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Old 3rd Aug 2020, 2:40 pm   #1
percival007
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Default LEAK Troughline II

This has been my first real re-furbishment project and I have been going to get ' a round tuit ' for a very long time.
I was asked a long time ago to repair a Troughline 3 for a customer at work and after completion he was so happy his beloved Radio was up and running again, he gave me the spare set he had which was to be used as a donor for parts (and paid his bill !!). This may not sound like a good deal but I accepted it with relish after hearing what was possible from FM via his repaired Tuner.
Doing a little reading I discovered the Troughline II. A much nicer, visually set to me so I found one for sale in a bit of a state, but with the 3 for donor parts and this, I thought I would be able to get a good working set out of the two.
Well, what with one thing and another, this project got shelved for many years. But given a bit of spare time recently (!) I thought I would begin.

My main aim was to replace the Electrolytics and the Capacitors coated in Wax. I have read on here that they're still OK Capacitance-wise but the wax had dripped on to the Chassis in several places and they didn't look very nice. I know this isn't of such great importance but what the heck.
Measuring several of the Resistors I discovered that there were many which were drifting high resistance. So again, I thought, while it's apart I would go the 'whole hog' and change all the resistors too.
I have ended up with changing all the Resistors, all the Electrolytics and all the Wax-y Caps. Most of the old Ceramic (?) Caps I have left in place as physically they are fine and electrically they measure good too.

Many of the IF/RF Adjustment 'Slugs' (a term I have learnt on here when placing a post for help re the best way of re-fixing them) were loose and I had managed to obtain some of the Elasticated 'string' which is often found down the core I assume for the purposes of retarding their movement to prevent drifting.
Upon removal of the slugs though revealed that they were all dirty, especially what appeared to be in a line down the length of the thing. I can only guess that this has been caused by the degrading Eleastic string. So I cleaned them all and instead of using the Elasticated string I had sourced, used the PTFE Tape method described here.......
https://www.vintage-radio.com/repair...alignment.html
So many thanks to whoever wrote that article and those who contributed to it, the whole article was found to be very useful to me.
I have attached some pictures which hopefully show the dirt in/on the slugs.

With most of the components removed from the chassis I took the opportunity to clean it. I used White Spirit as I thought it wouldn't do too much harm if it got somewhere it shouldn't ! Then a litlle Brasso and although it doesn't gleam it looks OK to me. I was also careful not to remove the pencil written date of manufacture on the underside of the chassis (October '63 if I read it correctly).
At this point, with the Front Panel removed I also took the opportunity to clean the Switches mounted to it. Not wanting to have to go to the trouble of re-stringing the Dial Cord I attached this to the Front Panel with Cable-ties and moved the large Wheel accordingly so as to give adeqaute access to the Switches. I didn't drill these out but removed the back of the Switch to gain access to the contacts. This method is described on-line by Keith Snook, many thanks to him his article about the repair of his troughline was very useful.

With all the new components fitted and the IF/RF coils etc etc back in situ and the set given a ful re-alignment all was found to work correctly. That is apart from the EM87.
I measured the associated components and voltages and couldn't figure out which there was just a very dull glow from the Valve.
A post for help on here yesterday and Lawrence (ms660) gave my head the nudge it needed. The Cathode wasn't being Grounded correctly and the cause was a broken Valve Socket Pin. Again, see the attatched Picture. A new Valve Socket fitted from the donor set and all was well.

My having these sets in various states of disrepair for several years had meant, it turned out, that I had lost one of the Covers for the top or bottom. I'm not sure which it is so long ago !!
I posted a request on here yesterday knowing it would be a long shot. I know it's only been a day but there's been no replies. No-one's as stupid as me so why would anyone have a spare cover !!
I had a piece of Aluminium spare so I have decided to make a new cover. It's turned out quite nice, so much so that I've decided to use it as the top cover.

Well, I am sat here listening to Radio 3 Lunchtime concert and I have never heard FM sound quite so good.
I'm using with a little Stereo Decoder I made and there is no background noise, the placement of the instruments is good and it just sounds lovely.

One of the pictures I have posted shows most of the components placement and value. It proved very useful for me and I thought it may be useful to anyone else undertaking the repair/refurbishment of a Troughline II or 3, they're both very similar.
My variant of the II is slightly different to the circuit found in most on-line available circuits. I have a jpeg of this only and it's not a brilliant one. If anyone needs it please email it and I'll send as high a resolution version as I can.

Many thanks to those who answered my questions whilst undertaking this project.
I hope this write-up proves useful and/or interesting to someone, all the best,

James.
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Old 3rd Aug 2020, 2:41 pm   #2
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Default Re: LEAK Troughline II

Some more Pictures.
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Old 3rd Aug 2020, 2:43 pm   #3
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Default Re: LEAK Troughline II

And some more....
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Old 3rd Aug 2020, 2:45 pm   #4
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Default Re: LEAK Troughline II

More.............
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Old 3rd Aug 2020, 2:46 pm   #5
percival007
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Default Re: LEAK Troughline II

And finally........
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Old 3rd Aug 2020, 9:02 pm   #6
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Default Re: LEAK Troughline II

I have a Troughline Stereo which I think is very similar (with a built-in decoder) and I have also never heard FM sound so good. Mine didn't need a rebuild fortunately and was supplied as 'faulty stock'....and stored for over 40 years when I got it. Never returned to Leak for repair under warranty. The main fault of intermittent low sensitivity was nothing more than a bent valve pin on one of the ECF80 IF amps....the pin had gone down the side of the contact in the valveholder. I noticed that the valve wasn't 'sitting' properly and removal showed the problem. Careful straightening and even more careful re-insertion and that fault was fixed. Next fault was no deflection of the EM84. Nice and bright but just not moving. Nothing more than a leaky wax cap (the only waxy in the tuner) connecting the grid to the AGC line. Replacement cap and the EM84 was closing properly.

The tuner has been in use for over 5 years connected to a Leak Delta 70 amp and sounds superb......best FM tuner I have had.

Well done sorting yours out. They really are worth the effort.
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