Pioneer SX-980 Progress

 Just about finished with the cosmetic work on the receiver. Had some RUST to remove on the ventilation cover, the bottom chassis plate, and the top end bell on the power transformer.

Transformer before:

Transformer after:

Had to get really creative when I was removing the rust so I didn't blow iron oxide all over the place:

 And equally creative when I painted it:

The top ventilation cover was really crummy after I wire brushed it:

So I used my orbital sander on it, gave it a coat of self-etching primer, then sealed it, and gave it two coast of Rust-Oleum "Bed Liner" spray, and it came out quite nice:

Same with the inside of the bottom chassis plate, but I used Krylon Satin Black:

 The front panel was a mess, too. Somebody had put the old "shiny" Scotch Tape along the top the panel at some time during it's life, and it took several hours to get the tape, and glue residue, off the panel. Then it had to be further cleaned and polished. Unfortunately, it has some nicks and dings in the cast bezel, and I can't do anything about them, short of replacing the entire front panel. I'll just call it "patina", and live with it. At least it's clean and shiny again.

 Same with the knobs; they were filthy, with finger grime on the them, and some scratches. The main tuning and volume control knobs are machined aluminum, so they could be cleaned up, but the rest of them are metalized plastic, and once they're scratched, that's it.

I should have it all back together tonight, except for the wood case that I'm still working on, and then I can start going through the check-out and alignment procedures. I need the case off the unit so I can get at the adjustments, so no biggie right now.

Hope y'all had a good weekend. Weather here has been cool (40's~50's) and windy, but no snow for now. I'll probably fire up the snow blower again this weekend just to make sure I haven't forgotten how to run it.....

Verteran's Day

 

 I can't say Thank You enough, and although I didn't serve, I admire and honor all who did.

Thank you all for your service, sacrifice, and patriotism.

Up Next On The Workbench....

 I'm slowly working my way up the "Pioneer SX Food Chain", starting with the SX-780 I bought earlier this year. I've always liked the big Pioneer receivers since I was in college, and have wanted to get one for years.

In the process of going through my SX-780, I learned a lot about the Pioneer SX series of receivers. There were basically two series of these receivers; the SX-xx50 series, and the SX-xx80 series. The consensus among the audio forums is the the "50 Series" receivers were built better than the "80 Series", one of the main differences being the output devices used for the power amplifier that drives the speakers. The 50 Series used regular transistors, while the 80 Series used "Power Hybrids", which are several transistors mounted in a much larger package. The transistors are still available from numerous sources, while the power hybrids are close to being unobtainium. Some "audiophiles" claim the 50 series sounded better, but either series is capable of very, very good audio delivered to the speakers.

The 80 Series receivers had analog meters that showed the power being delivered to the speakers, while the 50 Series lacked these meters. I like the 80 Series, so that's what I've been looking for.

This is the newest one I just obtained. 

The seller said it was "tested", but that not all the inputs were checked, so all they could verify was that it worked on AM and FM, which means the output devices are working, a nice thing to know. They also offered a 90-day warranty (you get you money back), so since the listing was "$900 or best offer", I offered them $500, and they accepted it after a few emails back-and-forth.

When I looked at the listing pix, I noticed what appeared to be some kind of crud on the top cover, along with a spot of rust, as seen in the lower middle of the first picture:

We were dickering over the price when I asked if the unit had gotten wet, or was stored in a damp area, and they said they didn't know, but that "It Might Need Servicing", and was I comfortable working on these. I assured them I didn't have any issues with it needing a bit of work, and they accepted the offer.

It arrived here on Monday, superbly packed, and I took it downstairs and began to check it out.

The spots of crud on the cover....

 

....turned out to be rust under the paint, and as soon as I hit the cover with a wire brush, the paint just blew off: 

This bad enough that I'll go over it with my orbital sander, and then prime it and paint it. We're expecting very nice weather through the weekend, so this will be one of the last "Garage Tasks" I'll do before Winter sets in for real.

And The Wettening did a bit more than damage the cover. The rust spot on the top cover was directly over the power transformer, and whatever leaked in did this to the power transformer:

 I've already pulled the mounting hardware so I can clean this up, but not wanting to remove all the leads coming out of the end bell (the rusty part), I'm going to clean it in place, then very carefully mask everything around it, and repaint it.

