No FM reception on my receiver?

[mattybass]

I just picked up my Sansui G-5500 receiver from a garage sale and cleaned it up. However, before and after, I can not get FM reception. I canget AM radio no problems but no FM. I have two settings for FM: FM Auto and Dolby FM De-Emphasis. Neither setting gets any reception. It doesn't have anything to do with the location of the antenna I can get radio here fine with other units. Any ideas I could explore?

[ManFromPorlock]

Welcome to AK! Two things: have you hooked up an FM antenna to it and have you cleaned all the controls?

[mattybass]

I do have an FM antenna, one of the ones that are about 5" long on a ball joint. I have that pointed up.

I cleaned the receiver inside thoroughly and I sprayed a substance like deoxIT into the pot for the volume knob. However, none of the other pots were accessible without disassembling the whole receiver. I don't think I have the knowledge to put it back together. Could it be as simple as spraying deoxit into the tuner pot? As I said, I am still able to get AM radio and the tuner knob tunes to it fine.

[Markw]

you have to remember, many times there's a reason t hese things are being sold for a pittance at a garage sale.

I've never heard of a "tuner pot" but I wouldn't go spraying anything on that funny looking tuning capacitor. you know, that wafer-like, half circle thingie that moves when you turn the tuning knob. That can pretty much guarantee major problems when/if someone with more knowledge takes a crack at fixing it.

You might try the selector switch, though. Maybe you'll get lucky.

[ManFromPorlock]

I do have an FM antenna, one of the ones that are about 5" long on a ball joint. I have that pointed up.

That's an AM-only antenna; for FM you'll have to hook something up to the FM antenna terminals on the back of the receiver. A set of TV rabbit ears connected to the 300 ohm terminals is good, or you can just take a piece of wire about five feet long and connect one end to the 75 ohm terminal. Not good, but it will probably get something if you're reasonably close to a station (say, less that 30 miles) and the receiver is in fact working.

As far as cleaning all the controls goes, my G-6000 was pretty much of a horror show for access to them but it's important to clean as many of the controls as you can get to, as well as you can. Dirty controls let stray voltages go where they shouldn't or keep signals from going where they're supposed to and the result can be totally unpredictable. For instance, I had a channel dropping out on one side of my G-6000 that was fixed not by cleaning the balance pot but by cleaning the function switch. You can get better (but not perfect) access to the controls by taking the bottom cover off the receiver as well as the top.

[terra1]

you have to remember, many times there's a reason t hese things are being sold for a pittance at a garage sale.

I've never heard of a "tuner pot" but I wouldn't go spraying anything on that funny looking tuning capacitor. you know, that wafer-like, half circle thingie that moves when you turn the tuning knob. That can pretty much guarantee major problems when/if someone with more knowledge takes a crack at fixing it.

You might try the selector switch, though. Maybe you'll get lucky.

Agree about spraying the fins. You can detune and scramble the station alignment until it dries but no guarantee.

There are specific tuner cleaning recommendations but first you want to try to see if you can get any sound doing the above like hooking up an FM antenna.

Are you getting any sound like static at all? Are the tuning and strength meters moving at all when turning the tuning knob?

Is there an FM mute button? Does turning that off help any?

If it is just dead silent maybe there's a loose connection on the selector switch or along the path.

I have a G-6000 but it got reception even without an antenna, but it did need some tweaking to improve the strength and tuning alignment.