Retro Radio & TV Repair & Sales

Nothing here yet......

Nothing here yet......

The next item is a Telefunken Opus 6 "tabletop" radio.
This one was shipped from a distance away from me in the most careful and proper way.

I can't express enough how important it is to do this if you want your treasure to arrive in the condition it was before it was shipped.

A quick inspection revealed that the overall exterior condition was not very good.

The finish is of course lacquer, and the top was cracked and crazed. Sorry I lost the photo...
This was not the mirror finish it should have had.

There was more to be revealed in that the right corner trim band was missing its retaining clip.
The result is as you see in the second photo. There were also numerous dings and dents.

Time for the whole thing to get stripped down.

Removing the radio chassis, speaker board, side louvers and trim pieces reveals the first picture.

Now on to the worst of the worst. The radio chassis.....

Getting the thing out proved to be very difficult.
It had multiple wood and machine screws as well as machine nuts all intertwined with the cabinet woo bezel, cabinet side and metal supports.
very tedious!

Eventually removed, serviced and replaced.

Just look at that mess of cramped components!! It was very difficult finding, moving and replacing what needed replacing.

The audio output consists of a pair of 35C5's that relied on a 4" square perforated steel grille on the top rear of the cabinet. That hole was full of dust.
Not too smart of an idea painting it black like that as the non fire-retardant curtains of the time surely would have protested!
I ended up painting the grille Chevy engine "bright orange-red" to warn the unsuspecting, that the thing is hot and is an air vent.

I found another issue while looking at the radio chassis.
The tuning capacitor shaft grommets were gone.

Also noted was that there was slop in the tuning shaft and plastic pulley.
It was worn out. Which it I didn't care about that time. Just a liberal application of J-B Weld fixed whatever was loose.

It's all done now and the owner is happy.

The power supply and stereo converter had all manner of connections including strange male and female 2 pin & Edison connectors...

The power supply bottom is shown with the components already changed. I used black silicone rubber to make sure that nothing flaps in the breeze.

When I opened up the stereo converter, all I had to do was change just a few capacitors.

A very dusty mess all around. The cables were attached to the particle board cabinet with staples and plastic clips making removal a chore.

The recapping of the power supply and stereo converter went just fine.
I took the liberty to install a chassis mounted fuseholder in the power supply chassis.
Then I replaced the power cord for safety because the old one was a bit worn out. 9 feet of line cord.

A few interconnections first.....
This thing was definitely designed to built with any servicing as an afterthought.
The individual sub chassis were screwed from the bottom of the cabinet with various sized screws and bolts, not necessarily in any size groupings or tidy manner.

The first thing I always do is to have enough light to make sure that when the photos are taken that I can see them later.

Lots of interconnecting cables using every old tube basing plugs and sockets, i.e. 5, 6, 7, and 8 pin types! That will prevent any wrongly connected cables. WRONG! there were 2 of the same types! I think that they were both 8 pins.

I noted that the amplifier input went through the reel to reel as well as the phono outputs.
At least they were color coded.
Here are some photos:

Let's start with the turntable. What a mess!
As you can see, lots of dried up grease.
Also any rubber grommets were melted to goo.
That across the line capacitor has to go.
I'll replace it with a safety capacitor.
Lots of cleaning, re-lubing adjustments later, it all works!
Now onto the radio chassis.

Here's a 1960's JVC console with onboard reel to reel player and recorder, full speed - full size turntable.
The tuner section is both AM & FM with an add on stereo decoder.