New project. Sansui 8080 recap. Advice appreciated.

Thanks for the recommendation, how are you using it? Any pictures?
I soaked the base plate of my amplifier in white vinegar and the rust game right off, some paint did too but oh well. I'm painting it with clear coat right now.
The rust on the transformer is more difficult because I'd rather avoid removing it from the receiver and disassembling it. I'm looking up rust converters or some sort of paint that can be applied to affected areas without disassembling the receiver, any thoughts?
 
Sadly stuff that I order takes like 10/15 days to come to my country... but take a look on youtube (Jay Leno recommended it).
Is usually done in chrome but I want to try it on other surfaces to see how will do.

Just for you to have an Idea what I'm dealing with... take a look of this.
CMG6152 (7).JPG
 
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Nice it's amazing how well it can be cleaned up. What method have you been using so far?

The baseplate on my amp is looking pretty clean now, I think the next step will be to soak the F2546 D02 and D03 diode covers, the Tape 2 Din socket and the heatsinks from F2436 in vinegar overnight.
Let me know how well the quick-glo works out because it might be good for my affected chassis areas that can't be soaked and the transformer.
 
What method have you been using so far?
The good old white vinegar, I use it when I'm restoring old handplanes too, after that I clean it with WD40 leaving no residues, and that avoid rust from returning again.

As soon I get the quick-glo I will test it and post my findings on different surfaces. I got it on ebay, so we'll see.

Keep us informed about your project :thumbsup:
 
Is white vinegar safe to use that close to electrical components? I've been soaking individual parts overnight then thoroughly washing them, I have some WD-40 so I might try that too.
I'm thinking I'll just sand back and repaint the rusted parts that are painted black. I know no-one will ever see it but I will haha. It's my first day off in over a month so it's Sansui day!
 
Is white vinegar safe to use that close to electrical components?
I would not put my money on that... but who knows how well the mighty white vinegar can do... let's use them just for rusted metal parts (for now).

I'm thinking I'll just sand back and repaint the rusted parts that are painted black.
I have used nice grill paint for that, after the rust removal... enjoy your sansui day mate!
 
It's looking pretty shiny now but I've still got some work to do.

I'll be buying some satin black paint when it's back in stock Tuesday. I think I just had a new problem though. I reassembled the amp and turned it on which worked fine, then I changed the input to see that beautiful backlight and all the lights went dark. Any ideas? I found this thread: http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....-selector-light-problems.659710/#post-8787425
And this blog post: http://www.tapeheads.net/showthread.php?t=49795

Sounds like that source selector switch might need a good clean. Any experience with this?
 
then I changed the input to see that beautiful backlight and all the lights went dark
those buggers dial lights are on just with the tuner engaged
Are the light's on with the tuner and off with Aux, if yes
there's a mod


If not, report.
 
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Yeah I've heard about that mod, I've been thinking about installing a switch for that function.

It was just the VU meter lights for Aux and Phono and the rest for the tuner. Just today they're all dark all the time when the amp is on.
 
Yeah I've heard about that mod, I've been thinking about installing a switch for that function.

It was just the VU meter lights for Aux and Phono and the rest for the tuner. Just today they're all dark all the time when the amp is on.
There is a fuse for the light, 1A I think... check if you have a small short or if the fuse just fail.
 
So after checking all the fuses with my multimeter they all work... and that apparently fixed the lights, who knew! haha.
Maybe the rear fuse was loose or something, this sure has been neglected over the years. I think it was left out in the rain in rural Australia for a while.
 
and that apparently fixed the lights, who knew! haha.
That's why I have always some new fuses, sometime this units have some old, rusted or just tired fuses, that do not perform.
As you see... capacitors are the least problematic part, they fail and IMO it is a good practice to replace them, but they are not the most problematic aspect of vintage units.
 
Yeah I agree, in my limited experience quality brand name capacitors don't tend to break, but recapping my AU-719 made a world of difference to the background hiss and bass response.

Do you know anything about repainting the front panel's window's trim? As you can see mine is quite tarnished. In other people's photos it looks to have a fake aluminium grain appearance, I was thinking a silver paint applied with a brush might look similar but might also look terrible. A replacement part off eBay could be good but expensive.

I'm also thinking about soaking the knobs in vinegar because soapy water hasn't removed some grime, I'm not sure how that will affect the plastic insides and black positional markings on the knobs though.

xkWItWy.jpg
 
Character is a good word for it! haha. I tried soapy water a while ago but it didn't do much.

My parts all arrived today! Working on it at the moment. So far I've replaced most of the resistors and the distortion got slightly worse after the 150ohm resistors were replaced, I think this is likely due to the offset not being adjusted now. I'll buy some wire tomorrow so I can solder in the new transistors like pictured on the other thread.

I think I've confirmed that the distortion sound is coming from F-2436. I read online that the board was reversible so I inserted the board in backwards, when I did the distortion moved to the right channel.

One other amateur hour question, my filter capacitors have 5 tabs, how do I solder this in?

Hldok10.jpg
 
Well what do you know, I replaced the final two resistors (R29 and R30 390ohm) and the distortion is fixed! :banana:
Now the recapping begins!
 
Just in case, Remember to work one board at the time, and then test.

Another tip; Before solder wire, tin the tip of the wire before you manipulate it, in order to avoid loosen strains.
 
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Yeah I agree, in my limited experience quality brand name capacitors don't tend to break, but recapping my AU-719 made a world of difference to the background hiss and bass response.

Do you know anything about repainting the front panel's window's trim? As you can see mine is quite tarnished. In other people's photos it looks to have a fake aluminium grain appearance, I was thinking a silver paint applied with a brush might look similar but might also look terrible. A replacement part off eBay could be good but expensive.

I'm also thinking about soaking the knobs in vinegar because soapy water hasn't removed some grime, I'm not sure how that will affect the plastic insides and black positional markings on the knobs though.

xkWItWy.jpg

To restore the finish on that trim you can draw-file it with a light/fine grade file that is long enough to straddle the full width of the trim so that the file is stable and doesn't rock over the edges. By draw-filing you restore the original machined finish appearance while at the same time removing the dirt and oxidation. Don't overdo it though; there isn't that much thickness to work with before you start changing the profile and the material comes off very easily. You need to remove it from the faceplate first of course and when you do that make a note of the locations of the various screws because some of them are self tappers and a couple have machine threads..
 
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