Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
Without doing a recap, just addressing problems and cleaning a long neglected unit, what do you think is needed to make the unit worthy of a shelf?
Phil has Free written across a tag on a Pioneer SX-828 top-of-the-line receiver from 71-73 with about 50 watts per channel. He meant for it to go with the Marantz tuner, inner box, outer box, cabinet, box and such but as the day got late I asked if it was free and I'd get it out of his way. That is, it seems, what he wanted. I asked him if it worked and he said it was intermittent in one channel and low in volume in the other. Good enough for me. Brought it home and recorded the serial number and put it on a stack of gear needing to see the workbench.
Then I talked to Doug (@dlucy) and asked if he would be interested in dropping by and looking at a Sansui AU-719 I have been having trouble with and he said sure. This was all at ehoove's excellent get together. Conversations later, I lured Doug in with the 828 and the three extra switches installed on the back of the unit and he dropped by the other day.
We got the switches determined, one is a preamp/power amp switch, used instead of needing jumpers. Nice.
The second one turned the power off to the big PS caps (they are for the amp only it seems) and the third switches the power to the relay board. I'm guessing when the unit was used as a preamp the amp section could be turned off. Odd, but the switches were properly installed and I'll leave the preamp/power amp switch. While Doug was digging around with those I was looking into other issues. The access to the control board to shot it with deoxit, the removal of the foam and the stereo lamp which wasn't working, but was it doing FM in stereo.
We got the switches cleaned, found a burned out Stereo lamp and we replaced it and after proper wait time, fired up the unit for the first time. We had sound...both channels...nearly equal in volume. But it was getting late and Doug needed to get back home. I'm stuck with an 828 spread all over the workbench with dirty parts everywhere. There are four covers inside the unit, the bottom panel, the faceplate, knobs, switch covers, speaker plugs (you know the Pioneer speaker plugs, this one came with three) and various other bits and pieces that were just filthy. Just as if I have company for dinner, I'm stuck clearing the table and washing the dishes. Thanks for your help on this one, Doug. Maybe we can get to the Sansui at a later date.
After getting all the parts cleaned, I went about looking over the operation of the unit. A pop when using the low filter, asked AK and a couple folks came back with the possible issue. Replaced those caps and that switch, now bent back into place is working quietly as it should. Some internal cleaning, Bias and Offset adjusted to spec and more cleaning.
Then the washed walnut cabinet cabinet got a light sanding, some 330 grit, did the walnut end caps on the faceplate, too, then a drink of Watco Danish Oil Finish (Dark Walnut). Buffed this off at the proper time, painted the grille satin black and left the parts in the garage to dry. More work on the unit.
This unit, using two tuning capacitors, common on earlier units has only one tuning string. Not quite enough friction on the tuning wheel to move both caps so I cleaned the grease on the shafts and the pivot points inside of the AM cap (the FM cap is covered and less accessible). This got the tuning indicator to move more in line with the tuning knob. Things are getting better all the time.
Finally, installed the covers, faceplate, bottom panel and cover and cleaned the back panel. I'm calling the unit ready to go, just service, not rebuilt or recapped and looking nice. Now Dave might want it. He had asked earlier about its availability and he would have brought it to me or another of his contacts who recaps Pioneer for him.
I'll be hooking this up to some real speakers soon and see how it sounds. Just finished a CR-820, similar power and fully rebuilt. Be a good comparison.
Anyway, what did you guess as to the hours needed to knock the dirt and wear off this unit and make it look good enough to be allowed to stay around?
I'm figuring that the 5 hours Doug was here we did about 7 hours of work since some was talking, listening and watching. Doug seemed to enjoy figuring out the switches while I watched and put something else on the main rig. Then a couple days, few hours each attending to the details. Here is why we buy the best condition you can find, those 18 hours of refurb were not something folks can charge for as a service shop. Without a recap and a nominal fee for the clean up hours one is already above what these usually sell for in fair shape. A recap would take a long time with may of the small caps glued down as the ones I changed didn't want to come out.
Here are some before pictures:
I don't think I have a before on the front panel but it was filthy. Fortunately it was not a damaged unit. You can see some of the clean up needed on the front in one of these pics. I'll get some after pics when there is some light out.
