Heathkit AR-27 in KEFkit walnut veneer cabinet - advice please!

[Lamo]

My new favourite purchase

• Lamo
• Nov 4, 2018

Heathkit AR-27 within KEFkit speaker cabinet

Hi folks, I've found this forum purposely as I seek advice.

I went to a house clearance sale and purchased a gorgeous looking cabinet with an fm radio inside. I bought it simply because I can't bear the thought of lovely old items - that someone once treasured - be thrown out in a skip with the previous owners other 'junk' .

My fella made lots of suggestions: 'rip out the old speakers', 'put a Bluetooth transmitter in' etc. No. This is a vintage thing of beauty and I don't want to rip and replace with new materials. Whilst he went out last night, I did some research. What I have is a Heathkit AR-27 fm mono radio, that's encased in a walnut veneer KEFkit cabinet.

What do i need to do before attempting to plug in and play? There's no plug at the end of the leads, but there's the 3 color red wires I remember from old that I can add a new plug. What amps should I go for? Do I need to get it pat tested? The audio sound cables aren't attached to the speakers for some reason, any idea why not? Also, one of the knobs from the radio just needs replacing.

Any idea where I can go or what I need to do to get this beauty up and running?

Your guidance will be massively appreciated!

Jo

 

[Tinkerbelle]

This looks like a solid state unit, not tube. So this is being moved to the Solid State forum.

If the unit had an issue, the previous owner might have removed the power plug to stop it being used. As for the speaker wires, maybe the previous owner thought the speaker was blown and they disconnected to test or replace and abandoned the project.

How familiar are you with repair & testing?

You can download the schematic online from Radiomuseun at the link above or from other sites such as this one.

 

[Lamo]

Thanks for your reply, Tinkerbelle!

I don't have any repair & testing experience but I'm thinking I could engage some of my friends and ask them if they want to help get it back to working order. You're right, if the original owner removed the plugs etc, it makes perfect sense to get someone who knows what they're doing to look in to it.

I will download the schematic and see if I can find my expert

 

[mhardy6647]

This won't be much help but here's info from a 1969 Heathkit catalog on the AR-27.


(and a cropped, desaturated copy of the text that might be legible )


Source for these images: https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Allied-Catalogs/Heathkit-1969.pdf

 

[Lamo]

This won't be much help but here's info from a 1969 Heathkit catalog on the AR-27.

View attachment 1333138
(and a cropped, desaturated copy of the text that might be legible )

View attachment 1333152
Source for these images: https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Allied-Catalogs/Heathkit-1969.pdf

Thank you, mhardy!

The heathkit resources out there are amazing. We've been using the information above to understand how the AR-27 was developed. So far, we've replaced the slow blow fuse and the dial cord.

It worked... But something else then fired up on the board. We're going to look more closely at the elements that caught. Let me see if I can upload a pic...