The cover and end bell on the transformer are the only places I can see any evidence of water ingress, and the rest of the chassis is dusty and dirty, but not corroded:

So it looks like I may have "lucked out" on this one. There's no way I would have paid the asking price ($900) for this, but the seller was reasonable, the packing job was excellent (foamed-in-place), and it appears to just need a good cleaning and spot of paint.

Four Years Ago Today.....

 We started moving in to this house, and turning it into our home. Had some ups and down, and dropped about $40k in here the first year, but they were Deferred Maintenance items the people we bought the house from had let go, and we knew it going in.

Went through a bit of "City-To-Country Culture Shock", even though we're not that rural, but all-in-all it's the best thing we've done.

My son moved here in August, and his stress level has dropped about 90%. He was in the retail food business, and some of the stores he was assigned to were populated by the Elite, and the others by the Entitled. They were both "Bad Customers", far too important to busy themselves like understanding that when the shelves are empty, it means we have NO STOCK available to put on them. No ma'am, we don't "have any in the back". I'm sorry, ma'am, but the trucks that bring our stock didn't come today. No, ma'am, I don't know why the truck didn't come today, and on, and on, and on.

The Entitled would either harangue him about the prices, or just outright steal things. He said their griping about the prices was really pretty stupid, as they were "buying" their items with EBT cards, and it was coming out of HIS pocket, not theirs.

Halloween was a blast, and we had at least twice as many kids as we've ever had. SLW said it was probably the lights and displays we had up for the last several days that attracted them.

TLG got to go Trick or Treating dressed as the Grim Reaper, and his Daddy wore a hockey mask and hoodie. My son went dressed as a penguin, and SLW was dressed as some kind of witch.

I dressed as The Mad Scientist, complete with flashing, buzzing lights, and my Sonic Screwdriver.

We ran out of candy just as it started to rain about 8 PM, and that ended it for the night.

It was very enjoyable to see all the costumes, especially the ones the parents were wearing.

And not ONE face diaper in evidence!

YAY! The KLH Model Thirty Four is Out the Door..... and other things

 I finally got this thing finished, and it fought me most of the way.

"It's Taillights", as my car buddies used to say.

Here it is, happily spinning a Decca 78 RPM record of The Andrews Sisters singing "Dancing Cheek-To-Cheek".

It had an issue with the audio randomly dropping out, and it required doing a whole lot of soldering work.

This is what KLH called their "Modular Series", and consisted of half-a-dozen or models like this one. Some had FM, others had FM Stereo ("Multiplex" in dayse of olde...), and still others included AM radio. These were produced after Henry Kloss had left the company, and it was purchased by Singer Corporation. Yep, the sewing machine people made stereo equipment.

It's called "Modular", as all the individual functions plug into an "Interconnect Board", very similar to a "Motherboard" in your PC.

This is the Interconnect Board with most of the other sub-assemblies pulled from it.

And it fits in the chassis, thusly....

The Power Amplifier / Power Supply board is still plugged in in the above picture, as this was when I was doing the "Triage" phase after "The Colonel" first dropped it off.

If you look at the first pic of the ICB (InterConnect Board), you'll see some white things with what look like dark lines on them. The "dark lines" are the male pins in the ICB, which are soldered to the back of the board. There's a female mating connector which slides over the vertical pins, connecting the sub-assembly to the ICB.

This is a mated set, where the Power Amp board connects to the ICB. You can see the vertical pins protruding through their mating connector on the Power Amp board where the grey cable crosses between them.

There's a total of 75 pins, and another 75 "sockets" that mate to them. About half of the 150 total connections weren't soldered very well fifty years ago, and temperature cycling, vibration, and moisture finally got to them, causing open circuits, and intermittent circuits when the board or connector was flexed.

I removed the solder from all of these connections, cleaned the parts, put fresh flux on them, and resoldered them. ALL of the other boards had many "iffy" solder connections, so those were treated the same way.

All-in-all, I reworked around 200 connections, which helped quite a bit. The last thing driving me bonkers was the Mode Select Switch. It would not pass the left channel from the FM stereo, and I started wondering about finding a switch. Repeated cleaning didn't help, so I resorted to Extreme Measures. I submerged the board in denatured alcohol, and cycled the switches back-and-forth a few dozen times. After drying the board off and re-lubing the switches, it worked.

