[R-390] R390A qvs vu meter mod 150 type 8 repair - Complete

Sat Aug 20 11:20:35 EDT 2016

Super excellent job on the meter Larry. Thanks for sharing those images. I may go on that pathway if my carrier level meter continues to stick at 60dB.

73s

Guido

Guido Santacana KP4FAR

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 19, 2016, at 9:27 PM, Larry H <dinlarh at att.net> wrote:
> 
> I finally got to work on this meter a little bit.  Thanks Roy, Don, Renee, Francesco and Tisha for your suggestions.  I borrowed a drill press and drilled (what I hoped and believed were rivets) out a little.  Thanks for the suggestion to use the press.
> 
> Here's the links to the pictures I posted of it before, untouched, on May 23, 2015 8:24 PM:
> 
> http://s28.postimg.org/h5d7tqsyl/IMG_6757s.jpg 
> http://s15.postimg.org/x29k331yz/IMG_6760s.jpg 
> http://s29.postimg.org/fiqt47n0n/IMG_6762s.jpg 
> http://s11.postimg.org/wb62rl88z/IMG_6763s.jpg 
> 
> After I drilled one, I could easily see that they were rivets.  Here's the link to the picture after drilling:
> 
> https://s3.postimg.org/nn15sx1pv/IMG_7264s.jpg
> https://s4.postimg.org/kc30jownh/IMG_7266s.jpg
> 
> I then wrapped the body with masking tape (about 6 layers) to use as a prying fulcrum in order to get the face off.  That worked great.  It was stuck on with a weak rigid adhesive, which allowed the face to be pried off with a little careful pressure with a screw driver between the tape and face.  I then removed most of the adhesive around the glass.  It came off very easily.  The glass was still adhering to the meter body, so I carefully inserted a thin knife blade between the glass and body and carefully worked it around the circumference to free the glass.  Here's links to pictures showing tape, bezel off and removal of the glass:
> 
> https://s3.postimg.org/nn15sx1pv/IMG_7264s.jpg
> https://s4.postimg.org/5idos2lil/IMG_7268s.jpg
> https://s3.postimg.org/ib8snr6dv/IMG_7270s.jpg
> 
> After a little examination and manual moving of the needle, it was easy to see that the top coiled control hair spring was not in the correct position.  The outer ring was coming in contact with the next ring, causing it to stick in different places on the low db side.  After careful manipulation, I managed to get it good again.  I've been testing it with audio from my 390A for a few days, and it's working great.  Sorry I could not get a picture of the spring, but here it is cleaned up, painted and put back together:
> 
> 
> https://s4.postimg.org/nybudkfkt/IMG_7276s.jpg
> https://s4.postimg.org/g43q8bkjx/IMG_7273s.jpg
> I glued the glass back on with a very very small amount of flexible glue and the same with the bezel.  I applied it with a tooth pick to control the amount.  One thing to be careful of is putting the glass in the right side down.  The edge of the glass is NOT flat and will only seat correctly one way.  If it's put in backwards, the body will not seat correctly into the face plate.  I suspect that if too much pressure is applied with the glass in the wrong way, it will break.
> 
> I'm really puzzled as to how the movement spring got damaged, because from all of the signs when I took it apart, I'm the first one to do so.  I did buy this from an individual, so who knows how it was handled before me.  But, the packaging was excellent when it was sent to me.
> 
> Regards, Larry
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