[NJARC] majestic model 20 repair

[Aaron Hunter]

Manuel

I've been enjoying the comments about your Majestic radio.  The message 
from Thomas Lee was a good one with the link to someone else who has 
successfully restored the same radio.  I notice he ran into the same 
problems you and my friend "Mr. Majestic" are.  The suggestion to bring 
it to a clinic is a wise one but if you are too far away, not too 
practical.  By the way, my friend is called "Mr. Majestic", not because 
he is an expert on them, but because he found them cheap to buy and 
bought a bunch of them.  Now he knows why they were so cheap!

Now back to your problems.  There are two 500 ohm resistors and both of 
them have the dreaded 0.1 mfd. capacitors hooked to them.  The two you 
probably missed are in the RF cans that I mentioned in a previous 
email.  They have to be drilled apart, the tar softened, guts pulled out 
and then the cap. replaced.  The restoration article describes the 
process very well.

You mentioned a 2500 ohm resistor but I suspect you mean the 25000 ohm 
resistor.  There is a 1.0 mfd. cap. hanging off of that one.  Did you 
replace that?  I believe that was located in the large can.  Could be 
you have a wiring error.  You can try disconnecting wires to see what is 
loading down the resistor.

Replacing the two 2.0 mfd. caps with 4 mfd. electrolytics is OK as long 
as the polarity is correct.  The original caps. were paper and didn't 
care about polarity.

My friend "Mr. Majestic" was lucky in that the tuner is in good shape.  
Some creative ingenuity will be needed to do repairs on yours and the 
restoration article has some good hints.

Where are you located? 

Good luck.
Aaron

Manuel Pereira wrote:
>   also the pot metal tuning shaft that the knob attaches to is broken 
> also the support for that same shaft is also broken but i can still 
> tune it, and the cabinet needs alot of work but thats not an issue. 
> best regards Manny
>
> On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 7:16 PM, Manuel Pereira <manny380sl at gmail.com 
> <mailto:manny380sl at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     hello Aaron, thank you for your replies,  im not a club member but
>     i do get this site in my mail. i just purchased this radio and i
>     suspect that someone else had worked on the radio before. any way
>     i have now really screwed this thing up. when i got the radio the
>     large can had allready leaked out all the tar so i figured the
>     capacitors were in there. i then put 4mfd electrolytics in there i
>     didnt know about the mylar caps. i now have a wiring mess that i
>     cant figure out even with diagram. also when i hook everything up
>     the 2500 ohm res and a 500 ohm res start to burn up. i would like
>     to get this radio working because it in a grandfather clock/radio
>     cabinet  i recently purchased on e-bay. thanks for any info
>     regards Manny
>
>     On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 4:52 PM, Aaron Hunter
>     <ahunter01 at comcast.net <mailto:ahunter01 at comcast.net>> wrote:
>
>         Hi Manuel
>
>         What do you mean by "power supply is totally shot?"  Is the
>         power transformer burned up, as in the tubes do not light or
>         it smokes?  If the tubes light, do the plates of the 80 glow
>         red?  Or does it just emit a loud hum?
>
>         This is a difficult radio to work on as a fellow club member
>         is finding out.  The paper filter capacitors are located in a
>         metal box inside the chassis and is filled with tar.  Two
>         other capacitors are located inside the riveted IF cans and
>         are also filled with tar.  Then there is the tuner which is
>         made of pot metal and self destructs!
>
>         Are you a club member?
>
>         Regards
>         Aaron
>
>         Manuel Pereira wrote:
>
>             _________________________________________________________
>
>             hello im looking for some one to repair a majestic model
>             20 radio the power
>             supply is totally shot
>             thanks for info
>             ______________________________________________________________
>             NJARC mailing list
>
>              
>
>
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>