CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[elma]

Any of them fancy a cut n shut guitar, low mileage, good colour one careful lady owner.

[daviemck2006]

Any of them fancy a cut n shut guitar, low mileage, good colour one careful lady owner.

Any MOT? Service history?

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[CitroJim]

Any of them fancy a cut n shut guitar, low mileage, good colour one careful lady owner.

Any MOT? Service history?

I dunno Jim, I'm sure there's forum members who'd happily buy the Pug of Love knowing it's history provided it's behaved itself for long enough to be tentatively called fixed...

Well, given that I only drive it, or any of my other cars, tens of miles a week now it seems to be OK... It had an electrical funny yesterday though, in all the pouring rain the rear wiper wouldn't switch off and seemed to be in some sort of automatic intermittent mode...

I really don't like multiplexed electrics in cars... I have no trust of them at all

I can cope rather better with old-school electronics... Yesterday I successfully fixed the little Roberts wireless I got from NVCF on Sunday It's a super little set too...

[CitroJim]

The two transistor wirelesses obtained from NVCF at the weekend and both now fully functional

A Roberts R505 and a Hacker Aviemore...

Possibly two of the best small portables ever made... The Pug 205s of the wireless world

Own work

The valve wireless behind them is a Bush VHF80 and again an NVCF find a few years back. It still does most sterling service in the kitchen

[ekjdm14]

My God, I recognise the Hacker as one my grandfather had in the early to mid eighties I loved the way it looked and how solidly made it felt to small hands. The Roberts looks similar to one that a member of staff at school kept in the back of her Moggy 1000 about 10 years on...

Here's a little query for you Jim as you know your way round a tranny (so to speak! ). I have, in the kitchen cupboard, the original amplifier from our Escort. It's from the era of Ford "seperates" car stereos and has low-powered DIN inputs from the head unit.

When we bought the car, the seller connected a jump pack and when the ignition was turned on the stereo emitted a loud buzz through the speakers & the amp began to smoke profusely. My best guess is either he had the pack set on 24v or the rectifier was duff and it gave the car 12VAC.

When we got the car back, I stripped the amp and found the 4 large electrolytics inside bulged and leaking so I replaced them with new ones of the same spec, observing polarity, in hope of resurrecting the amp. Nothing else looks/smells burned in there and it powers up, slight crackle/hiss through the speakers as it does but no output whatsoever.

What would you say the likely issue is, if you can make any sort of diagnosis from that? I'm thinking the transistors blown... Never got round to testing further than the electrolytics as I found a replacement for a tenner in the end but would be nice if I could sort it.

[CitroJim]

My God, I recognise the Hacker as one my grandfather had in the early to mid eighties

That's only one of several Hackers I have Dan, I also have a Hunter and a Herald which are a bit older and are even more solidly built. They sound awesome and are near HiFi on FM...

When we got the car back, I stripped the amp and found the 4 large electrolytics inside bulged and leaking so I replaced them with new ones of the same spec, observing polarity, in hope of resurrecting the amp. Nothing else looks/smells burned in there and it powers up, slight crackle/hiss through the speakers as it does but no output whatsoever.

Sounds like it was connected reverse polarity to me Dan, electrolytics hate that and so do transistors, especially output transistors...

I'd replace the outputs on sight but do also check the drivers as well as the amp will be DC coupled and if the driver transistors are faulty any new outputs will be instantly destroyed again...

If you can advise me of the exact model I can likely get hold of a circuit...

On replacement of the outputs it's likely standing current and crossover voltage settings will need adjustment and setting-up - this is critical...

[ekjdm14]

ah, that is also a distinct possibility. I'll try and find the details of the thing when I get a minute to look, although there are 4 fairly obvious large transistors screwed to large heatsinks which I'd hazard a guess at being dead. Thanks

Also a more pertinent question, as it relates to the upgraded stereo I found for the Xantia. It's a Cit. branded Blaupunkt unit which I wanted as it has an AUX input as well as tape deck. Only real issue I have with it is the FM reception is terrible, it will pick up local stations if we're close enough to the transmitter but only weakly. (only time it's picked up an RDS signal was in Macclesfield the other day about 3 or 4 miles from the Silk FM transmitter!) I haven't checked for AM/LW but can do if needed.

Is there any form of aerial trim possible on this kind of DLL tuner, and if there is then what would be the best method for an amateur. We have a small FM transmitter of the kind used to send a signal from a portable CD player or phone to a car stereo, would that be any use in adjusting it if required.

TBH it's more likely a fault than adjustment though isn't it, if the tuner is this bad? Where would you look first for failed/damaged components in this one? (might be telling that it's sat in a damp/mouldy and leaking Xantia break in a scrap yard for at least a couple of years before I grabbed it.

No big deal if it can't be fixed as the original stereo worked well, was just low spec.

[elma]

Seems to be a common problem, mine is the same despite the aerial and cables being checked.
Very interested to find out why as I would also like to repair.

[elma]

Is this one of the recommended bletchley books Jim? I picked it up a couple of weeks ago and forgot about it.

Own wirk

[CitroJim]

Seems to be a common problem, mine is the same despite the aerial and cables being checked.
Very interested to find out why as I would also like to repair.

Dan, James, there is no trimmer... I know what you mean as old-school MW/LW car wirelesses used to have one as the coax feeder from the whip used to form a loading coil to help match the whip and the trimmer was needed to bring the whole shooting match to resonance...

This explains why those old aerials had some distinctly odd-looking coax on them...

Modern aerials have normal coax and this (in part) is why MW/LW reception on a car wireless is so poor these days as the aerial is just not efficient...

Back on topic, the cause of both of your problems may be the rumoured preamp built into the base of the aerial. I really must look at my Activa soon as it has recently developed the same problem... It's gone a bit deaf...

James, that's a new book on me. let me know how it is as I'm always interested in good histories of the place and I've yet to find one that satisfies me...

My favourite is this one:



This only focusses on one aspect and is satisfyingly technically accurate and detailed for me

[elma]

I'll be reading this one tonight so I'll let you know.
If it's any good you can have it next, I don't revisit books unless they are technical.

The pre amp in the base is basically a ring magnet around the connector. I found it when I was fault finding my radio, theres a picture in my blog somewhere I think.

[ekjdm14]

Definitely not an aerial fault Jim, the original stereo I should have mentioned has great FM reception just this scrapyard "upgrade" item is weak on ours. (although I note that even with the original unit, if I set the PLL tuner to scan for the next station it just keeps on scanning without locking onto anything. set manually though it receives even a weak signal from a rock station I like to the same level as any other car I've tried)

I do have an amplified aerial adaptor I was considering plugging in but I would imagine it's not going to fix a dodgy tuner. Will have to strip it down at some point and see what's going on corrosion-wise but I don't think it's too bad as the tape deck works OK and it picks up strong signals alright.

[demag]

The Secret Life of Bletchley Park is very good.

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[CitroJim]

Definitely not an aerial fault Jim, the original stereo I should have mentioned has great FM reception just this scrapyard "upgrade" item is weak on ours.

Right, now I understand Dan... The unit will have a problem then...

Is it a 4030 or a 4040?

I may have the circuit diagrams of it and RF realignment may help. Else that it may well have a fault in the front-end RF stages...

When I have time, and that is a precious commodity at the moment, I'll take a look...

The Secret Life of Bletchley Park is very good.

Excellent Dave, I'll see if I can get hold of a copy...

[elma]

I only got a few pages read last night. There were some plumbing problems I had to resolve which took my evening up. First impressions are promising, the book was researched by interviewing people who actually worked at Bletchley. I hope to get properly stuck in tonight.