Renovation of my KLH 17's is complete (long)

[KLH]

Hi. New guy here. I just recently realized one of my 17's tweeters is not working....figured it might be the old caps in the crossover and that led me here. Nice thread!

I'm awaiting my new Dayton caps to arrive. I also gotten proper surround sealer/brush on eBay -says it's for refurbishing AR and KLH speakers, specifically.

My question is in regards to sealing under the woofers (frame against wood cabinet area) after they are reinstalled once the cap work is complete. Is there any gasket material, calking or something to make sure they go back in air-tight?



Thanks

 

[alteclipsch]

My question is in regards to sealing under the woofers (frame against wood cabinet area) after they are reinstalled once the cap work is complete. Is there any gasket material, calking or something to make sure they go back in air-tight?

Some folks re-use the white circle of foam that was used to seal them at the factory. It's usually really flat though. I've used rope caulk after I found that the foam leaked. Others use something called Mortite, which I think may be essentially the same thing.

Love them Seventeens!

 

[Airjmax]

Hi. New guy here. I just recently realized one of my 17's tweeters is not working....figured it might be the old caps in the crossover and that led me here. Nice thread!

I'm awaiting my new Dayton caps to arrive. I also gotten proper surround sealer/brush on eBay -says it's for refurbishing AR and KLH speakers, specifically.

My question is in regards to sealing under the woofers (frame against wood cabinet area) after they are reinstalled once the cap work is complete. Is there any gasket material, calking or something to make sure they go back in air-tight?



Thanks

I used this: https://www.amazon.com/Frost-King-P..._8?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1536959856&sr=1-8

It was super easy to work with, and there was plenty to do both speakers. Check out my post: http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....of-my-klh-17s-is-complete-long.102176/page-18

I show all the tools I used to complete the seal and recap. Best of luck, they are some great vintage speakers.

 

[tyella]

I've been using duct seal for the past few years. It's MUCH softer than the Moretite I had, so it seems less like likely to warp a woofer basket when I tighten the screws down. Could be that my Moretite was just really old...either way, the 5 lb block I bought for $5 is still going strong.

 

[KLH]

Well I got something called rope caulk -not Mortite but some other brand.

Do I need to apply the entire width of the rope caulk? Or, just peel off a strand of it? Seems like an excessive amount of caulk to use the whole width -which looks to be about an inch wide. And, if just a strand is needed, then should it be applied to the outermost edge of the woofer inset? Or should it be closer to the hole?

 

[tnsmnichols]

Well I got something called rope caulk -not Mortite but some other brand.

Do I need to apply the entire width of the rope caulk? Or, just peel off a strand of it? Seems like an excessive amount of caulk to use the whole width -which looks to be about an inch wide. And, if just a strand is needed, then should it be applied to the outermost edge of the woofer inset? Or should it be closer to the hole?

Take a look here at post #23.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/in...y-long-with-photos.306818/page-2#post-3799388

 

[KLH]

Thanks for that link! It still looks like a lot of caulking to me, but I'll do it per the instructions.

Also.....Just thinking that there really isn't a need to take the tweeter out of the enclosure at all -unless, of course, the recap doesn't fix it....right? I can access the crossover from the woofer hole to do the recap....Am I missing something? Do I need to take the tweeter out?

 

[tnsmnichols]

No need to remove the tweeter.

 

[Airjmax]

Well I got something called rope caulk -not Mortite but some other brand.

Do I need to apply the entire width of the rope caulk? Or, just peel off a strand of it? Seems like an excessive amount of caulk to use the whole width -which looks to be about an inch wide. And, if just a strand is needed, then should it be applied to the outermost edge of the woofer inset? Or should it be closer to the hole?

I used three strands around the woofer hole, and made sure to cover the edge well. I removed the tweeter and sealed it too, because the original foam ring seal was a bit brittle, and was nearly impossible to put back while making a seal.

 

[baconbadge]

I used some of that foam stuff you put around window air conditioners.

 

[KLH]

Hi again.

Well, I just got through recapping my 17s and realized that one of the tweeters is still dead! So, it wasn't just the caps that prevented it from working. Geez! After all that! Oh well, I guess the old caps were probably not performing to their spec, anyway.
I assumed that I could easily find some old KLH 17 tweeters on Ebay (or somewhere) but nothing showed up when I searched.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[RxDx]

Same tweeter in the Six, Twenty, Thirty, and Thirty Three.

 

[Tim D]

Hi again.