The Colonel was astounded at how nice it now looks, and amazed at how good an old 78RPM record sounded on it.

I found out he was just going to use it to "preview" his collection of about 1000 78RPM records so he can pick the ones he and his wife like, and load those into a huge Wurlitzer Jukebox they own. Since most of the records they own are in the "Less Than Pristine" category, and he's not concerned about tracking force, I maxed it out to 5 grams. That's a Metric TON of tracking force in the 33-1/3 LP world, and I advised him not to play any 45's or 33's on it, as with that much tracking force, AND a 78RPM stylus (bigger tip in it), it could easily damage the record.

So, happy "customer", and when he saw the parts total, he said our agreed upon price for the job was too little, and gave me an extra $50.

I might some work out of this, and I might not, but it felt good to see how happy he was, and we saved an item from the landfill.

Got the snow tires on SLW's car today with the help of my son, which cut a 2-1/2 hour job for me by myself down to about an hour. He was running the jack and moving the tires in an out, and I ran the impact, took the summer tires off, put the snows on, tightened the lugs, and let him do the final torquing down to 80 ft-lbs.

Then we finished the Halloween decorations for Sunday night's Trick-or-Treaters. Got the smoke machine set up, put in a bunch of sound-activated lights, ghosts, and cackling witches, added some black lights and a projector, and tested it.

And I'm beat.....

Hope y'all have a Blessed Sunday, Halloween notwithstanding.......

Good Gravy.....It's WINDY!

 Haven't seen wind like this in more than a few months. Sustained winds of 25MPH blowing across here, with gusts to 40MPH.

The steel patio chairs in the back blew over, the trash can (empty) in the back and several orange "Homer" buckets  are scattered around the yard, and my wheelbarrow flipped over.

That one I would have liked to have seen.

We were forecast with a 70% chance of precip, and then the forecast numbers dropped as yesterday went on, and we got zip. SLW was saying she heard some talking head predicting a La Nina winter, meaning DRY, which is bad, as we really need several years of good snow pack to get things back to a semblance of "normal" here.

And as far as this guy:

Enough said.....

Sunday Music

 

 One of my favorites. It's also one of those songs where everybody thinks they know the lyrics, but they always mangle them.

So, the full lyrics are below.

 I told you 'bout living in the U.S. of A.
Don't you know that I'm a gangster of love
Let me tell you people that I found a new way
And I'm tired of all this talk about love
And the same old story with a new set of words
About the good and the bad and the poor
And the times keep on changin'
So I'm keepin' on top
Of every fat cat who walks through my door

I'm a space cowboy
Bet you weren't ready for that
I'm a space cowboy
I'm sure you know where it's at
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

I was born on this rock
And I've been travelin' through space
Since the moment I first realized
What all you fast talkin' cats would do if you could
You know, I'm ready for the final surprise
There ain't no way around it
Ain't nothing to say
That's gonna satisfy my soul deep inside
All the prayers and surveyors
Keep the whole place uptight
While it keeps on gettin' darker outside

I'm a space cowboy
Bet you weren't ready for that
I'm a space cowboy
I'm sure you know where it's at
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

I see the show downs, slow downs, lost and found, turn arounds
The boys in the military shirts
I keep my eyes on the prize, on the long fallen skies
And I don't let my friends get hurt
All you back room schemers, small trip dreamers
Better find something new to say
Cause you're the same old story
It's the same old crime
And you got some heavy dues to pay

I'm a space cowboy
Bet you weren't ready for that
I'm a space cowboy
I'm sure you know where it's at
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

 

 

Up and Running!

 Sorry, no pix and I don't do video. Well, at least not in a few years.

Went through the "Maintenance and Service" section of the manual today, checking the adjustments, and getting used to working on it. All the adjustments were "In Spec", so after putting the covers back on it, I flipped it back up, let it sit for a bit, and checked the oil. Then I filled the tank and attempted to start it. At first I used the pull starter, and after four or five pulls, it wouldn't start. Tried the electric a few times, and same thing. Huh....what did I forget?

Key in place, throttle to mid, choke on, "Run/Stop" switch in "Run" position, push primer three times, crank, and no fire.

Then I realized I hadn't turned the fuel valve to "ON". ooops!

