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Tuner Alignment for Dummies

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DanTana

Super Member
Lately, I have been experimenting with doing my own tuner alignments with pretty good results. This is in no means better than getting it professionally done, but will return excellent results for older tuners out of alignment and let you enjoy it that much more. I've looked all over the web for tuner alignment how-to's and advice. Seems it's either a forbidden subject or the ones who know don't want to share how to do it. So I'll post mine and go from there.

First, start at the screw on top of the tuner gang itself farthest from the wheel. That will be the oscillator. This will get your tuner to align the station to the dial pointer. I would do one somewhere in the middle of the dial to start, a known channel and slowly tune the dial, then turn the screw until they match to the proper dial position. Sometimes this screw is plastic, sometimes it's metal, but it's always the farthest from the tuning wheel. It should be directly above the FM gang. Those are the smaller of the gangs. If you have a 3 gang tuner it will be FM/AM/FM/AM/FM again. Some 4-5 gang tuners will be FM/FM/AM/FM/AM/FM and so on. Once you get the dial to the desired station you can move on to the next screw. On my Sansui there is no screw above the last fm gang, there is a variactor to the side of it, that will do the same thing, but you have to be very careful using a metal hex key to adjust the station position. It will change do to the conductivity of the metal hex key. Plastic is the preferred tool here.

Watch the strength meter carefully and use your ears. Try to tun to a lower station on the dial, around 90mhz and a somewhat weak station. Slowly turn the next closest screw over the FM gang. You should see the signal strength change as you turn it. Get it to the highest position possible according to the meter. Turn the screw in/out in smaller and smaller increments when your sure this is the best strength.

Now move on to the next closest screw over the FM gang, these will increment less and less as you get closer to the wheel. These will not make as much difference as you move closer, but you should still see some movement in the strength meter as you adjust the screw. Now when your satisfied it's at it's best position, start over with the second screw. Run through it again, and it should only take very small movements to see if your at the max strength.

After you do this 2-3 times and you see very little change then try running through the dial and see if your old channels come in stronger than before. You can also do this for AM if you listen to AM channels.

Make sure you use a insulated handle on your screwdriver when you do this, because your body will act as an antenna and change the strength. This should get you in the ballpark pretty close and you should see a marked improvement in your tuners sensitivity. Plus it will sound much better. Maybe practice on a "junk" tuner and make sure your confident enough to move on to that Kenwood L-01T. Remember any change you make can be undone if you want to mark the previous settings with a marker of some type. Then you can just revert back to those settings if your not happy.

This is for analog tuners only, I haven't experimented on any of my digital tuners yet, but if I do and the results are as good I'll post it also. You need plastic alignment tools with a digital tuner though, I'll try to get some soon and see what happens.

Good Luck :)
 
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Great info, great post.

Got me a little worried though, seeing as you just bagged a Sansui 517 from me, and are talking about alignment issues....

Say it ain't so brotha! If it is, I'll make it right.

Cheers,
Russ
 
No problem Russ, I got it taken care of, the tuner was off about .5 on the dial. Then I kept going and fine tuned it. Everything is peachy and any older tuner can get out of alignment especially during shipping. The Sansui is one of the sweetest sounding tuners I have yet heard. I see why it gets such rave reviews on fmtunerinfo. It's sensitivity is remarkable for a 4 gang 4 filter tuner. After the alignment almost every station now comes in stereo.
 
Fair nuff, but remind me on our next deal, and I'll make it a little sweeter. I don't like hickies on my deals, even small ones.

Cheers,
Russ
 
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From a person that has worked in RF for over 20 years, and aligned many tuners, radios, transmitters and radars, I can emphatically say "do NOT do this" or do it at your own risk. Definitely don't even try it if you don't have the right tools, ie. plastic. Aside from the conductivity, you can strip or crack the tuning slugs on coils using a metal hex tool. That makes it a real bitch when it comes to one of the professionals to get fixed

I would not recommend this procedure, a basic alignment of the front end has been discussed here before, check the archives.

