Refurbishing a Pioneer SX-980

darkhawk22

New Member
I purchased an SX-980 from good ol eBay recently and of course it was listed as all functions tested and working properly. Well as to be expected some did not. The FM and AM tuners are working and the output circuit seems to be working well with the exception that the right channel took a few minutes to come around and start outputting as much as the left. Also, it was partially damaged in shipping (the wood casing). I can probably fix the wood casing fairly easily as it was cracked along the seam on one side only. The next issue is the heavy dust coating, again something I should be able to take care of with some elbow grease. I'm working on changing out the main face bulbs (one holder broke as it was brittle from age) but my primary concerns are as follows:

1. How to change the function Lamps? - Two of them are non-functional. (See photo) how do I get past this point?

2. The Phono 1 input didn't seem to work at all and the Phono 2 input was intermittent. I went ahead and have cleaned the connections in the back but have not retested it yet. Is there anything further that I should check at this point?

The seller did provide a fair partial refund. So if I can get it back to 100% then it will be a great unit for the pricing.
 

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Contact dgwojo for the lamps, change them all while youre at it. They pull out of the rubber holders from the bottom. As for the phono try deoxiting the function switch, if that doesn't work there's an issue in the phono stage.
 
While you're in there DeOxiting the Function switch, DO THEM ALL. Up/Down, In,Out, Round & Round, they all need it.

Get the Service Manual here There should be an exploded diagram or two showing parts and how to get to them.
 
Thanks for the tips! I have some DeOxit and plan on working on the switches in the near future. I'm still mainly in the inspection stage.
 
When you get to that point of De-Oxit, it's highly recommended to follow up with Faderlube. To quote one of the resident gurus here, (markthefixer) "Follow up with faderlube (on every deoxited one) or the pots / controls will die a premature death by friction wear."
 
When you get to that point of De-Oxit, it's highly recommended to follow up with Faderlube. To quote one of the resident gurus here, (markthefixer) "Follow up with faderlube (on every deoxited one) or the pots / controls will die a premature death by friction wear."

Hmm, I haven't been doing that. It does make a lot of sense though. Is fader lube the same as the deoxit gold? (Makes me wonder if that's what happened to the balance pot on my HK TP-200, it failed a month after I deoxit'ed it)
 
I have some faderlube on order. After cleaning, the face looks like new. Now I'm working internally and will probably recap the power supply board as one of them is bloated/puffy. Also waiting on the new bulbs to come in the main. After everything is checked/cleaned I'll recheck the phono inputs to see if anything helped and then go from there.
 
Hmm, I haven't been doing that. It does make a lot of sense though. Is fader lube the same as the deoxit gold? (Makes me wonder if that's what happened to the balance pot on my HK TP-200, it failed a month after I deoxit'ed it)

I just picked up some fader lube yesterday at a local guitar store. It is also made by Deoxit. The Deoxit contact cleaner is labeled "D5" and the fader lube is labeled "F5". Yes, you definitely don't want to tear the unit apart a few months later to do it all over again. I picked it up on sale for $9.99. Good insurance.
 
I did not read the hole thread But..

If you use caned air to blow out the pots, make sure you don't point the tube
down.
This will cause frozen h20 to come out,can should be upright.
 
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