[Hallicrafters] S-120 Tuning Questions

[Wj5mh at aol.com]

A month ago I purchased an S-120 at a garage sale, and I just finished  
refurbishing it.  However, I seem to have a problem with tuning  actually matching 
the dial scale ON ALL BANDS.  Even after an  alignment.
 
This may be a clue.  I noticed that the dial pointer would not fully  move to 
the left end of the dial (under the zero of the band-spread marking)  when 
the tuning cap was set to max capacitance.  I managed to release  the tabs, 
remove the glue and slide the pointer to the left.  Now, the  pointer moves from 
one end of the dial to the other, matching min and max  settings of the tuning 
capacitor.
 
I carefully followed the alignment procedure starting with the broadcast  
band, but was unable to get the dial to match after working with the trimmer cap  
and inductance settings numerous times.  Example:  1300 kHz at  1300 kHz, but 
590 kHz on the low end would be 560 kHz.
 
Working with the other bands generated about the same  results.  Example of 
band 3: 10 MHz would be OK, but 5 MHz would show  as 4.7 MHz.  40 meters would 
actually show up as 6.7 MHz.
 
I was thinking that the dial string could be causing the problem, because  of 
some string diameter to cap rotation ratio, but the string looks  original.  
(It's small diameter and white.  Band-spread is larger  diameter and black.)
 
Whatever it is, it's affecting all bands.  I know it's a cheap set,  but one 
would expect to dial to be a little closer than it is.  If you've  worked on 
one, what's been your experience?
 
I'm using high-side injection for all bands.  To receive a station at  11 
MHz, the oscil is set to 11.455 MHz.  (I don't even know if this is  correct 
since I started from scratch with the alignment after trying to touch up  the 
alignment the first time.)  Oscillator signal sounds clean on an  external 
receiver.  The S-120 seems to receive fine.
 
Thanks,
Joe