It can take me the better part of a day to do a proper frontend alignment. One of the coils, you are calling screws may be an IF transformer, peaking is not the best way, you need a test equipment to do it right. If a tuner doesn't have filters or sometimes there is a combination of filters and transformers for the IF section, for a proper alignment these need to be aligned, to do it right you need the right test equipment. Then the MPX and muting usually need alignment.

I hate to be this harsh, I just don't want people to damage a working tuner.

You are living life dangerously.

X
 
Dangerous is my middle name. If you can't afford or get your tuner to a pro like yourself, I think this will get you "in the ballpark" but I would have to agree with Punker X. This is not for the faint hearted. I practiced on my old Rotel tuner before I did my Sansui with equally positive results. Channels that were not coming in, were now coming in stereo!! I saw an immediate improvement. The IF adjustments are not that dangerous and can be easily undone. But once again, go at your own risk. Like Echo's excellent post on DC adjustment, one slip of the screwdriver and pop goes the weasel, same thing applies.
 
I have had hundreds of pieces of gear come through here and Every single one has needed an alignment. An alignment does not just get knocked out during shipment.

This in no way is to reflect upon Russman. It is just to point out to you guys that all those "kick ass" tuners you have that have not been aligned since they left the factory need IT ! They go out of whack just from every day use.

Do you selves a favor and DO NOT just start twisting on adjustments. An Alignment will cost you from 50-100 bucks. Start F'in around with things best left to people who know and you will turn your tuner into a paper weight !
 
careful with that axe. . .

I remember turning those screws against the advise of my teck friend. . . I thought I knew better . . . I dont know better cost me big time as it was an expensive almost new KT-917 that I was screwing around with. I noticed that some screws raised the signal strength meter and I noticed the first screw did change places on the dial but when I went to the other end I was way, way off.
I might fool around with a 10 dollar tuner that I dont care about wether I throw it away or not. I am not telling you what to do either as you are having positive results, not so sure Joe would be so lucky or have the skills or common sense thats needed to do this. And I can only speak to the one time I messed with this . . . Cost me over 200 bucks to get it right but I was screwing with a thousand dollar tuner too. . .
 
My Rotel tuner was badly misaligned, it is a very simple 3 gang 2 filter tuner. It was one of my Goodwill $4.99 tuners. After adjusting it, it actually sounds like a pretty decent tuner. If I messed it up, I wouldn't cry too much, but then I felt confident enough to do my Sansui. I don't always think paying $50-100 for an alignment for a $5.00 tuner is justified, just like if I had an Accuphase T-109V, or Magnum Dynalab I wouldn't mess with it either. The very nature of this hobby is try to improve the equipment we buy, since we get most of it for cheap. If I could afford an alignment on every tuner I bought, then I would be owning an Accuphase. Many guys prefer not even doing Echo's DC offset adjustment, and that can fry your equipment just as easily if not quicker, if your not careful. Lots of us have $5.00 tuners laying around and those would be the perfect platforms to attempt this. The one thing I did learn from all of this, is that all my analog tuners were off, some more than others. Considering they are all 20+ years old that's understandable. The whole point of my original post was to try to help people extract better performance from their tuners, whether to do it or not is up to them.
 
DanTana;

Wrote my reply on my way to bed last night and didn't really have time to reply fully.

A service manual will tell you how to align the front end. Better service manuals will go into circuit descriptions and FM theory. Unfortunately Sansui is notorious for bad tech manuals.

To wing a front end alignment, Adjust the oscillator, first. There is a problem with description of the front end, it is not always accurate. Some tuners have some really funky layouts. For the trim cap, which is not always on top of the gangs, it should be adjusted at the top end of the dial. I have a very strong station at 107.9 that I used to check my calibrations. The adjustment you describe with the hex nut is not a variactor, but a coil. A variactor is just a diode that is reverse biased, that gap across the PN junction serves at a cap, the more reverse bias, bigger the gap, thus changing the capacitance via voltage and not a physical adjustment. RF amps use a tuned tank to amplify the desired frequency. A tuned tank is a cap and a coil that oscillate at a given frequency when excited. These coils should be adjusted at the lower end of the dial. I have a nice strong channel at 88.9 that I use to check.

