Soviet East German Radio

[pwdrive]

Maybe you're confusing it with the capacitor that bypasses the audio triodes anode feed resistor which is an electrolytic capacitor?

Lawrence.

[Nowhere-Man]

Possibly. C56 is between anode of EABC80 and grid of EL84 at 0.01 microfarad. R32 and R33 I tested. These two are also pictured on the overhead pic with arrows. To be honest the set hardly has any brown wax capacitors at all although C59 looks a bit knackered but that's at 4000 odd picofarads. Can't comment any further except maybe it just is silver foiled but wax paper inside.

[Crackle]

Is it one of those "metalmite" caps

Mike

[Nowhere-Man]

I will clarify the cap when it's removed later. I am at this moment attempting to service the pushbutton knobs but a diagram would help me. That is, a pic of a dismantled pushbutton mech so I get a bit more idea. Access is not great. I can tilt the radio and shine a torch but I can't really see the contact points. For sure I removed lots of dirt and grime where visible. I did read an account of someone who took a mech out but I will try Terry's suggestions first if I can get at the contacts somehow.

[pwdrive]

Give them a squirt of switch cleaner and operate them a few times.

Lawrence.

[ppppenguin]

That was always the first resort for a quick and easy fix. A good squirt of Servisol or similar switch cleaner plus some fairly vigorous operation of the buttons a few times. Not the most refined way but if it works then that's good.

[Nowhere-Man]

Where there's access I'm cleaning up all the grub and grime I can. The set is as old as I am so you'd be amazed what comes off.

[Terry]

Don't whatever you do attempt to dismantle the mechanism completely. If it isn't secured by a screw or nut and bolt it is not designed to come apart!

[Nowhere-Man]

Yes, good advice, Terry. First option is contact cleaning. I did notice there is play in the knobs and also you can hear the points meet if you wriggle the knob in the on position.
At least today I removed a bit of grime and managed to get into gear. I sometimes lack motivation to get stuff done, probably because I work on my own. Winter weather doesn't help either.

[Nowhere-Man]

Today I used Servisol to clean best as I could the pushbutton contacts and the potentiometer. No access to the pushbuttons so just dripped it through a straw. Net result is considerable improvement. That Servisol is a must for the service tool kit.
It may seem my progress is kind of slow but you can see I used the advice offered on the forum to good effect. Another tactic is to switch between projects to avoid getting bogged down.