[Hallicrafters] I got some SX-42 woes myself

[John Meyer]

Chris,

I had the same problem with my SX-42 a couple of years ago. The gear 
assembly has to be completely removed and disassembled to get at the cracked 
gear. That was the first challenge. The next problem I had was to extract a 
gear off a shaft to get at the cracked one. I don't remember all the details 
but what I do remember was the job of extracting the gear to get at the 
broken one looked impossible without some kind of special pulling tool, so I 
took the assembly to a local machine shop and had a tool made to extract the 
gear. The third challenge was to fix the cracked gear. My solution was to 
take the gear and carefully pinch it back together in a vise. Once it's back 
to it's original shape, at the crack inside the bore hole, I took a very 
small rat tail file and filed a small groove down into the body of the gear. 
Then I filled the groove with solder. Next I filed the bore hole to get rid 
of the excess solder and to slightly enlarge the hole so the gear is no 
longer a press fit. To keep the gear in place I used JB Weld which is 
available in small tubes at most hardware stores. This procedure has proven 
to be one solution, others may have another or better idea. To date I have 
not had any trouble with the gear assembly and the tuning remains nice and 
smooth. If you intend on tackling the job the special tool I had made is at 
your disposal at no charge, all I ask is that it comes back and you 
reimburse me for the postage. Hope this information helps.

Regards,

John Meyer K8IHY
Hudsonville MI.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Tubsc66 at aol.com>
To: <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 8:03 AM
Subject: [Hallicrafters] I got some SX-42 woes myself


> 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
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