Phil has Free written across a tag on a Pioneer SX-828 top-of-the-line receiver from 71-73 with about 50 watts per channel. He meant for it to go with the Marantz tuner, inner box, outer box, cabinet, box and such but as the day got late I asked if it was free and I'd get it out of his way. That is, it seems, what he wanted. I asked him if it worked and he said it was intermittent in one channel and low in volume in the other. Good enough for me. Brought it home and recorded the serial number and put it on a stack of gear needing to see the workbench.
Then I talked to Doug (@dlucy) and asked if he would be interested in dropping by and looking at a Sansui AU-719 I have been having trouble with and he said sure. This was all at ehoove's excellent get together. Conversations later, I lured Doug in with the 828 and the three extra switches installed on the back of the unit and he dropped by the other day.
We got the switches determined, one is a preamp/power amp switch, used instead of needing jumpers. Nice.
The second one turned the power off to the big PS caps (they are for the amp only it seems) and the third switches the power to the relay board. I'm guessing when the unit was used as a preamp the amp section could be turned off. Odd, but the switches were properly installed and I'll leave the preamp/power amp switch. While Doug was digging around with those I was looking into other issues. The access to the control board to shot it with deoxit, the removal of the foam and the stereo lamp which wasn't working, but was it doing FM in stereo.
We got the switches cleaned, found a burned out Stereo lamp and we replaced it and after proper wait time, fired up the unit for the first time. We had sound...both channels...nearly equal in volume. But it was getting late and Doug needed to get back home. I'm stuck with an 828 spread all over the workbench with dirty parts everywhere. There are four covers inside the unit, the bottom panel, the faceplate, knobs, switch covers, speaker plugs (you know the Pioneer speaker plugs, this one came with three) and various other bits and pieces that were just filthy. Just as if I have company for dinner, I'm stuck clearing the table and washing the dishes. Thanks for your help on this one, Doug. Maybe we can get to the Sansui at a later date.
After getting all the parts cleaned, I went about looking over the operation of the unit. A pop when using the low filter, asked AK and a couple folks came back with the possible issue. Replaced those caps and that switch, now bent back into place is working quietly as it should. Some internal cleaning, Bias and Offset adjusted to spec and more cleaning.
Then the washed walnut cabinet cabinet got a light sanding, some 330 grit, did the walnut end caps on the faceplate, too, then a drink of Watco Danish Oil Finish (Dark Walnut). Buffed this off at the proper time, painted the grille satin black and left the parts in the garage to dry. More work on the unit.
This unit, using two tuning capacitors, common on earlier units has only one tuning string. Not quite enough friction on the tuning wheel to move both caps so I cleaned the grease on the shafts and the pivot points inside of the AM cap (the FM cap is covered and less accessible). This got the tuning indicator to move more in line with the tuning knob. Things are getting better all the time.
Finally, installed the covers, faceplate, bottom panel and cover and cleaned the back panel. I'm calling the unit ready to go, just service, not rebuilt or recapped and looking nice. Now Dave might want it. He had asked earlier about its availability and he would have brought it to me or another of his contacts who recaps Pioneer for him.
I'll be hooking this up to some real speakers soon and see how it sounds. Just finished a CR-820, similar power and fully rebuilt. Be a good comparison.
Anyway, what did you guess as to the hours needed to knock the dirt and wear off this unit and make it look good enough to be allowed to stay around?
I'm figuring that the 5 hours Doug was here we did about 7 hours of work since some was talking, listening and watching. Doug seemed to enjoy figuring out the switches while I watched and put something else on the main rig. Then a couple days, few hours each attending to the details. Here is why we buy the best condition you can find, those 18 hours of refurb were not something folks can charge for as a service shop. Without a recap and a nominal fee for the clean up hours one is already above what these usually sell for in fair shape. A recap would take a long time with may of the small caps glued down as the ones I changed didn't want to come out.
Here are some before pictures:
I don't think I have a before on the front panel but it was filthy. Fortunately it was not a damaged unit. You can see some of the clean up needed on the front in one of these pics. I'll get some after pics when there is some light out.
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