All we hear is… Radio Gaga
Q I have started the restoration of my Bond (which is believed to be the last one built), and when I used it as my sole transport in the late 1970’s I fitted an Elpico under-dash portable radio. Unfortunately it no longer works and I am trying to find anyone who is able to restore it – but all the companies I’ve found online have poor feedback. Any suggestions?
Jeff Baker, Goffs Oak
Matt says:
A Local repair shops for radio and TV are almost extinct these days, which is a shame. However with care, you can probably bring it back to life yourself. The problem is likely to be easy to trace. Remove the casing and find the on-off contacts of the volume knob. The volume part has three connections, which will be grouped together.
A further pair of connections is for the switch. Connect the radio to a power source and a speaker and bridge the switch connections. If it now works, spray contact cleaner inside the switch part of the control and – with the power disconnected – repeatedly work it on and off to clean the contacts. If a dial light is fitted and still works, this will tell you whether the switch is in working order or not.
The other thing which afflicts old radios is the breakdown of electrolytic capacitors (cylindrical aluminium cans). The electrolyte dries out over time and they become useless. Each one will have a value printed on it – eg. 250μf (microfarad). It will also have a working voltage (16 or 25V will do for a car radio). Order replacements for all of them. Radial types have both leads in the bottom of the can, axial types have leads at the end. This is for convenience of mounting; from an electronic point of view, they’re the same. Note the + and – marks; new ones must be fitted the same way, otherwise they either won’t work or they’ll explode – amusing but unhelpful. You can order new capacitors via ebay but it’s easier to use a specialist such as bitsbox.co.uk who can supply everything in a single order.
A desoldering gun will help: it sucks up melted solder so the old parts can be cleanly extracted.