500TX Re-CAP DONE (with pics)

After getting a batch order in for other stuff I was working on, and finishing them up, I had some spare stuff left over (still do), and decided to see if there was anything I had missed in the 500TX that I now had. I lucked out.

All boards on the 500TX (with the Exception of the FM RF, AM RF, and the IF/MPX Board) are now finished. I had previously done the Power supply bd and the amp. Today I finished up the rest of the boards.

The annoying hum is gone, the noise floor has dropped in all functions, and it sounds a lot smoother. It sounds right now like I lost some HIGH's but the caps haven't been run more than 1 hour to check the amp center voltage test, and set the amp idling current.









What looks like a crack in the DIAL GLASS ISN'T. Just the Reflection of my stool.

I didn't mess with the Tuner, other than to clean the boards off with Q-tips and 91% Isopropyl. It pulls stations in so good, even on AUTOSCAN, it doesn't seem to need an alignment, so I'll wait on it.

These 1st & 2nd Gen SS Fishers are definately SHHHHHHH!............ underrated and under the radar. If you find one in working condition, fix the sucker up and enjoy. the sound is a bit different from a Pioneer or a Sansui, Kenwood, or Marantz. Kinda like Mr. Fisher took a bit of this one and a bit of that one, mixed well and got the best of most of them. They aren't Block busters, but are more attuned to a quiet (or not so quiet) evening of Wine, Cheese, and some serious Jazz, or Classical. They have a laid back sound that I find hard to find in a SS unit.

I'm hoping it tightens up in the coming week or so as this will get about 8-10 hours a night running on headphones.

FOR THE NEW GUYS JUST GETTING INTO THIS I can't re-iterate this too much. Especially for these old FISHERS get the Manual. RICK @ Stereomanuals.com has a few listed, but if it's not listed, e-mail him and ask. It may not have made the website yet. You may get lucky. His product quality for REPRO's has never been below 9/10 considering some of the stuff he has to work with. You will get a complete BOUND manual, with ALL Schematics that can actually be read without glasses. His prices are well worth it. And I have no affiliation other than being a VERY SATISFIED CUSTOMER.

Larry

That's a beauty! :drool: Nice looking work on the recap too.

Geez Larry, you're gonna' shame me into recapping a Kenwood :sigh:

Nice work and that is pretty clean looking unit. I hope you never have to restring that beast, it looks to be a job.

A big +1 for Rick at Stereomanuals.com, that guy is the best!

Thanks for the great pics :thmbsp:

thanks for the comments guys. So Jailtime, when are you gonna get the triple play finished?

Actually I did have to re-string it. When I 1st got it I unintentionally loosened one of the pulley mounts. Luckily I had the manual at that point and a 175-T that went the same way. It's not hard.

And to think I do this for FUN! If I had the $$ to do each of them all at one time, I could be done in a week. Being on limited income, I have to get $20-30 of most needed and go from there. Lucky for me, Uncle Barack (IRS) shat big time this year, so I got some spare stuff.

Larry

Fisher 500-TX

Larry,

I recapped an 800T (same as 500TX) and it truely is a labor of love to get done. You did a very nice job on yours.

I was prompted to do this because I had owned one years ago that I had purchased through the military PX system. When the power switch broke in 1988 or so I pitched it--wish I hadn't now.


John

What a nice job! I've got one of these in the restore queue and will be doing the very same thing.

Lovely!

P.S....Get crackin son. This one's a lot easier than that 500 you just did.

The hardest thing to do on this unit was getting the boards off the standoffs. Betwen the stiff plastics and no room around some of the boards, I'm surprised I didn't break any. Would have been easier to have screwed on standoff's. It really opened up about 7 this morning after running all night. Kind of hard to describe, but it does sound a lot better than it did before I re-capped it.

larryderouin said:

thanks for the comments guys. So Jailtime, when are you gonna get the triple play finished?

Click to expand...

