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KLH model 17 replacing caps and restoring old surrounds (sealing them?)

Ric Harris

Ric Harris

Active Member
I scored a pair nice 17's at goodwill yesterday for 12.99. It's been a long dry spell on the goodwill front for me. While I was googling 17's I read something about sealing the surrounds. Okay I've messed with speakers for years what would a person seal or recondition the surrounds with? Latex? I've never done anything to fabric surrounds beyond replacing them.
Also I plan to recap these but as for the tweeter I would assume the wiring loom for the toggle switch either has 3 different caps and or resistors. Anyone been down this trail with 17's before? 100_1046.JPG 100_1052.JPG AR 4x collecting dust to the right SS2003's to the left.
 
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No latex. There is a special dope for cloth surrounds, available on eBay and sometimes a member on this site. KLH and AR speakers from this period usually need this dope to restore performance. Stay tuned here, experts abound.
I have a pair of Seventeens, and recapped and resealed, they are wonderful, among the best of the vintage KLH models.
 
Very nice score! They look to be in excellent condition.
I can see from the pic, the surrounds are dry, the original sealer mostly gone. AKer Roy C. developed and tested the sealer to be as close to the original factory sealer you can get. eBay seller "vintage-ar" is supplied by Roy, and you can buy it there as well.
Recap is straight forward with these. An 8uf and 4uf is what's needed. The original 4uf says 2uf +2uf. It's packaged as two caps in one container. I automatically replace caps in KLHs as they are notoriously bad, and by now out of spec, often causing the tweeter to put out no sound.
Take a look at AKer "stupid head"'s thread about restoring his Seventeens. Everything you need to know is there with plenty of pics.
My daughter has the Seventeens I restored, and told me she will keep them forever!
Glenn
 
GD70 said:
Very nice score! They look to be in excellent condition.
I can see from the pic, the surrounds are dry, the original sealer mostly gone. AKer Roy C. developed and tested the sealer to be as close to the original factory sealer you can get. eBay seller "vintage-ar" is supplied by Roy, and you can buy it there as well.
Recap is straight forward with these. An 8uf and 4uf is what's needed. The original 4uf says 2uf +2uf. It's packaged as two caps in one container. I automatically replace caps in KLHs as they are notoriously bad, and by now out of spec, often causing the tweeter to put out no sound.
Take a look at AKer "stupid head"'s thread about restoring his Seventeens. Everything you need to know is there with plenty of pics.
My daughter has the Seventeens I restored, and told me she will keep them forever!
Glenn
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I've seen his Ebay store. I'm guessing this sealer will no less expensive than the l-pads he sells for AR4x's like seen in the other photo. As for caps I have lots of them but like the pair of 317's I have in the garage these may get a inductor coil integrated into the woofers crossover. I placed a .75 mh coil inline a 63v 20uf cap in parallel if memory serves in the 317's. It was shocking how much it did for the speakers clarity and roll off. However the 317's woofers are a bit different than 17's. The 317's come spring will get a real wood veneer applied over that ugly brown shelf paper. Anyway I'll look up that thread. Thanks.
Progress pics will come as I restore these old speakers.
 
Ric Harris said:
I've seen his Ebay store. I'm guessing this sealer will no less expensive than the l-pads he sells for AR4x's like seen in the other photo. As for caps I have lots of them but like the pair of 317's I have in the garage these may get a inductor coil integrated into the woofers crossover. I placed a .75 mh coil inline a 63v 20uf cap in parallel if memory serves in the 317's. It was shocking how much it did for the speakers clarity and roll off. However the 317's woofers are a bit different than 17's. The 317's come spring will get a real wood veneer applied over that ugly brown shelf paper. Anyway I'll look up that thread. Thanks.
Progress pics will come as I restore these old speakers.
Click to expand...

I found lots of recipe's for sealing and most made me LOL! Everything from watered down caulk to permatex gasket sealer which oddly I have and more. I'll see what stupidhead sells but I do have and elastomeric sealant I'll test on some fabric to see what it does.
 
Ric Harris said:
I found lots of recipe's for sealing and most made me LOL! Everything from watered down caulk to permatex gasket sealer which oddly I have and more. I'll see what stupidhead sells but I do have and elastomeric sealant I'll test on some fabric to see what it does.
Click to expand...
Stupidhead is not selling anything. The thread documents his restoration.
Personally, I would not mess with changing things on the crossovers. The engineers sped
Not countless hours designing and testing them before being released for sale. The crappy caps, and resealing the surrounds is all that's needed. They sound superb.
 