Well, I just got through recapping my 17s and realized that one of the tweeters is still dead! So, it wasn't just the caps that prevented it from working. Geez! After all that! Oh well, I guess the old caps were probably not performing to their spec, anyway.
I assumed that I could easily find some old KLH 17 tweeters on Ebay (or somewhere) but nothing showed up when I searched.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Check the tweeter with a multimeter or switch them between the cabinets and see if the problem follows. Don't want to buy a replacement until you are sure it's dead.

 

[SaturationPt]

Hopefully not dead, but dead tweeters are common on these.

 

[Tim D]

Hi again.

Well, I just got through recapping my 17s and realized that one of the tweeters is still dead! So, it wasn't just the caps that prevented it from working. Geez! After all that! Oh well, I guess the old caps were probably not performing to their spec, anyway.
I assumed that I could easily find some old KLH 17 tweeters on Ebay (or somewhere) but nothing showed up when I searched.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Patience grasshopper. The tweets come and go very regularly on flea bay. It may take a day or a week or two, but they will be there.

Alternatively, you could post a WTB advert here on AK in BarterTown. You need to be an AK subscriber to see BarterTown.

 

[concertfiend]

Part two

Here are the old and new caps side by side.

I purchased the caps from Parts Express at http://www.partsexpress.com. It only took 3 days for the caps to arrive, and I added in a few other items I needed too.

Here's what I ordered:
027-414 DAYTON DMPC-2.0 2.0uF-250V PO .. qty 4 $1.52 ea.
027-421 DAYTON DMPC-4.0 4.0uF-250V PO .. qty 4 $1.85 ea.

Here is the reassembled crossover with the new caps. I used hotmelt glue to fasten the double caps. Note that the two 4MF caps are in parallel, giving a total of 8MF.

Solder and wirecap the tweeter leads, and put it back in it's place

Before you put the driver back in, its time to put the stuffing and shroud back in place. Don't forget the gloves.

Solder in the driver leads, and mount it back on the cabinet with the 8 screws that you haven't lost.

With any luck, here's how it looks! Note that I cleaned and oiled the cabinets.

Just a couple of steps yet. Since the cabs were filthy, I figured the grills were too. They were in perfect shape, so instead of replacing the grill cloth, I used a fabric cleaner to freshen them up. Screw the logo back in place and you are DONE!

Here are a couple more shots of the finished product.

I must say that I'm VERY pleased with how these turned out. Total time invested was about 4 hours, including taking pictures. I've moved them up to my home office, driving them with my Marantz 1060 being fed by iTunes via a dbx 3BX-DS. I had planned on selling them, but oh my they sound mighty nice!

I've listened to a nice variety of music as I've put this together. I hope someone can find this post useful and maybe it will inspire someone to take on a project like this themselves.

Hi there, I'm currently in the middle of following your instructions on a pair of Model 20s and have a couple questions . This is my first time recapping anything ,and as a Virgin, I hope you'll be gentle with me and my beginner questions. Regarding the caps, I assume that the one under the L Pad just gets regular one black wire and one red wire to each side (the cap has the two positive leads, but they are pig tailed out). However with the one mounted on the L Pad, there's a negative then two positives going to the L Pad toggle. Do I pigtail the negatives of both caps together to the black wire then have one positive lead on one cap to to one side of the toggle, and the other lead to to the other side? Just want to make sure I do this correctly . Thank you for your help!

 

[concertfiend]

Anyone? Hoping to have these wrapped up over the weekend along with my first refoam job on some other speakers

 

[SuperLead100]

Anyone? Hoping to have these wrapped up over the weekend along with my first refoam job on some other speakers

If you haven't gotten an answer yet try starting a new thread and you'll have better luck with a response.

 

[jhouse55]

Thanks @specialidiot for starting this thread that would last years to come. I noticed you used woolite to clean the cloth on the grilles. Did you use a light brush after spraying it on, or a cloth to rub it on?

Anyone else have any feedback on what they used to clean up the grille cloth?

 

[stevepaige]

I would like to give @specialidiot a big thanks for the OP. His step-by-step along with all the contributions concerning the correct surround doping material found on the BAY by Vintage AR made my 1st recap easier than it would have been. Might need a 2nd coat on the surrounds. They bounce back just shy of one second. I think I read that between 1 and 2 seconds is the recommended return time. The speakers sound a lot better than before the recap. There is good bass and now I've got both of the tweeters singing. I was very happy when I checked them and they both rang in at 3.5 ohms.

It's amazing just how much faster the second speaker was completed.

Again, thanks everybody for all of the contributions. I have them playing tunes from a nice HK-430 twin power receiver. It only pushes 25 wpc, but the two power supplies keep the current flowing.