I am totally bummed!! I brought my "new to me" Pioneer SX-1980 home yesterday after a long drive to pick it up, and am already having trouble with it. I picked it up personally to avoid any possible shipping damage and to verify proper operation and cosmetics.
Here's the deal, when I tested it at the sellers house everything was well, all seemed to function properly. After spending 20-25 minutes listening to it, I dealt the cash, loaded it up for the long ride home and hit the road. Get home from work today and fired it up, I notice that the Left channel is not putting out as much as the Right is. No biggie, a little twist of the balance knob and even she goes. About an hour in, while flipping switches and turning knobs I notice that the "Muting -20dB" switch causes the right speaker to cut in and out. Another hour of listening (FM), the right channel stops working altogether. Now I am panicking!!
In a mad scramble I'm trying to figure out what went wrong, I switch it over to AM and the right channel comes back? Go figure, so I am listening to the ball game now and all seems good, I go to call the seller and have lost his #. (wife threw it away, should have never left it in her car)
Just tried the FM again and no go, still not working. I am wondering how to proceed from here. If it is something simple I would like to have it addressed locally, if it is major I think I will have to ship it to EW. I have no schematics, and would not know what to look for even if I did. I have an e-mail in to the seller and am waiting for him to call me, but at this point not sure that I want to drive it back across the state.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Greg

http://www.partsexpress.com/images/341-200m.jpg

I will admit that the Pioneer's are a bitch to clean and get right, but with a unit like the 1980, the effort should be worth it.

...and yes, the unit has to come apart to do this right.;)

Nuff said. . .
Right answer. . . Final answer. . .

Thanks EW, this could be a monumental task for me, but I'll give it a shot. I'm a MASTER at taking things apart, it's just getting them back together. lol I just hooked up a CD player and both channels work fine. The left is still putting out a little less than the right, but they are close. I have heard on several occasions of these units having to be balanced out. I'm thinking that maybe I have a problem with an FM output circuit or something. The muting switch works fine when the cd player is on. Any advise on where to start?
Thanks,
Greg

If you saw a schematic (and understood it), then you'd be amazed by the number of switches and pots that are in the signal path. Short answer...about all of them ;)

The push switches are tricky. Here's a pic from a SX-1010. You can see that there is an area (shown by the red arrows) where the plastic tubing from something like the DeOxit spray can be inserted. The tubing just fits in here, and then you can blast the switch and begin working it around a bit. That oughta do it.

One way to learn this stuff...get in there and do it.

Pic....:rolleyes:

I have a different method. I had a large bottle of Cramolin Red so I take a small screwdriver and scoop out a drop. Carefully place drop on any convenient opening in the switch/pot/etc. Lather, rinse, repeat.