Well Folks, when do you throw in the towel? Thus far, I've replaced all the electrolytic capacitors, cleaned and lubed the mechanism, new belt and several hours in time. Every time I move the PCB, a wire separates from some solder point. This unit had some corrosion in the battery box which cause light corrosion in other places. I think I'm about to take this project at a loss and just use whatever parts on this unit as spares. This has by far and large been my worst restore project, first unsuccessful. Anyone else had similar experience? Would love to hear your story. Cheers! Norm
Fact wires are breaking where they're soldered shouldn't be a deal breaker given the effort you already put into this project. I would cut all wires (2-3mm away from where wire is exposed now) and re-solder everything. Doing this isn't that much of an extra hassle compared to what has been already done. Worked on projects that were significantly worse than what you describe.
Hi Valentin. Yes, I would do that if only I knew where the wires went. I may have mentioned in another post that I am uncertain where those wires supposed to go and, as luck would have it, the mounting diagram in the service manual does not match up with the traces on my particular PCB. I may attempt to follow it on the schematic diagram to see if I can figure things out. Cheers! Norm
Okay, Good People, after many frustrations and a bit of good luck, I've managed to resuscitate another Walkman from dirtiest of all trash cans. This patient was initially determined not live to see tomorrow but she pulled through in the end. I've been listening to this thing for about 6 hours and it appears to be stable. I think I'm going to call this one good before anything else happens, lol. As always, nothing is complete without the paperwork. Not fantastic numbers but this one has gone through hell and back. I'm fine with it, sounds great - there's a little more sparkle on the high end and tighter bass than the WM-2 that I restored earlier. Cheers! Norm Addendum: I did not change the pinch roller but did recondition it. Maybe I can get the W&F down just a tiny bit if I replace it. I might try that at a later time.
Just getting around to taking some pics. Here are some before/after pictures. The before pics are from eBay. Cheers!
@worldwide137 Congrats, Norm! Excellent work on the restoration and corrosion remediation—and great W&F results for this series. I hope to share a similar victory on my end of the project(s) soon! Alex
Thanks, Alex, I’ve been following and waiting for an update on you Aiwa project. I have a Aiwa JX719 shelved, it has some weird static when playing only the cassette, radio is fine. I replaced all the electrolytic caps. I suppose at some point I’ll get back to it. Another shelved unit is a Panasonic RQ-SX70F. That darn clutch assembly, which I repaired, and the unique rubber bushings worn off the capstan makes my sample a poorly functioning museum piece. The Sony WM-X is an absolute joy to work on. Keep us posted on your progress. I have several more in the queue for repairs. Let’s keep the love for our Walkmans alive. Cheers! Norm
@worldwide137 Thanks, Norm! Marian's package just arrived right on time. While waiting for the Sony WM-2 parts, I completed a full teardown and restoration of my JVC RC-838 JW II boombox this morning. Easily my toughest repair/resto yet, but sentimentally worth every minute since it was my first college boombox. Regarding the static on your Aiwa JX719—I had a similar issue on another deck, and it turned out to be a weak chassis ground contact. Might be worth checking the ground traces or frame connections! Who knows? One thing I've learned so far is that nothing is as easy as it appears on YouTube videos. There is no substitute for experience, and a modicum of luck never hurts the result.
Oh yea, two of my favorites, JVC RC-838 JW II and Pioneer SK-71! I was thinking of doing another big history thread of Pioneer. Most people don't think of either Pioneer or Marantz being boombox companies but they had some steller models.
Norm, sk71 is a fine boombox, full featured and high quality. As long as it can be brought back to life. That’s a next level challenge. @Mister X Pioneer made several amazing boomboxes, I am a big fan but never owned one. this is my JVC RC-838 JW II after resto. I am pondering if it is worth it to make a thread with some pics and observations I had during the restoration. Alex
Beautiful and a very capable unit. I bet it sounds like a million bucks. Did you do a full recap? Yes, I’d be interested in following your journey into the restoration.
Surprisingly, I did not have to replace a single capacitor to make it work and also calibrated. (Rubycon caps were factory installed here). But the restoration story is interesting in other different ways, and could be useful for some others who love this particular lineage of JVC b-boxes, (RC-M70 included.) and thinking of buying one. I will make a separate post on the restoration of my RC-838 JW II. Stay tuned!
Yea, definately do a thread! The Pioneer Big SK's are very similar to the Marantz 4000's, several models share the same chassis with different options available. You can have five of each that almost look identical from 30' away but are very different up close.
@Mister X and @worldwide137 I just posted a new thread here: https://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/jvc-rc-838-jw-ii-restoration.11464/