Turned the fuel on, cranked it a few seconds, and pressed the primer a few times again. This time it felt like it had fuel in the bulb, and sure enough, when I cranked it again, it lit right off.

Let it run about 20 minutes going between the turtle and the rabbit on the throttle control, and drove it up and down the driveway a few times.

Starts on the first pull when warm, and it's not hard at all to pull start it.

The differential makes turning it a breeze, and it's pretty easy to maneuver considering how big it is. At this time, in the dry, the handling of this one is greatly superior to that electric POS I had.

Should make snow removal much less of a chore than the other one.

OK, Beans and Rev Paul.....Here She Is!

 Delivered this morning by a nice young gentleman who used a pallet jack to place it exactly where I wanted it.

Open the lid, and.....

Very nicely packed, and on two wood pallets, meaning MOAR FIREWOOD!

Get ready.....

Yes, that's Sweet Little Wife herself, coming out to see whazzup...

ROLLOUT!

And after some final assembly....

Wonder who'd win....?

Controls are easy to use, and placement seems OK, but actual use will tell.

So here she sits, sleeping until tomorrow. I'm going to tip it up into the "Service Position", and go through all the adjustments listed in the manual. So far everything seems good, and the adjustments I could do while assembling it have been done, per the manual. I set the skid shoes to about 3/8" clearance, as that seemed to work OK with the electric one. After I pull some covers and check things like belt tension and clutch adjustment, I'll check the oil, put some gas in it, and fire it up. It's MUCH easier to move around, as it has a differential instead of a solid-axle, and it feels very well balanced.

Sleep tight!

Groan.....Busy Week Just Passed....

 Haven't posted in a week, so here's a wrap-up.... 

 We had the Little guy over for a Friday night sleepover, then SLW took him to a Halloween party. Sunday we had a full-house, with my son, The Kids, and both grandsons. SLW made a killer pot roast with all the fixin's, using meat from a local butcher shop she found. Beautiful piece of meat, and cooked up to where it fell apart with your fork.

I'd planned to put her snow tires on last weekend, but BOTH batteries for my impact wrench went TU, and I didn't feel like fighting with a breaker bar and "helper" pipe. New batteries should be here this week, along with this guy:

It's the Ariens Deluxe 24, and probably what I should have bought in the first place, instead of that wimpy, woke, "green" electric Snow Joe POS I had. Filled up my 5 gallon gas jug, and my 2 gallon jug, with a shot of Sta-Bil Marine Grade gas stabilizer in each. I have no idea how much fuel these burn in ~45 minutes of use, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. It's getting here before the first snow, so I'll have time to learn how to run it. I'm a little cheesed at Lowe's, as they showed them in stock locally, but mine's taking NINE days to get here from when I ordered it. No idea where or what warehouse it's coming from, but it sure ain't local!

And I'm still fighting with the KLH stereo that's on the bench. I spent a couple of hours on the turntable/record changer getting it to work and track properly. It was another case of petrified lubricant that had to be flushed out and replaced, and getting some stuck parts loose on the tone arm/pick-up so I could adjust the tracking force for this specialized use of 78RPM records only. I now have it to the point where "it works", but it still has issues. One of the channels keeps dropping out, and I'm tracking down what's causing it.  This unit was made in early 1972, cost about $200, and was never designed to last 50 years, so I'm dealing with a very elderly patient here......

Thunder in October?

 I know Well Seasoned Fool has been snowed on all 12 months of the year here, but I'm not sure if I've heard thunder here in October before.

Pretty strong front going through here, with some rain, and a heck of a lightshow.

This screenshot shows it going through:

It's about 37* and drizzling right now, and taking out the two trashcans almost chilled me. Expected low tonight is 33*, with snow showers, and an expected high of 60* tomorrow, with snow showers ending around 0700. Tomorrow night is forecast to also be 33*, and Thursday night is expected to be 28*, which should really knock the leaves off the trees. Some of the trees are bright yellow, and our maple is turning a dark red. The apple tree is just starting to turn, so I'll see what happens to it. Friday is supposed to be sunny and dry, and if the leaves are still on, I'll take some pix.

 

So, at the first rumble of thunder here the Comms Group goes into "Action Stations!", and pulls the antennas, and unplugs the power strip the radio and associated hardware are plugged in to.