1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

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

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 8:46:24 AM UTC-5, wrote:
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

And here I thought that dishwashers were made for steaming fish..

Did you use standard dishwasher detergent or something else?

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

On 10/03/2016 13:46, wrote:
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


Was SWMBO around at the time?

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 10:50:25 AM UTC-5, John-Del wrote:

And here I thought that dishwashers were made for steaming fish..

Not so much on a Bosch. There is no exposed heating element, so the water never gets to more than 180F, and then only during the actual washing cycle. The drying cycle uses residual heat and fan-forced air. So, the water is heated directly, not the entire inside of the dishwasher, and there is nothing other than the fan blowing during the drying cycle.


Did you use standard dishwasher detergent or something else?

Standard high-phosphorus/bleach detergent, yes. We are on a municipal sewer system, so I do not worry about phosphorus discharge. Normally (and this is normal?) I use no detergent at all. But this unit was beyond merely filthy - the heat-sink fins were indistinguishable, that bad.

My wife is not at all squeamish about this sort of thing, I have cleaned/restored stuff for her that she thought was entirely unsalvageable. The dishwasher has a stainless steel inside, the oven is actually self-cleaning, and there were no untoward smells. She sees it as another demonstration that I am 'handy' to have around.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

On 11/03/16 09:37, Ian Field wrote:


wrote in message
...
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.

What's that in Centigrade - apparently germanium transistors brew up
somewhere around water boiling point.

Boiling point is 220F.

Nice story :)

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

On 11/03/16 05:38, Clifford Heath wrote:
On 11/03/16 09:37, Ian Field wrote:


wrote in message
...
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.

What's that in Centigrade - apparently germanium transistors brew up
somewhere around water boiling point.

Boiling point is 220F.

Sorry, that was a typo. At least know I was *thinking* 212... as the
engineer arrived to certify our new footings..

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

"John-Del" wrote in message
...
On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 8:46:24 AM UTC-5, wrote:
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

And here I thought that dishwashers were made for steaming fish..

Apparently you can cook fish fingers in the toaster.

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

wrote in message
...
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.

What's that in Centigrade - apparently germanium transistors brew up
somewhere around water boiling point.

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

On 03/10/2016 01:38 PM, Clifford Heath wrote:
On 11/03/16 09:37, Ian Field wrote:


wrote in message
...
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.

What's that in Centigrade - apparently germanium transistors brew up
somewhere around water boiling point.

Boiling point is 220F.

Nice story :)

Where do you live, the bottom of a lake? 212F at 1 bar!

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

Boiling point is 220F.

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/bo...de-d_1344.html

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 5:37:29 PM UTC-5, Ian Field wrote:

What's that in Centigrade - apparently germanium transistors brew up
somewhere around water boiling point.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...20to%20celsius

175F = 79.444C
180F = 82.222C


Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 8:46:24 AM UTC-5, wrote:
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

Fish fingers must be very small. Do you eat them by the gross or the ounce? Lenny

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

Had some boards at work with 'lytic caps leaking acid. SWMBO said no way bringing them home. Company bought a dishwasher explicitly for electronics cleaning and it works very well. I use a small amount of detergent, no active drying in the dishwasher but we also have a commercial food dehydrator for 'baking' tapes. 17 hours at 125F makes the boards look and work like new again.

G²

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

wrote in message
...

Had some boards at work with 'lytic caps leaking acid. SWMBO said no way
bringing them home. Company bought a dishwasher explicitly for electronics
cleaning and it works very well. I use a small amount of detergent, no
active drying in the dishwasher but we also have a commercial food
dehydrator for 'baking' tapes. 17 hours at 125F makes the boards look and
work like new again.

Boards have had water soluble flux since they banned the solvents to protect
the ozone layer.

AFAIK: all PCBs are cleaned in water nowadays.

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 8:46:24 AM UTC-5, wrote:
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?
I have alot of music on reel to reel. some of the oxide comes off of some of these. I know that their days are numbered. Can I save them? thanks Lenny

What' the deal on baking tapess

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

In article ,
says...

Had some boards at work with 'lytic caps leaking acid. SWMBO said
no way bringing them home. Company bought a dishwasher explicitly for
electronics cleaning and it works very well. I use a small amount of
detergent, no active drying in the dishwasher but we also have a
commercial food dehydrator for 'baking' tapes. 17 hours at 125F makes
the boards look and work like new again.

G²

Reminds me of the "best butter" used by the March Hare in his watch, as
told by Lewis Carroll!

Mike.

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

wrote:

Had some boards at work with 'lytic caps leaking acid. SWMBO said no way bringing them home. Company bought a dishwasher explicitly for electronics cleaning and it works very well. I use a small amount of detergent, no active drying in the dishwasher but we also have a commercial food dehydrator for 'baking' tapes. 17 hours at 125F makes the boards look and work like new again.


We used a citrus based solvent in an industrial circuit board washer
at the Microdyne plant in Ocala, Florida. I don't remember the brand,
but it was a modified restaurant type dishwasher that sat on top of a
stainless steel tank that held the solvent. The modifications were that
tank, and an additional pump to circulate the solvent between the rinse
stages. That cut the cleaning costs, and also trapped any parts that
came off of new boards due to problems in the reflow oven. It had over a
dozen solid state relays added, for the modified wash cycle.


Most of those early Delco solid state radios were a breeze to fix.
Most spent less than 10 minutes on the bench, since the biggest failures
in the '70s & '80s were open RF/IF transistors, or a shorted output
transistor. They failed so often that the radio bench had its own
inventory of parts right above the test equipment. It often took longer
to do the paperwork than the actual repairs. :)

A curved hemostat, and clipping the leads to different lengths let
you replace the RF transistors without removing the circuit board from
the tuner. That trick alone, cut about 15 minutes from each repair. The
first shop would remove the board, and quite often they would break the
tabs off the coils and then they would wait for a new tuner to be
ordered.

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

wrote:

I have alot of music on reel to reel. some of the oxide comes off of some of these. I know that their days are numbered. Can I save them? thanks Lenny

What' the deal on baking tapess


That depends on the backing used. Acetate requires a different
method than mylar.

1969 Delco Car Radio Saga
 

I have alot of music on reel to reel. some of the oxide comes off of some of
these. I know that their days are numbered. Can I save them? thanks Lenny

What' the deal on baking tapess


Not nice to hijack a thread.

Youre likely to get a greater response if you dont Reply to an existing
message. Create a New message and add your own Subject.