A somewhat stressful but positively productive day today so far.
As per the attached photos, I was able to remove the Sharp/Flat Switch Knob and release the switch from the chassis with no problem. It then hung quite nicely below the Coil Assembly I needed to work on. The six retaining screws for the Coil Assembly came out very easily, probably because they had been loosened up a bit when the two Coil Assemblies were upgraded. By comparison, there was a lot of factory, original varnish on the two mounting screws for the Sharp/Flat Switch and it took a careful increase in turning the screwdriver to pop them free.
The Coil Assembly I had to work on slid out quite easily with the anticipated resistance as the sleeves on the Rotator Terminal strips rubbed the edges of the holes. It was easy enough to give them a gentle squeeze with one hand while guiding the Coil Assembly free with the other.
I stacked some 2 x 4 bits up on the bench and topped them off with a portable bench vice at a height the Coil Assembly could rest against once free of the rear chassis wall. This left it at a nice working angle, leaving both hands free to attend to the necessary details.
You can see how wide open the gaps are between the capacitor plates after the spring tension released when the retaining nut broke, jamming them against each other. I then cut the two connecting leads to the Trimmer Cap free at the upper coil terminal ends. I then removed the two mounting screws holding the dead Trimmer Cap in place and that’s when things got a bit interesting.
I could not remove the old capacitor from the Coil Assembly. It should have simply lifted right off and away, but was getting hung up on something. It took a few worrisome moments to realize that when the rotator plate broke free from its tension spring, so did its related terminal post that normally sat on the left side of the Trimmer Cap. It had now swung back under the coil-mounting frame and was preventing the Trimmer Cap from lifting out. Once I realized what the problem was and sorted out how to get my left pinkie finger on the errant terminal, I was able to move it back to where it needed to be to lift the old Trimmer Cap free.
After that, the replacement Trimmer Cap went in quite easily and I was able to get the two leads I had installed on it earlier soldered in place quickly. It was then simply a case of reversing the disassembly steps to put all back in place.
The last photo shows the Coil Assembly remounted, the three individual wires resoldered and the Sharp/Flat Switch back in place. This evening I will resolder the Grid Cap Clip and Sleeve on the V1D Grid Cap Lead, tie the sleeve in place to protect the lead from the sharp edges of the V1D Shield Cap and fire the receiver back up to see if there are any noticeable improvements in performance so far.
Hopefully next weekend I can then get the receiver back over to my friend’s workshop where we can finish tweaking it back to life,
David
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