[Kenwood] Knobs, Metal Dial Skirts, Glass Plus It !!!

[Larry, K4WLS]

Well, we have gone through the DetoxIt thread, so now let's
do Glass plus It !!  I have found through the years that Glass
Plus is the best all-around cleaner in the shack.

Glass Plus has no ammonia, so it is safe on all rubber and
plastic, and it does not leave a film. For regular cleaning of
the rigs, I use a 50 - 50 mixture of Glass Plus and distilled
water. Even the slightest amount of chlorine from the tap will
take the white lettering off the front panel of the older rigs.

I usually keep my mixture in a spray bottle, but for the knobs
pour some in a small dish. A soft toothebrush or lint free
swab is great for cleaning the hand grime from the ridges
of the plastic knobs or rubber VFO knobs. A lint free cotton
pad and the 50 - 50 solution will really shine those metal
knob skirts, the front panel, and covers. Don't forget the
mike (mic) chords and the AC line chords which seem to
be neglected over many years. Even though the solution
does not leave any film, I usually rinse the front panel and
covers with the cotton pad and distilled water, and wipe
them dry.

A clean, shiney rigs seems to work better just like a clean,
shiney car seems to drive better !!   :-)   :-)

If you are restoring an old tube rig, use full strength to clean
the chassis. It will not take the tube V-XXXX, or C-YY off
the chassis. Take the tubes out and clean them, then give
the tube socket holes some squirts of DetoxIT. Gently, but
firmly reinsert the tube and remove again. Repeat this a
few times, and you have just de-oxidized the tube pins and
the socket. Be careful when removing an electron tube from
it's socket for the first time in a very old rig, otherwise you
may wind up having to replace the tube socket (not fun), as
ionic metal bonding of tube pins and sockets can occur.
This can result in the tube pin loosening the socket receptacle
if too much force is used. The end result is a wallowed out
socket and potential intermittent connections. Use lint free
cotton swabs to get those "hard to get places".

If you are restoring an old Drake TR-3 or TR-4C, use a
"non drippy" amount of WD-40  on a small cotton pad and remove all the old
grease from the worm gear that moves the plate with the plunger and magnetic
core in and out of the
permeability tuned VFO coil. When all the grease is gone,
remove the residual, and apply a thin film of sewing machine
oil to the worm gear. The VFO knob will turn like a dream
and there will be no bumpy or jerkey frequency changes.

Many of the older and some of the new digital radios use
a daisey wheel encoder. The daisey wheel has holes around
it's peripherial surface. An infared emitting device is on
one side of the wheel in the enclosure, and an infared
detector is on the other side. As you turn the VFO, the
infared light from the emitter hits the holes and the detector
on the other side, and the frequency changes in steps.
On the older rigs, the lubricating compound in the daisey
wheel encoder can dry out and gum up the holes. This can
cause bumpy frequency changes, or no change at all
for a 1/3 to 1/2 revolution of the VFO knob. The daisey
wheel encoder in some rigs can be taken apart as the
enclosure is held togethor by metal tabs. Once inside,
you can clean out the old dried compound from the inside
of the enclosure and the daisey wheel. Sewing machine
oil applied very sparingly to all the moving parts works
great. The big job is getting the enclosure apart.

The RIT/XIT controls on the 1996 production runs of the
FT-1000MP became notorious for erratic frequency changes
due to a gummed-up daisey wheel encoder. Disassembling
the encoder enclosure is a snap, but to remove it you have
to remove all the knobs and the front panel to get at the
two mounting screws for the enclosure. Hmmmm..... reminds
me of the TS-520 - 830 front panels.

Well folks, 0430 local and can't sleep too well as I have a
bad case of the flu and the plugged up head that goes with
it. Tired now, so will stop. Sure you guys (generic) can
share some of your own ideas about cleaning your rigs,
knobs, and getting rid of those jerky VFO's.

73 and Good Kenwooding,      Larry   K4WLS