After the dial calibration is done then trim caps for FM gangs should be adjusted at the top end and all the coils at the bottom end.

Of coarse this is all risky, and do it at your own risk. If you anyone really messes it up. I can do a full alignment at an affordable price. See new thread.

X
 
Punker X, Thanks for the advice, that is good to know. When I was 16 I was already taking apart Rochester Quadrajets and rebuilding them, so this to me is just tinkering. This is in no way a substitute for a professional alignment, but a way for the guy who isn't afraid to try it, some general guidelines. If they get added performance then congratulations, that's what it's all about. I hope you can share some more of your expertise with us, so we can all benefit from it. I'm so satisfied with this Sansui though I may want to have it professionally checked. I plan on keeping this one. I also plan on putting the IF filter add-on board to this, probably two, one on the wide and another on the narrow bandwidth. Then maybe some new caps also. I know now this thing can just about grab any station within 60 miles of me without a problem.
 
No harm in tinkering, just like no problem in tube rolling, when you get all done if it doesn't sound right it's time to pay the piper.
Had several tube McIntosh tuners come in that the owners thought that they could make sound better by rolling the tubes in the demux section - WRONG - these tuners can only be aligned with correct equipment, a stereo generator capable of 50dB+ seperation, found out the hard way, the old Sencore I had was not good enough, I now use a Sound Technology FM1000 with all studio mods included.
 
Good to know Terry. I think I will keep my MR67 with the original tube complement for now. Might send it to align when a tube goes bad. There was a post about replacing the 6U8 in the MPX sub-chassis for better performance, but mine works fine for now even with the very very slight flickering of the MPX light.

I guess the only safe "tube rolling" would be in the audio output section.

Regards,
crooner
 
Punker X said:
DanTana;

Wrote my reply on my way to bed last night and didn't really have time to reply fully.

A service manual will tell you how to align the front end. Better service manuals will go into circuit descriptions and FM theory. Unfortunately Sansui is notorious for bad tech manuals.

To wing a front end alignment, Adjust the oscillator, first. There is a problem with description of the front end, it is not always accurate. Some tuners have some really funky layouts. For the trim cap, which is not always on top of the gangs, it should be adjusted at the top end of the dial. I have a very strong station at 107.9 that I used to check my calibrations. The adjustment you describe with the hex nut is not a variactor, but a coil. A variactor is just a diode that is reverse biased, that gap across the PN junction serves at a cap, the more reverse bias, bigger the gap, thus changing the capacitance via voltage and not a physical adjustment. RF amps use a tuned tank to amplify the desired frequency. A tuned tank is a cap and a coil that oscillate at a given frequency when excited. These coils should be adjusted at the lower end of the dial. I have a nice strong channel at 88.9 that I use to check.

After the dial calibration is done then trim caps for FM gangs should be adjusted at the top end and all the coils at the bottom end.

Of coarse this is all risky, and do it at your own risk. If you anyone really messes it up. I can do a full alignment at an affordable price. See new thread.

X
Click to expand...

Very generous of one of the tuner experts to offer such spot on advice for new techs like myself to learn from. This should be made a sticky and is the most clear advice I’ve read so far.
 
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Heck, I stumble across my old posts quite often. It's usually when I'm looking for some piece of info and find I already figured it out 20-30 years ago!

On the tuner thing, don't forget step #1 in most instructions. That's to make sure the mechanics of the dial cord are correct and that the pointer hits the correct spot at one end of travel, either an index mark or a frequency line. After so many years a lot of the flywheel knobs, especially the horizontal Marantz, will be gunked up or have worn out thrust washers. I like to address that stuff before even thinking about alignment. I've even seen the weights suffering from "zinc pest" and are in the process of disintegrating.
 
Punker X said:
More amazed how fast 20 years go by.
Click to expand...
The older you are the lower percentage of your age a year becomes, hence it goes by much faster.

A 10-year old, 20 years it twice as long as he has been alive, two Forevers.

For a octogenarian, 20 years is only a quarter of his life. Poof and 20 years are gone.
 
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