Well, I'm working on some other projects so I can scrape some money up to get the Fisher parts. Got a variac, so I can start on the Fishers now. Just working on lower end projects to get some more experience with the soldering iron and such. I'll probably start on the 400 and 500C after the AK Fest. :yes:

Well it's been running 2 days straight 18 hours a day. Sounds like it's finally settled down. Sounds very much like a 400, but with a bit of sharpness to it, kind of like an edge to it. The tuning is very good on this one. All modes work, AUTO SCAN, Presets, Manual, (wish I had the remote for it.) The manual has the wiring diagram for one, so I could take a DIN Jack, 2 intermittant N.O. Push Button Switches and wire it all up.

One of the meter lights went out so I went to Ratshack and got a 50ma 12V mini and wired it in. 50ma too much. 35 ma might do it tho.

Sensitivity on the tuner is very good. I'm picking up stations in Wilmington DE (70+ miles away and hills too) in FM, and I got a Cleveland Oh. Station last night while crusing thru the AM band. Also a Schenectady, New York and a couple of NYC AM stations . This was between midnight and 2am and with the FERRITE Bar antenna only.

Phono is very quiet now that I got the tantalums out of the preamp board. Sounds good too.

The biggest change was pulling the tantalums off the pre-amp(equalization) and the tone boards. They were noisy. The noise level went down drastically. No scope or test gear, but hearing nothing at the speaker with ear 6" from speaker and volume @ 12:00 with no signal.

This one is definately a keeper. And the WAF is:thmbsp::yes: with this one. She actually figured out how to turn it on and change a channel without me looking over her shoulder. I usually have to point out steps to her first. So this one is staying.

Larry

Cool beans, mate!

It's bee na bit over 3 years since I got the 500-TX. I did manage to snag a RK-30 remote for it, so i can station surf from the couch when in Auto-Scan. The presets and auto scan were getting a bit touchy and noisy, plus the meter wasn't working as a tuner dial until it hit about 94 and then it jumped up and followed the scan erratically. Having some time between 800-C's I opened it up and followed the manual for wiring. Found the Manual/Autoscan switch at the bottom of the preset varactor group was solidly corroded and just plain gunked up.

Out came the pipe cleaners, CRC Electronics cleaner, DeOxit, small brushes, and Alcohol and Q-tips. Dis-assembled the switch from the group and sprayed everything down with the CRC. Did some minor rewiring of some that had fallen victim to the solderng iron. The Manual/AutoScan switch is like 2 push switches, but the similarity ends there. The movable leafs are sprung between the contacts and swing back and forth with the button. Cleaned them to shiny metal and doused with DeOxit Gold. Same with the stationary contacts. The varactors got only CRC (NON RESIDUE).

Putting it back together was really FUN! needed 5 pairs of hands, and an electron microscope. Getting ALL the leafs to sit inside the contacts at the same time proved that sometimes it's easier to get the wife to agree with her mother in law. Finally got it all together. Then let it sit overnight.

Next morning fired it up and everything works! Manual, AFC, All 4 presets, AutoScan, Meter in all variations of operation. Tuning is tighter now. Still have one small problem tho.

None of the Varactor presets will tune to lower than 88.5mHz. I can tune in 107.5 in DC but the station I listen to in the Evening I'd like on a preset and it's on 88.1. AutoScan tunes from 87.9 to 107.9 by RF Generator as does manual.

I don't see an adjustment for the varators to get them to tune lower, but I might be misreading something too. It's not a major problem just a mior annoyance. I just put it on Autoscan and it's the 1st station pulled in anyway. So I'll leaveit for now.

I checked the Center Idle voltage and Bias. Dead on from 3 years ago. Didn't even have to touch anything this time other than putting on the leads for the meter.

The WAF is still there. I put a Scott 342 in the Bedroom (where she spends most of her time on the 'net) and she bitches she wants "HER" Fisher back in the Bedroom. KEE RIST! I can't win for losing! Looks like it's time to take the 550-T and find someone to align the tuner and MPX and put that in the bedroom. Someone before I got it had screwed with it. Plays fine in mono (550-T) but stereo is garbled and ghosty. It's been recapped except for the mpx and tuner boards. Transistors are socketed. They all got cleaned and DeOxited. No Joy, so it needs an alignment.
She likes that one too, so I think it's a viable solution.

Larry