The wall of shame worst repairs ever

Oscar23

Active Member
We came up with this wall of shame spawned by this thread http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/scary-rotel-repair.795096/#post-11001768
Which may the worst of so if you have and horrible diy repairs or hacks post them here for all the world to see, skrews in fuses, taped up wires, backwards caps anything at all here I will repost this here a Rotel rx454 from value village and I couldn't help myself I powered it on and it worked great lol.
 

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The turd in Europe who decided to take a whack at fixing my Stax amp. Diodes in backward, non spec and plain out wrong parts. Was truly a “good fix” scenario if ever I saw one. That amp is finally getting straightened out. Sorry no pics, it didn’t look as botched as it was.
 
Local ''Authorized Dealer'' sold a client a ''Factory Authorised Upgrade'' that increased a units power supply capacitance by a whopping 75% over stock.

As a tech,I was concerned that this modification would be hazardous to the rectifiers,and more importantly,the power transformer.I contacted the manufacturer directly to determine the validity of this ''Upgrade'' and expressed my reservations regarding possible damage to the unit.

The manufacturers reply stated categorically that this was Not a factory authorized upgrade and that Using the unit in this condition would likely result in damage to the power transformer.

To say that I am unimpressed would be an understatement.I have a copy of the work order,and the resulting bill for this work.The charges made were astronomical.
An absolutely disgraceful display of dealer misrepresentation and technical incompetence.
 
Well, let's see if this qualifies. Here's a Sony SQ decoder who's power amp failed. The power amp was removed and the stereo pre amp and power amp (STK pack underneath the circuit board on the right side of the photo) from a television was, ummm installed (not to mention a slight power supply, err... modification).

It actually works!
20110423 Sony SQA-200 decoder 3.jpg 20110423 Sony SQA-200 decoder.jpg
 
Well, let's see if this qualifies. Here's a Sony SQ decoder who's power amp failed. The power amp was removed and the stereo pre amp and power amp (STK pack underneath the circuit board on the right side of the photo) from a television was, ummm installed (not to mention a slight power supply, err... modification).

It actually works!
View attachment 1041085 View attachment 1041086
It actually looks like that inside nice
 
Local ''Authorized Dealer'' sold a client a ''Factory Authorised Upgrade'' that increased a units power supply capacitance by a whopping 75% over stock.

As a tech,I was concerned that this modification would be hazardous to the rectifiers,and more importantly,the power transformer.I contacted the manufacturer directly to determine the validity of this ''Upgrade'' and expressed my reservations regarding possible damage to the unit.

The manufacturers reply stated categorically that this was Not a factory authorized upgrade and that Using the unit in this condition would likely result in damage to the power transformer.

To say that I am unimpressed would be an understatement.I have a copy of the work order,and the resulting bill for this work.The charges made were astronomical.
An absolutely disgraceful display of dealer misrepresentation and technical incompetence.
As if the bench fees were not enough.
 
Well, let's see if this qualifies. Here's a Sony SQ decoder who's power amp failed. The power amp was removed and the stereo pre amp and power amp (STK pack underneath the circuit board on the right side of the photo) from a television was, ummm installed (not to mention a slight power supply, err... modification).

It actually works!
View attachment 1041086

Friggin' scary.....:yikes:
 
I will repost this here a Rotel rx454 from value village and I couldn't help myself I powered it on and it worked great lol.


what are the wall warts for? Is that part of the things internal power supply now???


Worst that immediately comes to mind is my Philco 39-116. Its a console radio from 1939. The main filter can had been removed and a "modern" electrolytic installed probably sometime in the late 40s or early 50s. Stock can was a screw mount type, single terminal out of the bottom and just a retaining nut to hold it and ground it. The new cap was grounded to the antenna connection on the back of the radio. I think they were meaning to use the ground terminal, but missed. Luckily that particular terminal was the one with the swing plate on it to tie it to chassis ground when not using a balanced antenna lead. With that undone, there would have been no B+ filtering.
 
What to do when your Citation I preamp needs a new can electrolytic and the only one you have handy to install is just a bit too tall.........

What to do??? What do do ?? <roll eyes>


IMG_20171107_193733479.jpg IMG_20171107_193749574.jpg
 
Nothing wrong with this 4 channel power amp, right ??

IMG_20171107_194118584.jpg

Oh..... wait..... what ?? I guess someone -REALLY- hated the Pioneer proprietary speaker plug setup.

The custom printing, banana jack alignment, and the drywall screw are all "top notch". :rolleyes:

IMG_20171107_194144093.jpg
 
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I swapped those out on my SX-1500TD but I used twin jacks that were easily modified to just fit into the stock cutout. No modifications to the chassis at all, and I have the original connector that can be re-installed easily. I guess the idea of reversible modifications is alien.
 
The seller glued the idler wheel back into place, and claimed that everything works fine.
It was not an issue, as I'd already arranged for retreading. In my first attempt at a spin, the tire came flying off, and all came to a stop. The tire hit the inside of the platter, and made it ring. That was kind of neat.
No one was killed or injured in the process.

presto15G2h.jpg Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 12.56.09 PM.png
 
One of my favorites - QRX 9001 must have been cutting out as they're prone to do because of cold solder pass through joints on the double sided dolby board. Enter ... the wedgie ...

4channel-wedgie.jpg


Old receiver foot shaved to size and jammed between the boards to put a bow on the boards and put enough pressure on the joints so they worked. Which they did, for a while I guess.
 
I swapped those out on my SX-1500TD but I used twin jacks that were easily modified to just fit into the stock cutout. No modifications to the chassis at all, and I have the original connector that can be re-installed easily. I guess the idea of reversible modifications is alien.
I did do a permanent mod on a late model Marantz 1030 integrated. The early model had pre out and main in jacks. Being the lowest offering they later stopped installing them. I used the same jack plate originally used from an early model donor to add them to the later model. It looks factory, I used the factory wiring and it looks like it should.
 
I need to dig out my Hafler preamp. The RCA output jacks failed (came off the board). So, I hard-wired an output cables pair, and ran them out of a removed-for-this-effort AC power jack port. It has worked nicely like that for decades.
I think I might have used a piece of garden hose as a protective guard against sheet metal abrasion, and strain relief at the thru-hole?
Like I said, I need to get that one down, and maybe take a pic or two.

My bad,... it was radiator/coolant hose.
DSCN4095.jpg
 
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