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The Fisher 800b

Tim D said:
I wonder too where that spring goes. Sometimes the tuning eye tubes are held in place by a spring and bracket arrangement or it could be for the tuner cord tension spring from the AM or FM sides.

Bruce is right and I'll probably duplicate some of what he's already said.....
The blue caps and yellow caps and at least one of the resistors look recent. (The yellow ones are coupling caps I'm pretty sure. Not so sure about the blue ones.) The big black cardboard cap is original and probably should be replaced - as well as the smaller black cap near it. I'm thinking they are the bias cap (big one) and an AC snubber cap (smaller one) but I could be wrong. I don't have a schematic handy to confirm. I too believe the can caps are probably original. I always update those because they are nearing 60 years old and they don't age that well. A failure in the can caps can take out other expensive parts. If you chose to re-stuff them the cost isn't bad at all. If you buy new then it can be pricey. You have to decide for yourself how much you are willing to spend.
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Tim when you mention ‘Big black cardboard cap and smaller near it’ do you mean these two? Yes I’d like to look into restuffing or buying the can caps also you wrote of. Wouldn’t want them to fail an lose other expensive parts in the process. I do plan to keep this awhile, so want it to be at peak performance an worry free. You guys are the best! Thank you to write an help.
 
madwing said:
brian, pull gently on all the knobs to take them off, and you will see two hex nuts to come off that hold the faceplate to the backing. use a socket to get them off (half-inch, iirc). once you take off the faceplate you will see the festoon bulbs at either side that illuminate the dial glass and its stencils. you'll want to be very careful removing and cleaning the dial glass back side (where the stencils were applied) as the stencils can be very easy to wipe off...and the glass easy to chip or crack). my 800b had uneven lighting, in part because one bulb's white paint was missing over a big part of it (so it wasn't reflecting back into the edge of the glass, it was lighting behind the faceplate), and i replaced them both with these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/5MM-3-16-OD-SLIM-FUSE-LAMP-FOR-FISHER-MCINTOSH-OTHERS/372632715085

i had to shim the bulb festoons on one side to make sure they were tight in the mounts, and they look just fine. some people say it's a different look than the original, but i like how it looks with these.
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Thank you for that Mad. I may go the way of link you sent if cleaning doesn’t help. I’ll be super careful if removing the glass to clean an not to remove stencils. Got a pic of ‘different look’ ?
 
BostonBrian said:
Wow BHam you can tell all that from those pictures? Although I don’t understand all that yet, I’m focused on learning this new language. It sounds like by your post this unit should give me some solid listening, with less concern of safety. That’s really what I was most concerned about. Thank you for that. Second is safety to the unit. I’m going to plug it into a power strip, to prevent surges or lightning, then that into wall. I may be able to power it up that way an save on Power volume potentiometer too. Just trying to gain a few miles out of them if it could help.
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Brian, I just restored an 800b a few weeks ago. I was lucky enough to get one that was flawless. It's the nicest Fisher I own. These are a great receivers - one of Fisher's finest. It's rumored that JFK had an 800b in the White House. I like to believe it!

It certainly should give you years of solid listening. Safety is always a concern. It's probably playable in it's present condition if those cans are OK, however, for long-term usage without a lot of worry I'd do a few upgrades already mentioned.

Here's the thread on my 800b
https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/800-b-restoration.908738/
 
BostonBrian said:
Tim when you mention ‘Big black cardboard cap and smaller near it’ do you mean these two? Yes I’d like to look into restuffing or buying the can caps also you wrote of. Wouldn’t want them to fail an lose other expensive parts in the process. I do plan to keep this awhile, so want it to be at peak performance an worry free. You guys are the best! Thank you to write an help.
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I meant the black paper covered cap (big one) that looks like a little toilet paper roll painted black. There is a plastic black cap near one end of the big one that is the smaller of the two I was talking about.
 
bhamham said:
Brian, I just restored an 800b a few weeks ago. I was lucky enough to get one that was flawless. It's the nicest Fisher I own. These are a great receivers - one of Fisher's finest. It's rumored that JFK had an 800b in the White House. I like to believe it!

