[Boatanchors] Valiant line cord

[Rodger]

Hi John,

You never quite know what you will find after years of "service".  I use 
inline fuses installed under chassis to avoid drilling holes.  You 
should only fuse the black lead in your new 3 wire installation and this 
is the lead that should go to the main power switch, the neutral lead 
should never be fused or switched.  While you are in your Valiant, take 
a close look at the wiring from the low voltage transformer to the 866A 
cathodes.  In early Valiants (both kit and factory wired) they used 
regular hook up wire which will often arc to the chassis given that it 
has the plate voltage also present on it and if this occurs it will take 
out your low voltage transformer.  If it is regular wire either replace 
it with better grade wire or sleeve it with external tubing.  Of course 
if you replace the 866A's with solid state replacements you can unhook 
these wires.

Also, before you do any major work on the Valiant, loosen the screws on 
the insulating coupling in the VFO drive.  Once the Valiant is out of 
the cabinet, the coupling will try to hold the front panel from flexing 
when it is turned over and the coupling loses every time!  I had to 
rebuild the coupling on one of my Valiants after the previous owner 
learned this lesson the hard way.

You might also want to replace the dropping resistor in the VFO assembly 
with a higher wattage unit if this has not been done yet.

Enjoy the Valiant, I used one as a novice and it is still a favorite of 
mine.

73, Rodger WQ9E

John King wrote:
> Here is a Valiant story:
>
> Tonight I pulled a Valiant, that I bought two years
> ago, out of the cabinet and was really suprised. I had
> never plugged it in or attempted to use it. A previous
> owner had removed the original line cord and the fused
> plug on the end and replaced it. There was no strain
> relief grommet and the solder connections were all
> that were holding it.
>
> The line cord installed is a zip cord with molded two
> prong AC plug on the end. It did not have a three wire
> line cord or a three prong plug. To top it off THERE
> WAS NOT A SIGN OF A FUSE BETWEEN THE TRANSFORMERS AND
> THE AC WALL PLUG. I could not believe my eyes!!!!
>
> Now I will put a strain relief grommet and three wire
> AC Cord on the Valiant. I will ground the green wire
> to the chassis and fuse the other two wires by
> installing fuse holders in the rear apron of the
> Valiant.
>
> Hopefully the transformers and most parts are OK. I
> will replace the electrolytics and a the coupling caps
> as well as a few others.
>
> I am still shaken up by how someone rigged this thing
> up and hopefully I can make it safe and reliable. 73,
> John, K5PGW   
>
>
>        
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