[ARC5] BC-458 I should have seen this coming

[Mike Feher]

I have not looked at one of those caps in a long time, so, I do not remember
the size of the bearings. Regardless, a few months ago I was cleaning a
roller inductor and stupidly took the roller part of not realizing that it
was full of tiny ball bearings that flew all over the place. A few remained
in the roller's groove. I measured one and it was 1.5 mm. A search on eBay
revealed multiple sources and one was 250 of them for $4.54 from China with
free shipping. These are so small that 250 of them easily fit on a small
postage stamp. They worked perfectly and I still have a small bag full. So,
a long story to let you know that you could measure them and probably order
them as well. Good luck with the project. 73 - Mike 

Mike B. Feher, N4FS
89 Arnold Blvd.
Howell, NJ, 07731
732-886-5960 

-----Original Message-----
From: ARC5 [mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Andrew Kopke
via ARC5
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2016 8:26 PM
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [ARC5] BC-458 I should have seen this coming

Okay ,so I found this fair BC-458 on that popular auction site and took a
gamble and won ..it was only $29 ,

It has some slight damage to the top cover that was evident in the photos
,but otherwise looked ok.

I received it today and began to disassemble it for clean up, and while
doing this was  thinking to myself ... Boy ,If those variables in the bottom
compartment have all or most of the bearings, I'll be alright.. So, I'll get
to the point ..Two out of three caps have their bearings . The one closest
to the front panel that connects to the dial doesn't . I could put some
bearings from another capacitor or replace the capacitor ...Either way looks
like it calls for removal....I think .  The tuning knob would have to come
off ,desolder the connections and the gear- drive disconnected ,but If I had
a short enough screw driver I might be able to get the screws off that
spring which would allow me to drop in some bearings. Sorry for the poor
terminology/location numbers .. Any thoughts

Andrew Kopke K2AAK