It certainly should give you years of solid listening. Safety is always a concern. It's probably playable in it's present condition if those cans are OK, however, for long-term usage without a lot of worry I'd do a few upgrades already mentioned.

Here's the thread on my 800b
https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/800-b-restoration.908738/
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Really nice thread on that fine 800B Bruce. I've got a rough 500B in the queue, but the queue keeps growing. Just bought an X101ST today and that's going to get added to the queue.
 
Bruce your restoration looks amazing!! Looks like you said the owner took great care of it. Great info there I’ll refer to in my journey.
 
Tim D said:
Really nice thread on that fine 800B Bruce. I've got a rough 500B in the queue, but the queue keeps growing. Just bought an X101ST today and that's going to get added to the queue.
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Thanks Tim and congrats on your X101ST. That should be one fantastic sounding amp once your done. I think it will punch a bit harder than the X100A with as much detail if not more.
 
madwing said:
brian i think this will work: another fisher joins the household, unexpectedly - an 800b
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I removed the face plate, (easy as you said, 2 hex nuts behind the knobs and plate) and found what looks to be two snipped pieces of an old canvas belt? Doesn’t look factory to me, but probably used as an alternative to take up the space between the glass and face plate. Once removed, I may have found the source of my problem that the tuning dial doesn’t illuminate (only the green eyes). It appears both of these guys are blown. They remind me of an old fuse in a car. They have white on one side. They look to shine right on the dial. With them both blown, hopefully they are the reason dial doesn’t light up? Anyone have a name of this item (x2) or part number?
 

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Festoon bulb. Very hard to find, and they more often than not, will be used, and expensive. Most guys have gone LED. I don't have specifics, but someone will have specific bulb #'s and where to get.
 
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BostonBrian said:
I removed the face plate, (easy as you said, 2 hex nuts behind the knobs and plate) and found what looks to be two snipped pieces of an old canvas belt? Doesn’t look factory to me, but probably used as an alternative to take up the space between the glass and face plate. Once removed, I may have found the source of my problem that the tuning dial doesn’t illuminate (only the green eyes). It appears both of these guys are blown. They remind me of an old fuse in a car. They have white on one side. They look to shine right on the dial. With them both blown, hopefully they are the reason dial doesn’t light up? Anyone have a name of this item (x2) or part number?
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the canvas braid looks to be perhaps? substituted for the foam on either side of the glass, that keeps it above the backing plate. i can't tell for sure, though. and, interestingly, levco metal finishers was in long island city from the late 40s until 1990. i'll have to check and see if mine has such a stamp (i don't recall it does).
 
madwing said:
have a look at my post 36 in that thread. the link to the current seller is there.
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Thank you Mad your update 2019 into 20 of the seller name change, an link is still active on auction site. Big help thx for that. I ordered up two, an hopefully they should fix the problem. Both ‘Festoon Bulbs’ have an element through them that I can see are broken. They look like the original bulbs, so may be due for a change.
 
Any thoughts on cleaning the 800b face plate gently? It appears to be anodized aluminum, but not 100% on that. Knob cleaning ideas I picked up from another thread, but all ideas an thoughts to clean both are welcome.
 
madwing said:
the canvas braid looks to be perhaps? substituted for the foam on either side of the glass, that keeps it above the backing plate. i can't tell for sure, though. and, interestingly, levco metal finishers was in long island city from the late 40s until 1990. i'll have to check and see if mine has such a stamp (i don't recall it does).
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Thanks for that Mad. Glad you pointed that out All I can find on them >
https://keereo.com/companies/levco-metal-finishers/35/
Apparently the former site sat vacant 10 years until torn down in 2000.
Address 34-11 36th St. Astoria, NY 11106
http://www.dec.ny.gov/data/der/factsheet/v00600cubeginseng.pdf
 
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