
radiant melting."

The oven trick is great for mass desoldering SMD parts, I keep an old table
top oven for curing adhesives and other stuff like that and I left a couple
of scrap hard drives in the bottom to space things further from the
elements. Last time I cleaned it out there were little heaps of SMD MOSFETs
& diodes etc fallen off the HDs - all the ones I tested worked fine!

Bob in CO wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Bob wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Why ?

with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today. I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't help.

Any suggestions?

You're a nitwit ?

What on earth gave you such a monumentally bad idea in the first place ?

A competent tech may be able to recover whatever you've done to it
fortunately.
It won't be cheap though.

Graham

I did have a reason for cleaning. I was getting a popping noise from one
of the channels and I wanted to clean the pots.

Dirty pots aren't a cause of popping I'm afraid !


Apparently just because
it's recommended in the FAQ doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Thanks to everybody for the (ahem) constructive advice.

Does the FAQ advise drenching your gear in solvent ? I doubt it !

Graham

Yes it does. Although the FAQ recommends soaking the equipment in a
solution of Fantastic (not electronic cleaner). See below:

"Eliminating tobacco smoke smell from electronic equipment:

First, unplug it. then open it up as much as possible. get a spray
bottle of Fantastic and cut the strength in half with water.

Put the thing over the kitchen sink and spray away. let it sit for a
minute and watch the yellow nicotine crud slither out. repeat if
necessary you shouldn't even have to do any scrubbing.

Avoid getting the stuff into inaccessible dial spaces, water spots are
inevitable.

Then, and this is very important, use the sink spray to thoroughly, very
thoroughly, rinse any hint of cleaner out. (it is NaOH, most all
cleaners are)

Shake it off, spin it around, whatever, to remove excess water.

Heat your oven to 140 degrees F. put in oven for 2 to 3 hours. use some
kind of metal cookie sheet between it and the oven elements to avoid
radiant melting."

I have some trouble believing that anyone intelligent would advise washing
electronics at home in sodium hydroxide solution and tap water !

You're damn lucky it recovered.

Graham

"Eeyore" wrote in
message ...


Bob in CO wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Bob wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Why ?

with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today.
I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and
let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only
comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is
stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute
button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't
help.

Any suggestions?

You're a nitwit ?

What on earth gave you such a monumentally bad idea in the first
place ?

A competent tech may be able to recover whatever you've done to it
fortunately.
It won't be cheap though.

Graham

I did have a reason for cleaning. I was getting a popping noise from
one
of the channels and I wanted to clean the pots.

Dirty pots aren't a cause of popping I'm afraid !


Apparently just because
it's recommended in the FAQ doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Thanks to everybody for the (ahem) constructive advice.

Does the FAQ advise drenching your gear in solvent ? I doubt it !

Graham

Yes it does. Although the FAQ recommends soaking the equipment in a
solution of Fantastic (not electronic cleaner). See below:

"Eliminating tobacco smoke smell from electronic equipment:

First, unplug it. then open it up as much as possible. get a spray
bottle of Fantastic and cut the strength in half with water.

Put the thing over the kitchen sink and spray away. let it sit for a
minute and watch the yellow nicotine crud slither out. repeat if
necessary you shouldn't even have to do any scrubbing.

Avoid getting the stuff into inaccessible dial spaces, water spots are
inevitable.

Then, and this is very important, use the sink spray to thoroughly, very
thoroughly, rinse any hint of cleaner out. (it is NaOH, most all
cleaners are)

Shake it off, spin it around, whatever, to remove excess water.

Heat your oven to 140 degrees F. put in oven for 2 to 3 hours. use some
kind of metal cookie sheet between it and the oven elements to avoid
radiant melting."

I have some trouble believing that anyone intelligent would advise washing
electronics at home in sodium hydroxide solution and tap water !

You're damn lucky it recovered.

Graham



Maybe the water had LSD in it!!!

"Eeyore" wrote in
message ...


Bob in CO wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Bob wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Why ?

with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today.
I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside and
let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only
comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is
stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute
button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it didn't
help.

Any suggestions?

You're a nitwit ?

What on earth gave you such a monumentally bad idea in the first
place ?

A competent tech may be able to recover whatever you've done to it
fortunately.
It won't be cheap though.

Graham

I did have a reason for cleaning. I was getting a popping noise from
one
of the channels and I wanted to clean the pots.

Dirty pots aren't a cause of popping I'm afraid !


Apparently just because
it's recommended in the FAQ doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Thanks to everybody for the (ahem) constructive advice.

Does the FAQ advise drenching your gear in solvent ? I doubt it !

Graham

Yes it does. Although the FAQ recommends soaking the equipment in a
solution of Fantastic (not electronic cleaner). See below:

"Eliminating tobacco smoke smell from electronic equipment:

First, unplug it. then open it up as much as possible. get a spray
bottle of Fantastic and cut the strength in half with water.

Put the thing over the kitchen sink and spray away. let it sit for a
minute and watch the yellow nicotine crud slither out. repeat if
necessary you shouldn't even have to do any scrubbing.

