Did you happen to do this?
How to clean a tuner (analog)
- Thread starter dr*audio
- Start date
Did you happen to do this?
Another successful cleaning
Here's another "Thank you!" to dr*audio for the clear description of a safe and effective procedure. It worked like a charm on the Heathkit AJ-1600 I bought recently. The tuner worked when received but the tuning was quite touchy, and the sensitivity wasn't great. There was a visible buildup of dark gunk on the rotor ground contacts - old lubricant, dirt, and tarnish I suspect.
I used the good doctor's procedure pretty much "as written". I wiped off the visible gunk with a Q-tip moistened in isopropyl alcohol, and then drizzled a small amount of no-residue contact cleaner on each ground contact. I did about 20 full back-and-forth tuning cycles... after each set of five I'd wipe off the loosened residue and squirt on a few more drops of cleaner.
I then drizzled on a few drops of DeOxIt D-5 on each contact, did another 10 cycles, and then a couple of more flush/tune/tune/wipe cycles with contact cleaner to remove the DeOxIt after it did its work.
A drop of FaderLube on each contact, a few tuning cycles to distribute it, and I was done... and the results were great. Tuning is now as clean and precise as you could possibly want ("continuous and monotonic" rather than "fractal") and the sensitivity has definitely improved.
I did have a thought, in reading all the comments from people who over-sprayed and found their tuners "de-tuned" for a day or three. All of these sprays tend to chill whatever they're sprayed on, as the solvent evaporates... and this will tend to result in moisture condensing on the capacitor vanes. This is true even for the "non-residue" types... and if you sprayed with DeOxIt and then flushed it out with a non-residue cleaner, you've almost certainly chilled your capacitor down below the "dew point"! A film or droplets of water on the vanes or trim-caps will certainly de-tune the system until the moisture evaporates.
So, if you do this by accident (or even after a "proper" cleaning) it's probably a good idea to dry the tuner out before you lubricate the wipers and put it all back together. Let it sit out in the warm sun for an hour or so to "bake" gently, and drive out all of the condensed moisture... then, apply the FaderLube and fire up the tuner.
Here's another "Thank you!" to dr*audio for the clear description of a safe and effective procedure. It worked like a charm on the Heathkit AJ-1600 I bought recently. The tuner worked when received but the tuning was quite touchy, and the sensitivity wasn't great. There was a visible buildup of dark gunk on the rotor ground contacts - old lubricant, dirt, and tarnish I suspect.
I used the good doctor's procedure pretty much "as written". I wiped off the visible gunk with a Q-tip moistened in isopropyl alcohol, and then drizzled a small amount of no-residue contact cleaner on each ground contact. I did about 20 full back-and-forth tuning cycles... after each set of five I'd wipe off the loosened residue and squirt on a few more drops of cleaner.
I then drizzled on a few drops of DeOxIt D-5 on each contact, did another 10 cycles, and then a couple of more flush/tune/tune/wipe cycles with contact cleaner to remove the DeOxIt after it did its work.
A drop of FaderLube on each contact, a few tuning cycles to distribute it, and I was done... and the results were great. Tuning is now as clean and precise as you could possibly want ("continuous and monotonic" rather than "fractal") and the sensitivity has definitely improved.
I did have a thought, in reading all the comments from people who over-sprayed and found their tuners "de-tuned" for a day or three. All of these sprays tend to chill whatever they're sprayed on, as the solvent evaporates... and this will tend to result in moisture condensing on the capacitor vanes. This is true even for the "non-residue" types... and if you sprayed with DeOxIt and then flushed it out with a non-residue cleaner, you've almost certainly chilled your capacitor down below the "dew point"! A film or droplets of water on the vanes or trim-caps will certainly de-tune the system until the moisture evaporates.
So, if you do this by accident (or even after a "proper" cleaning) it's probably a good idea to dry the tuner out before you lubricate the wipers and put it all back together. Let it sit out in the warm sun for an hour or so to "bake" gently, and drive out all of the condensed moisture... then, apply the FaderLube and fire up the tuner.
dr*audio
Fish fingers and custard!
Yes, I did post it back a few pages, but here it is again for easy reference. The arrows show where to clean.
racinoffrd
Active Member
Cleaning tuners
Now I have not read all of the post so I'm not sure if it already has been explained earlier. How would you clean digital tuners? Would it all be the same except moving the dial back and forth a few times?
Now I have not read all of the post so I'm not sure if it already has been explained earlier. How would you clean digital tuners? Would it all be the same except moving the dial back and forth a few times?
The digital tuner uses a IC Chip and they are not effected by dust and grime. The only cleaning would be the switches and contacts.
Barney
racinoffrd
Active Member
Thank you Oerets - for the answer. As you can tell I don't know to much about audio. I know enough to get in trouble if I don't ask. I know how to remove the cover and clean but I don't know what needs to be cleaned.
Crazy question
Is using my Automotive Air Compressor to clean a tuner a bit (or maybe a lot) over the top.
I think I know the answer. Buy a can of compressed air from Radio Shack and be safe. The air in the can is moisture-less while the compressor uses atmospheric air, humidity and all.
Is using my Automotive Air Compressor to clean a tuner a bit (or maybe a lot) over the top.
I think I know the answer. Buy a can of compressed air from Radio Shack and be safe. The air in the can is moisture-less while the compressor uses atmospheric air, humidity and all.
dr*audio
Fish fingers and custard!
