[ARC5] BC-455 tuning cap with missing beariings.

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

Hmmmmm...well the post I wrote to address this issue has never showed up, 
so I must have sent it to the wrong address.

So here goes.

There are at least two "sets" of ball-bearings in each ARC-5 main tuning 
capacitor: 1 or sometimes 4 at the non-driven end, held in place by a 4 
"prong" spring-thing, the screws are usually painted red, and a number (I've 
never counted them) very much smaller bearings in a race at the driven-end 
of the capacitor.

Depending on how the receiver has been "slammed", either or both of the 
sets of bearings can fall out of their race or holder.

About a year ago, I had this issue with what was otherwise a decent BC-454. 
All the small bearings at the driven-end had fallen out and were missing. The 
cap would lock up about 1/2 way around the dial, shorting out the plates.

I did not have a decent replacement capacitor, or I would have simply 
replaced the damaged capacitor. It is far easier than trying to replace the 
missing bearings.

Anyway, here is how I did it.

First, I found a very badly damaged capacitor from a BC-453, from which I 
could rob the small bearings. I cleaned those up as best I could.

Then, I removed the 4 prong spring-thing at the non-driven end of the 
BC-454 capacitor, saving the bearings. With that removed, there is barely 
enough "slack" to enable one to insert the small bearings, one at a time, in 
the race.

I used a small screwdriver which I had slightly magnetized so that a single 
bearing would stick to it. You can either do that, or use some heavy grease 
to hold the bearing on the end of the screwdriver.

I then inserted a bearing in the "top" of the race, where there was the most 
slack, and then pushed it down to the "bottom" of the race with the 
screwdriver, slowly stacking them up at the bottom of the race.

I used a bit of heavy grease to hold them in place and to prevent them from 
falling back out. This also enables one to keep enough slack in the cap to 
pretty much fill the race.

You DO NOT need to put all the bearings back in place. If you have even 
only 2/3 of the bearings in place, that will be more than enough to keep the 
capacitor centered and back-lash free.

After inserting all the bearings I had, I then reinstalled the spring-thing and its 
bearings at the other end of the cap.

After that, the tuning cap worked perfectly.

YMMV

Ken W7EKB