[R-390] Cleaning R-390 gears in place before lube

[Bob Camp]

Hi

I’ve been down the road with this on a couple of radios. I’d *think* I had everything sprayed out and clean. Eventually something would get me moving and I’d tear down the gear train. There always was an improvement after the tear down. Spraying stuff out of split gears - very tough to do.  

A lot depends (of course) on just how grubby the gear train is. If your radio has been out in the rain and blowing dust for a few (hundred) years, there’s a lot of curd down in there ...

Bob

On Jul 29, 2014, at 10:22 PM, Roger Ruszkowski <flowertime01 at wmconnect.com> wrote:

> 
> Frank,
> 
> You ask,
> 
> Hi,Great discussion on the lubricant issue!Before I can lubricate,
> I have to clean the ancient crud off.I am lazy, want to try to just 
> spray Trichloroethylene straight down thegear train and see whatit 
> removes.Possibly also use compressed air to remove the larger chunks.
> Is this a bad idea, as a preliminary attempt?UGLY GEARS:
> 
> Pull the RF deck.
> Remove the springs, slug racks and RF cans.
> Take the deck outside to the back yard and hang the gear train off the edge of the table.
> 
> Just pouring solvent through the gears will not remove the crud.
> get your brushes and start working the solvent to scrub the metal.
> 
> Use spray bottles.
> Set the nozzle to squirt.
> Carefully put a screw driver into the split gears for space so you can work in more solvent and air.
> 
> Lots of compressed air to blow the solvent and crud out of the gear train.
> 
> Start with a quart of kerosene and us up the whole container.
> A quart of soap and water.
> 
> A quart of rubbing alcohol
> 
> then a quart of cheep gin or vodka 
> 
> You have a $1000.00 receiver put a couple bucks into its long life.
> 
> Swab it in and blow it out.
> 
> while its clean and still out side do the lube job.
> 
> Swab that on move it in with the air and blow all the excess out.
> 
> After this you should be able to just dust the gear train out once 
> a year or so with compressed air for the next twenty years.
> 
> I use a swizzle stick. A length of copper tubing soldered into an
> air line fitting. the end of the tubing is beat shut to just a small
> hole. I open the hole up enough to keep the pressure high but below
> the high pressure cut off point. I get max air with out the compressor
> motor cycling off and on.
> 
> Just take your time and you can get things clean.
> Remember split gears do not run against each other.
> The goal is to clean as much crud out as reasonable so it does not
> keep dropping out of spaces and running into the gear mesh thus causing wear. 
> 
> Get the old crud, heavy lube and dust out of the gear train.
> Remember to clean up the rack slide rollers.
> 
> Swab the RF can slug tubes with the good alcohol and wipe dry.
> Wipe the slugs down just to take a layer of dust off them.
> Slugs and tubes run dry no lube. Or you will be looking for a new RF deck.
> 
> You can remove the covers from the RF cans and disassemble the trimmer cap.
> But only go there if you have a real need to clean one or two that have caught
> some filth.  
> 
> while you have the deck out check the RF band switch alignment.
> ten sections and six positions in the R390. Its an eyeball to ensure you get the
> best average maximum switch contact on each section in each position.
> Do not do this adjustment with a meter as described in the TM.
> 
> Eyeball what is going on and adjust for best setup.
> Check the contacts going both up and down the megahertz range.
> 
> Roger AI4NI 33C4H 68 - 75
> 
> 
> 
> 
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