Recapped and sealed woofers on a pair. They are amazing! I have another pair to go through. But, it is too dang cold in my shop right now. I need to experiment with a couple small veneer repairs to make them all "perfect".
 
peerson said:
Recapped and sealed woofers on a pair. They are amazing! I have another pair to go through. But, it is too dang cold in my shop right now. I need to experiment with a couple small veneer repairs to make them all "perfect".
Click to expand...
For veneer repairs, check out my toilet paper stop yields AR3's. I have pics showing how to repair banged in corners. You may find it helpful.
Glenn
 
Thank you, sir! I have already looked at your posts. I am just not an experienced wood guy, though. Just looks a little intimidating, and I don't want to mess them up. How do you remove some repair pieces from a "donor" cab? Sorry, don't intend to hijack the thread.
 
peerson said:
Thank you, sir! I have already looked at your posts. I am just not an experienced wood guy, though. Just looks a little intimidating, and I don't want to mess them up. How do you remove some repair pieces from a "donor" cab? Sorry, don't intend to hijack the thread.
Click to expand...
Hijackers are welcome. What sort of pieces are you trying to remove from a donor cabinet? Most speaker cabinets as a general rule don't come apart in the way you want them to. Most manufacturers use a form of hot glue and their assembled in a case clamp. So if you started beating on them with a rubber mallet they may come apart but being usually particle board the particle board will give before the glue does. However if you live in Phoenix and you put a pair of speakers in the trunk of a black car on 100 degree day for several hours you may have better luck. But seriously tell me what your trying to do.
 
GD70 said:
For veneer repairs, check out my toilet paper stop yields AR3's. I have pics showing how to repair banged in corners. You may find it helpful.
Glenn
Click to expand...
These 17's have one corner needing help. BTW I just scoped out the crossovers in these 17's and they are vastly better in design then the 317's. Nevertheless I intend on beefing them up a little as I have better components at my disposal. I just finished redoing some RSL 2 ways. Talk about bad ass crossovers. The caps were bigger than a M-80 and not cheep either.
 
peerson said:
Thank you, sir! I have already looked at your posts. I am just not an experienced wood guy, though. Just looks a little intimidating, and I don't want to mess them up. How do you remove some repair pieces from a "donor" cab? Sorry, don't intend to hijack the thread.
Click to expand...
Remove donor veneer with heat, a hair drier, a clothing it on, ar a paint remover, though Br very careful as it will burn the veneer, and a metal putty blade. Sometimes it lifts right off, other times it just splinters.
 
GD70 said:
Remove donor veneer with heat, a hair drier, a clothing it on, ar a paint remover, though Br very careful as it will burn the veneer, and a metal putty blade. Sometimes it lifts right off, other times it just splinters.
Click to expand...
I missed the veneer part. I've wet it with water than taken a wet piece of cloth or paper towel set it over the edge your attempting to lift than place and iron over it for a few seconds (set iron on linen) and the try lifting the veneer off. it will steam like anything but the water transfers the heat and dissolves the glue in theory anyway. Do the donor first to see what happens.
 
Here's a pair of old Realistic speakers that I veneered over the old and put Boston A60 guts in. I shouldn't have sold them but life happens.
 
Well I pulled out my samson reference hooked up the 17's and the computer and proceeded to run my go to songs to asses them. Baker Street, Black Magic Woman, Brain Stew/Jaded and couple old Yes songs and the tweeters are all that and more the woofers were a little muddy but we know that's those old caps fault. Still I was encouraged by their sound quality being I've done nothing thus far. I didn't push them at all because the GF frowns when I crank the volume. She'll be gone in the AM and I'll make the cats run for cover later
 
RxDx said:
No caps on the woofer...

BTW, excellent veneer work on the RS boxes!

View attachment 847811
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Thanks for the schematic and for compliment. I was messing with them last night and noticed that one of the toggles was not making 3 definitive clicks. I'm just going to start fresh with both. My soldering skill is comparable to bird **** welding but luckily this isn't a circuit board. Oh and does the voltage matter allot on these caps as I have 2 uF caps but their either 35V or 63V on hand. You don't miss Radio Shack until you don't have one any more.
BTW it looks as if "stupidhead" no longer sells his sealer on ebay anymore. Selling VOC's can be a liability issue that he figured wasn't worth the risk is my guess.
 
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