[Hallicrafters] I got some SX-42 woes myself

[Tubsc66 at aol.com]

Hello Everyone,
    All the recent posts concerning the SX-42 and the beautiful restoration
work done by Rich and others prompted me to get back into mine. A
brief bit of history here, I bought my example in 1994 at a local flea market
for $40. It was in a Bud cabinet but otherwise was in pretty good shape.
It was great on the BC band as well as the lower SW band and FM, but
the "middle" bands were dead. I was just getting into BA's and decided
to make the 42 my first real rebuild job... Probably a bad choice ... The
SX-42 is a challenge for experienced radio nuts, and I didnt do the best 
recap job, I replaced alot of the paper caps with NOS BBOD's, not knowing
at the time they were cursed. Cut to 2006, after 10 years in the garage
I dug it back out and got back into it. Ive almost finished recapping my
initial recap and cleaning up the sloppy work I had done before. All was
coming along well, I fired it up to see how it hears, and I was treated to
that wonderful audio and no hum, I was thrilled! As I tuned through the
band I noticed the main tuning cap wasnt moving more than 1/4 of the way
through its revolution. The dial continued to move ok. Upon inspection
with a high intensity light and a magnifier, I spotted the trouble. The gear
which drives the main tuning gear had split right between two teeth. When
the gear rotated by the tuning knob hits that point, the tuning cap stops...
I'm pretty bummed as I dont see how to get that tiny gear out of there,
and I'll need a organ donor from another radio to boot. Im not quite done 
the recap but I dont see much point in continuing if I cant get the tuning
issue resolved... Has anyone ever removed all the tuning gears from one
of these things? Looking at it, I dont see how I can get it out of there 
without totally destroying the rest of the tuning assembly. Does anyone 
have a junker that has a good tuning setup?

If not, I may have a junker to sell... Any advice would be appreciated.

73's
Chris KC5IIE