If you have a filter in the compressor line you should be ok. Set it for a lower pressure just in case.
GaryonRt66
Active Member
I picked up a can of crc qd electronic cleaner, and radio shack anti corrosive lubricant spray, is this lube a suitable replacement for fader lube? Which I can't find locally. Great thread, Thanks.
Gary
Gary
FoolForARadio
Super Member
This is not a picture of my Sansui 4000, but it is the same as mine.Is the FM section under the shield? Any tips on how to get it off? I applied the technique to the accessible section - now I suspect I have treated the AM section. But things improved anyway, probably from all of the tuning knob cycles.
Thanks
Thanks
Attachments
amptramp
Well-Known Member
In some cases, the shield is spring-loaded and just clips on like the shield on an old tube-type TV tuner, in others it is locked in place by twist tabs like the twist locks on old electrolytic capacitor cans and others solder it in place. It is possible to screw a shield into position, but I have never seen that in a tuner. Determine what you have and see if you can remove the shield. Beware of shields soldered to a printed circuit board - you may damage the board getting it off, so it may be better to cut it off and rebuild it with unetched pieces of copper-clad circuit board soldered at the edges.
dr*audio
Fish fingers and custard!
The picture is too small to make anything out. Upload a high res photo of yours to
photobucket and post the link here.
FoolForARadio
Super Member
Will do. And thanks, Dr., for your attention to this topic for all these years! It has helped a lot of people out, and me more than once.
FoolForARadio
Super Member
Pics of unshielded and shielded assemblies. I do believe I see two dabs of solder on either side of the shield, also some little ears to fix the shield in to place.
FoolForARadio
Super Member
Well, I can only get the Sansui to tune pretty good, but way better than it was. Maybe something else is going on. But armed with all this knowledge, I cleaned up a Kenwood TX-7500 I bought a couple of years ago, and am running it into the tape section of the receiver with excellent results. This is a garage system so it looks funny but that is ok.
savoirfaire
Member
Well, hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, but this thread seems to have fixed the tuner problems on my Yamaha CR-640! For the last year, the tuner on it would slowly drift up to the point where I'd lose reception, then a couple of minutes later, drift all the way back down and then some until I'd lose reception the other direction. The weather today was unseasonably warm, so I finally took some CRC QD Electronic Cleaner to it a few times and then lubed the junction points with Deoxit Fader F5 (I was debating whether I should use that or the Deoxit Gold, but decided F5 was what I needed). After a couple of hours, I plugged it back in and tuned it to a station. Within a few minutes, the frequency started drifting upward. I thought my efforts had failed. I adjusted the tuner until the station came back in and then turned off the receiver and went to take care of some other stuff. About half an hour later, I went back and turned it back on, and this time, the tuner stayed on point for 2 straight hours! I hope it keeps up, but this is the first time in over a year that it's stayed tuned in to a station for more than 5-10 minutes! Thanks dr*audio!
savoirfaire
Member
I did speak too soon. Fired up my Yamaha again today and it was back to its old tricks. Maybe I should try cleaning it again. Not sure why it worked so well yesterday. 
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richinnc
New Member
Pioneer SX-727 Tuner Issues
I have a Pioneer SX-727 that I picked up recently that sounds and works great except for the tuner. On strong stations the signal strength will be about 3.5 on the meter, then it will jump to almost 5 and the stereo light will come on. It bounces like this continually, or often it will just hover around 3.5 and remain in mono. I did a basic alignment (don't have a distortion meter so am limited on my tuner alignment capability) and when the meter does jump up the sound is strong and clear.
(Also note that AM does not tune in at all except when the FM signal is strong, then I can quickly switch to AM and some stations will tune in. This usually only lasts for 10-15 seconds though, then the AM signal is gone and switching back to FM the signal has dropped again). I found that rotating the tuner back and forth numerous times will usually cause the FM signal to come in strong for perhaps a minute or less, then it will bounce back and forth or settle back to 3.5. I sprayed the tuner fins with CRC QD contact cleaner, put faderlube on the points noted herein, and it seems to have helped a little, but overall the symptoms still remain. The voltage supply is 12.5 volts and clean so that does not appear to be an issue. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
I'd also like to thank the contributors to this thread as it is an absolute wealth of information!
I have a Pioneer SX-727 that I picked up recently that sounds and works great except for the tuner. On strong stations the signal strength will be about 3.5 on the meter, then it will jump to almost 5 and the stereo light will come on. It bounces like this continually, or often it will just hover around 3.5 and remain in mono. I did a basic alignment (don't have a distortion meter so am limited on my tuner alignment capability) and when the meter does jump up the sound is strong and clear.
(Also note that AM does not tune in at all except when the FM signal is strong, then I can quickly switch to AM and some stations will tune in. This usually only lasts for 10-15 seconds though, then the AM signal is gone and switching back to FM the signal has dropped again). I found that rotating the tuner back and forth numerous times will usually cause the FM signal to come in strong for perhaps a minute or less, then it will bounce back and forth or settle back to 3.5. I sprayed the tuner fins with CRC QD contact cleaner, put faderlube on the points noted herein, and it seems to have helped a little, but overall the symptoms still remain. The voltage supply is 12.5 volts and clean so that does not appear to be an issue. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
I'd also like to thank the contributors to this thread as it is an absolute wealth of information!
