[Boatanchors] SX-71 Restoration

[L L bahr]

I had a little time today so I started working on my SX-71 restoration project.  Since I am waiting for all the resistors and capacitors to show up, I decided to remove the front panel so I can restring the one of four dial cords.  (I'll check the others to make sure they are OK.  If not, I'll restring them too.  The pointers are no longer a nice RED, so I may repaint them too while the panel is removed.)  Anyway, it was not as easy to remove the front panel as I wished.  The knob set screws are supposed to be Bristle type.  Well, all were but four!  The CW Pitch Control knob had an Allen Head Set Screw in it of one size.  The two Main Band Tuning knobs and the Band Switch all had another size Allen Head Set Screw in them!  It took three different size and type wrenches to remove all the knobs!  (The Allen's were fractional inch sizes and not metric.)  It seems to me I read a long time ago someone else found this also to be true.  This radio has never been worked on as far as I can tell.  I doubt anyone replaced the set screws.  I suspect the radio came from the factory this way.  So in short,  my little time available today,  was soaked up finding the correct wrench for each of the knobs.  Tomorrow I am going to try my new front panel toggle switch nut remover tool I recently purchased.  Once the switch nuts are removed, the front panel will be removed. 

Lee, w0vt