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Speaker relays

S

seta1

Well-Known Member
Well, I am working on another amp and of course the speaker relays have dirty, slightly pitted contacts. Great I thought, I'll just order a couple new relays and be done with it. yea, right. ever tried to find a G2Z-222P-US Omron relay?
Good luck! Anyway, is there a place out there that anyone knows of which is a good source for the relays used in hifi amps from the 70's to the present? I spent over an hour on the net searching for this relay or a substitute and no one has any. I was able to burnish the contacts on these and they have been working perfectly. But this relay issue is something I have been running into a lot and it seems that the darn things are all but impossible to find.
 
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If you know the coil voltage, you can look at datasheets from Omron and find the best match.
 
seta1 said:
Well, I am working on another amp and of course the speaker relays have dirty, slightly pitted contacts. Great I thought, I'll just order a couple new relays and be done with it. yea, right. ever tried to find a G2Z-222P-US Omron relay?
Good luck! Anyway, is there a place out there that anyone knows of which is a good source for the relays used in hifi amps from the 70's to the present? I spent over an hour on the net searching for this relay or a substitute and no one has any. I was able to burnish the contacts on these and they have been working perfectly. But this relay issue is something I have been running into a lot and it seems that the darn things are all but impossible to find.
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Sometimes it takes a little engineering..Whats the footprint look like,measure the coil resistance.Physical dimensions and maximum dimensions for installation.Theres thousands of relays out there . Surely one will fit your app.
 
I'd say, burnishing the contacts was the right way to go. the problem may already be solved!
 
Hi All,

The problem is the footprint of the relay. It is a dp non latching type with a 24 volt DC coil. But, it mounts to a circuit board in a tight place. Well, I did remove both relays, burnished the contacts, then treated them with 100% DeOxit and so far so good. The amp is playing behind me as I write this and has been playing off and on all day long without issue. I guess time will tell.
 
I've seen all sorts of threads about changing relays out. I almost NEVER have to change a relay out. Unless there's been a catastrophic failure and the contacts are welded shut, that relay can be fixed.

As Seta has already done: take the relay apart, burnish the contacts with something not-too-aggressive (I often use 1500-grit wet-or-dry), hit with DeoxIT and enjoy another 20 years from the part.
 
When you're working on your own stuff, that's a fine stand to take. But when I'm doing work on someone else's 35 year-old amp/receiver that has been boxed up and shipped to me at great expense, every effort is made to locate a new relay. I can think of a lot of reasons to replace the relay, but the best one is because that's what I'm being paid to do.
 
The speaker relay on my Yamaha amp was giving me grief a couple of years ago... the left channel kept dropping out. I did the contact cleaning and sandpapering thing (the only way I could get at the contacts was to use a cutting burr on a Dremel to cut off the plastic cover), and that fix only lasted me about a month. I ended up getting a new $8 relay and dropping it in. Took me about an hour, start to finish. End of problem.
 
I'm in that situation now. If I was going to have to remove a relay from the PCB, why go through all that effort and not replace the relay. A new one for me is $5.93.
 
While I have had some luck burnishing the contacts in the past, it really depends on the condition of your relay. The truly toasty ones need replacement.

I replaced one in a Lafayette receiver a few years back, IIRC it was a generic Omron from Digi-Key and it worked quite well.
 
Call-backs tell the story (at least mine). I don't ever recall a product I've serviced come back because the repaired relay was defective again. But everybody has their own style and set of rules for this thing we do, so replace away if you're inclined!
 
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