2215 Hum and Loose Wires at Speaker Terminals!!?

[MarantzRefrb]

In looking at your pics again, I noticed your four Main and Remote speaker wires have been cut. Blue and Yellow are your Main speakers, White and Purple are your Remote speakers:

You can see Blue and Yellow, White and Purple should be attached like this:

Those four wires go through a grommet, and underneath the chassis, they connect directly to the Main and Remote speaker buttons, above the volume knob.

 

[Robergé]

If you can get a good look at the Main and Remote switches, you should be able to find the four colored wires -- two on main and two on remote. They will be the same wires normally attached to the four positive speaker terminals.

Yes, exactly right.

 

[Robergé]

Update: I have two very small ones (9months and 2 years) so not much time to devote to my new hobby. The picture posted by MarantzRefrb was very helpful, and the suggestions about tracing wires at the terminals back to the speaker selector switches, and also testing for continuity from the amp board were a good lesson. After removing the bootleg green jumpers, I re-soldered the blue and white wires to their correct locations. The balance knob now works correctly. Turns out the left channel isn't dead, it's just very, very faint. Equally faint for both Speaker A and B.

What's my next move guys? And thanks in advance, I appreciate it.

 

[MarantzRefrb]

I completely redid my 2215, every single cap, and known bad transistor. There is a parts list on the first page of that thread.

What makes the 2215 harder to troubleshoot than other 22XX, is there is no way to split the pre-amp and amp, no jumpers, or access. That makes it more difficult to determine if the problem is in the amp, or the tone board.

If I were in that position, I would restore the P700 board first, and see if that helps at all. If not, the problem would have to be in the P500 board.

What happens to the left channel if you press the Mono, or Tape Monitor button above the Selector knob?

 

[Robergé]

I completely redid my 2215, every single cap, and known bad transistor. There is a parts list on the first page of that thread.

What makes the 2215 harder to troubleshoot than other 22XX, is there is no way to split the pre-amp and amp, no jumpers, or access. That makes it more difficult to determine if the problem is in the amp, or the tone board.

If I were in that position, I would restore the P700 board first, and see if that helps at all. If not, the problem would have to be in the P500 board.

What happens to the left channel if you press the Mono, or Tape Monitor button above the Selector knob?

Got it, I was thinking we might end up here. Anything I should know about removing the power amp board, besides unscrewing and desoldering?

 

[MarantzRefrb]

Did anything change when you pressed the Mono button?

The ground strap on the P700 I remember being odd. I think I used a long screwdriver and went through a circular hole in the chassis to get at it properly. It's been awhile. I did not completely remove the P700 from the chassis, just got it loose enough to do the recap.

 

[Robergé]

I completely redid my 2215, every single cap, and known bad transistor. There is a parts list on the first page of that thread.

What makes the 2215 harder to troubleshoot than other 22XX, is there is no way to split the pre-amp and amp, no jumpers, or access. That makes it more difficult to determine if the problem is in the amp, or the tone board.

If I were in that position, I would restore the P700 board first, and see if that helps at all. If not, the problem would have to be in the P500 board.

What happens to the left channel if you press the Mono, or Tape Monitor button above the Selector knob?

I will check and see what happens when I press those buttons tonight, I recall nothing being different though as far as channels or hum.

 

[Robergé]

@MarantzRefrb nothing changed when I pressed mono or tape monitor. I noticed that the low part of the hum went away when I touched the potentiometers to make adjustments to volume balance etc. without the knobs on them. So I thought maybe a grounding issue, and started looking for loose black wires. Noticed this attached to the transformer:

 

[MarantzRefrb]

That's a wire clip on the transformer, it holds the orange wire that goes from the AM/FM board to the antenna.

You get good sound from the Right channel, but the Left channel is still very quiet? Is that the only problem with your 2215? Can you get some good pics of the bottom of the chassis?

 

[Robergé]

.

 

[Robergé]

That's a wire clip on the transformer, it holds the orange wire that goes from the AM/FM board to the antenna.

You get good sound from the Right channel, but the Left channel is still very quiet? Is that the only problem with your 2215? Can you get some good pics of the bottom of the chassis?

the orange wire in mine takes a different route, under P400, but still ends up at the AM antenna... so ok I suppose

 

[Robergé]

There is a black wire connected to the "stereo" light board that's not original, it was soldered where the purple and black wires connect in the second pic. When I clipped the black wire loose, the stereo light went off- it was grounding the light, but I guess that means the original ground isn't working? So that was weird. Pics of bottom of chassis to follow

 

[Robergé]

I took a lot

 

[MarantzRefrb]

Based on what you have so far, it looks to me as though someone has messed with the wiring to the Volume pot:

Someone has put marks on the wires that lead to the Volume pot, it also looks like they may have spliced in for some reason. Your pics are low resolution, so I'm not able to zoom in very far.

Here's how the Volume and Balance pots looked when new - pay close attention to the Blue and Yellow wires that both have a clear wire bundled with each, that then goes to the Volume pot:

I would remove the Volume pot from the Face plate, and examine the wires, and under it are the back panel speaker switching wires, Blue/Yellow, White/Purple, for Main/Remote.

EDIT: You also seem to be missing the two black wires that are between the Volume and Balance pots.

 

[Robergé]

Based on what you have so far, it looks to me as though someone has messed with the wiring to the Volume pot:

Someone has put marks on the wires that lead to the Volume pot, it also looks like they may have spliced in for some reason. Your pics are low resolution, so I'm not able to zoom in very far.

Here's how the Volume and Balance pots looked when new - pay close attention to the Blue and Yellow wires that both have a clear wire bundled with each, that then goes to the Volume pot:

I would remove the Volume pot from the Face plate, and examine the wires, and under it are the back panel speaker switching wires, Blue/Yellow, White/Purple, for Main/Remote.

EDIT: You also seem to be missing the two black wires that are between the Volume and Balance pots.

I feel sorry for this poor receiver! Sorry about the low res pics, they got compressed a lot, maybe I clicked thumbnail by accident. I'll take another pic after I remove volume pot from faceplate.

 

[MarantzRefrb]

I'm using an old phone for pics, the flash makes the pics really dark, I need to fix that.

Here's an earlier 2215 I also have, it looks more like the model you have, doesn't have the two black wires between the Volume and Balance:

This 2215 is sealed up in a wood case, or I'd take better pics of the Volume and Balance pots.

If you could remove your Face plate, and then remove the Balance and Volume pots, and get really good pics of them and the wiring, we'll be able to spot the problem if there is one.

 

[Robergé]

I'm using an old phone for pics, the flash makes the pics really dark, I need to fix that.

Here's an earlier 2215 I also have, it looks more like the model you have, doesn't have the two black wires between the Volume and Balance:

This 2215 is sealed up in a wood case, or I'd take better pics of the Volume and Balance pots.

If you could remove your Face plate, and then remove the Balance and Volume pots, and get really good pics of them and the wiring, we'll be able to spot the problem if there is one.

Update:

Given my lack of free time (2 kids under 2) and expertise, I decided to take it in to get repaired. The tech suggested a full recap, since there were extensive issues. Like we were saying, it was obvious that someone with even less expertise than myself had really made a mess of things. I'll post pics when I get it back, should be soon now. Thanks for all of your help!

 

[Robergé]

 

[Robergé]

I just paid to have a pro do it, it was too complex for me given the prior shitty work that was attempted. Goes well with Klipsch speakers, the brightness of the horn speakers is mellowed out by the cap-coupled Marantz warmth, and the efficiency of the speakers means that 15 watts is just fine. Thanks for your help everyone!