Found near mint 2238, how much restoration would you do?

[Aaron99]

I picked up a CL find yesterday for a broken 2238. I show up and the owner has it along with all the original packing materials. Double box with Styrofoam and the original plastic bag. He said its been in the garage in its box for over 25 years. He took it out to hook it up and he stated that one channel is out. He was downsizing and needed to get rid of stuff.
I told him I would fix it and give it a good home.

Took it home and closely inspected it. It does not appear to have much use. I would imaging it sat in the box longer that 25 years.

Put it on a DBT and passed. I hooked up speakers and left channel is very weak. Pots are scratchy. I am going to start cleaning there. Taking the cover off, and it feels like it has never been removed. The screws give a satisfying click when they first start turning. This unit seems like new. Not a scratch on it. Just a little dust.

I blew out the dust and then took pictures. I will report back on if Deoxit fixes the weak channel.

If it works, would any of you consider recapping the power supply and amp board? I plan to replace what I imagine are original lamps with fuse leds. Not going to touch the stereo or tuner lamp. I like the idea of keeping it as "new" as possible. I plan on using this as my main living room system, to replace my other 2238 which I recapped.

Pictures:
Keep in mind, these are the before pictures. I have not cleaned any dust or smudges yet.
Notice the bottom of the feet are not even worn. The volume knob is not worn at all. Not a spec of rust anywhere. No scratches on any knobs. All the pots feel brand new.

 

[Aaron99]

Took off the bottom panel and hit the pots and switches with DeoxIT. The stuff is pure magic..... Everything works perfectly.

The power supply voltage was 35.4V. Almost dead on for sitting all those years.
I adjusted the power amplifier settings. It didn't need much adjustment.

Pulled the Fuse lamps and replaced with 8V LED warm white. They are as close to the original color. There is no vellum on the 2238 to yellow. So I replaced the bulbs and the color is right on.
I think I will hook up to my living room speakers and listen to it for a while. I do not think I will change anything else at the moment.

Pictures after cleaning it up.

The left is the original lamp, the right is the warm white led. The color is almost right on. I then replaced the original lamp with LED in the remaining pictures.

The chassis shines.




Knobs are new. No scratches.



There was still the bubble wrap on the antenna.

 

[SaturationPt]

If there are any FSBs I would service to those bulletins and leave it alone, enjoy the sound as Marantz intended and built it.

Nice find.

 

[Steven Tate]

If it sounds as good as it looks, leave it alone and enjoy it. That is quite a find!

 

[blhagstrom]

I would rebuild the power supply board.

I worked on one a very long time ago that was noisy when first started.
It was the power supply.
Those big resisters on there cook the capacitors and transistors.

Beyond that, I may totally recap it for the fun and pleasure of listening.

 

[Bucky Badger]

She sure looks nice.

 

[Bert 1100]

Beautiful ! Thanks for sharing !

 

[Glennis53.]

I'd likely have a qualified tech go through it, replace any bad caps, check the soldering, etc. if the unit is meeting factory specs probably no need for a recap. That's just me though.

 

[c.coyle]

Jeepers, Christmas came early! Unless you like rebuilding old units for the fun of it, I would leave it alone if it's working OK and see how much you are enjoying it after a few months. Just clean it up, fix any scratchy controls, replace any burned out lights, check voltages, re-grease transistors. Maybe rebuild the power supply, as suggested above.

Do I see some blue tantalum capacitors? Maybe change them, but I would leave them alone if everything is OK.

 

[quaddriver]

I suggest replacing all the solder.


































(that was a joke)

 

[rxonmymind]

Beautiful and some have great luck! Congrats.

 

[Aaron99]

I appreciate all the comments. So far I've listened to it for a few days. It sounds good to me, so I am not going to do anything else except listen to it. I may revisit recapping the power supply board in the future.

 

[Aaron99]

So I did do one thing to the Marantz.... I bartered with a local woodworker to build a replica WC-22. Now its mint!

 

[ConradH]

Dang, does that look nice now!

 

[Bert 1100]

Wow, that looks good !

 

[Aaron99]

Wow, that looks good !

The walnut is a little darker than the other real wc-22 cases that I have seen. But I really like the darker walnut color.

 

[fernarias]

The walnut is a little darker than the other real wc-22 cases that I have seen. But I really like the darker walnut color.

The cases that you have seen are faded. Walnut will yellow when it's exposed to UV light. I prefer the dark walnut, if I wanted yellow then I'd get an oak case. I'm not surprised that the original cases were not treated to prevent fading but these receivers were not supposed to last 40 plus years.

 

[Aaron99]

The cases that you have seen are faded. Walnut will yellow when it's exposed to UV light. I prefer the dark walnut, if I wanted yellow then I'd get an oak case. I'm not surprised that the original cases were not treated to prevent fading but these receivers were not supposed to last 40 plus years.

Thats very interesting. I was worried that the walnut case was too dark. But maybe it is closer to what the original color was....

 

[stupidhead]

beautiful

 

[rBuckner]

The wood cases I have on hand, all beat up for sure, vary widely in darkness. Perhaps due to UV and environmental differences. For sure yours is gorgeous!