Avoid getting the stuff into inaccessible dial spaces, water spots are
inevitable.

Then, and this is very important, use the sink spray to thoroughly, very
thoroughly, rinse any hint of cleaner out. (it is NaOH, most all
cleaners are)

Shake it off, spin it around, whatever, to remove excess water.

Heat your oven to 140 degrees F. put in oven for 2 to 3 hours. use some
kind of metal cookie sheet between it and the oven elements to avoid
radiant melting."

I have some trouble believing that anyone intelligent would advise washing
electronics at home in sodium hydroxide solution and tap water !

You're damn lucky it recovered.

Graham



Washing a board is not necessarily a problem, per se. One particular
commercial board that I repair literally hundreds of, frequently requires
washing off of the drinks ingredients that have got all over it. I do this
with hot water, ordinary dishwashing liquid, and a nylon dish scrubbing
brush. I use very hot water to rinse it off, and after a couple of good
shakes, most of this has gone, the rest almost evaporating off on its own
over a couple of minutes. I place the board finally in front of a small fan
for a few minutes, which finishes off the drying process. The results are
spectacular with a cleaned board looking like new. I have never had one
return later as a result of any problems caused by the washing. But here's
the trick. These boards have only 'standard' components fitted - R's, IC's,
TR's Caps etc. I would not dream of applying this cleaning method, or even
one using volatile solvents, to any board with anything RF on it such as IF
trannies, RF front end coils etc. I can't believe that any reputable service
person would suggest doing such a thing, and I agree with you Graham, it is
very very lucky that the thing has recovered at all. I rather think that
there is no telling what long term damage may have been done ...

Arfa

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

"Eeyore" wrote in
message ...


Bob in CO wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Bob wrote:

In article ,
Eeyore wrote:

Robert wrote:

I decided to clean the inside of my vintage Akai stereo receiver

Why ?

with
some QD Electronic Cleaner that I bought at Ace Hardware today.
I took
the top off and sprayed liberal amounts of the cleaner inside
and let
it dry out. However, when I hooked it back up, the receiver only
comes
on at very low volume. It sounds as if the FM Mute button is
stuck on.
It does the same thing to AM stations as well so maybe the Mute
button
can be ruled out. I plugged in a pair of headphones and it
didn't help.

Any suggestions?

You're a nitwit ?

What on earth gave you such a monumentally bad idea in the first
place ?

A competent tech may be able to recover whatever you've done to it
fortunately.
It won't be cheap though.

Graham

I did have a reason for cleaning. I was getting a popping noise from
one
of the channels and I wanted to clean the pots.

Dirty pots aren't a cause of popping I'm afraid !


Apparently just because
it's recommended in the FAQ doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Thanks to everybody for the (ahem) constructive advice.

Does the FAQ advise drenching your gear in solvent ? I doubt it !

Graham

Yes it does. Although the FAQ recommends soaking the equipment in a
solution of Fantastic (not electronic cleaner). See below:

"Eliminating tobacco smoke smell from electronic equipment:

First, unplug it. then open it up as much as possible. get a spray
bottle of Fantastic and cut the strength in half with water.

Put the thing over the kitchen sink and spray away. let it sit for a
minute and watch the yellow nicotine crud slither out. repeat if
necessary you shouldn't even have to do any scrubbing.

Avoid getting the stuff into inaccessible dial spaces, water spots are
inevitable.

Then, and this is very important, use the sink spray to thoroughly, very
thoroughly, rinse any hint of cleaner out. (it is NaOH, most all
cleaners are)

Shake it off, spin it around, whatever, to remove excess water.

Heat your oven to 140 degrees F. put in oven for 2 to 3 hours. use some
kind of metal cookie sheet between it and the oven elements to avoid
radiant melting."

I have some trouble believing that anyone intelligent would advise
washing
electronics at home in sodium hydroxide solution and tap water !

You're damn lucky it recovered.

Graham



Washing a board is not necessarily a problem, per se. One particular
commercial board that I repair literally hundreds of, frequently requires
washing off of the drinks ingredients that have got all over it. I do this
with hot water, ordinary dishwashing liquid, and a nylon dish scrubbing
brush. I use very hot water to rinse it off, and after a couple of good
shakes, most of this has gone, the rest almost evaporating off on its own
over a couple of minutes. I place the board finally in front of a small
fan for a few minutes, which finishes off the drying process. The results
are spectacular with a cleaned board looking like new. I have never had
one return later as a result of any problems caused by the washing. But
here's the trick. These boards have only 'standard' components fitted -
R's, IC's, TR's Caps etc. I would not dream of applying this cleaning
method, or even one using volatile solvents, to any board with anything RF
on it such as IF trannies, RF front end coils etc. I can't believe that
any reputable service person would suggest doing such a thing, and I agree
with you Graham, it is very very lucky that the thing has recovered at
all. I rather think that there is no telling what long term damage may
have been done ...

Arfa


Many fluxes are water washable these days, but the previous poster was
objecting to advice to use water and caustic soda - this could result in all
that's left of the aluminium electrolytics is the copper wires sticking up
out of the board!!!!!