[37silverstreak]

Hi to all,
Well, I've been working on my 76 and am at a point where I can no longer put of rebuilding the big condensor can! I've never done one of these before and would love any input any body can give! Any tips or tricks or is it just a messy job? My idea is to clean out just enough to make room for the new caps. Any input would be greatly appreciated, Thanks!
Kevin

[Radioroslyn]

It's just a messy job. Once you get the bottom off put the rest it in an oven at 275 for 20min or so. This will soften the tar. Take a cork screw or Ihook or something you can grab the innards with. Pull it all out. Clean the rest of the tar out and your ready to rebuild.
Terry

[codefox1]

Just remember to put a piece of aluminum foil where the crap will drip, do it on a nice day with the windows open, and send your old lady away to shop whilst you do it.

[Eliot Ness]

A method that I've used successfully is to turn the can upside down and slowly heat the outside areas with a small Propane Torch. Once softened up from the outside it will just slide out and plop on whatever you have underneath to catch it and the droppings. A heat gun might work OK for this too, but in either case be careful and don't do this around any flammables.

A safer way might be to buy a toaster oven from a thrift store or garage sale and use the basic method that Terry described above. The toaster oven will minimize the risk of domestic violence if your wife gets a whiff of melted tar coming from her oven

edit: just to be clear I'm referring to the large cans that are metal.

[Chicago Jimmy]

A safer way might be to buy a toaster oven from a thrift store or garage sale and use the basic method that Terry described above. The toaster oven will minimize the risk of domestic violence if your wife gets a whiff of melted tar coming from her oven

Good point, Ness!

[dcastor]

I used my solder pen to disconnect the leads to my bakelite condensor and the thing was hot enough when after that, the tar plug and caps slid right out with a little pressure from a straightened out paperclip through the terminal mounting holes. I didn't have to use any other heat it at all.

Now, I had a lot of solder on those terminals...somebody who subscribed to the "when in doubt...more solder" theory had done some work on this radio. So, I probably spent more time and put more heat into that condensor block than most jobs require.

Dave

[Radioroslyn]

Don't think that's going to work on the filter condenser bank.

Terry

[codefox1]

The nastiest I ever had to do was remove a potted power transformer from a Fisher 70 amp. Yeah the ones with the EL37's.

There were shorted turns on the secondary of the HV winding and it ran really hot and would blow 3 amp fuses.

Anyway I brought it out to the yard, suspended it so the guts would fall out, and gave it a nice propate torch treatment. Took about 5 minutes, and the core and a bunch of tar fell out. Had another tranny that was just about right, and attached the original wires, melted the tar again, filled her up, and I don't remember which set I did it to, I have 4 of 'em.

[37silverstreak]

Hey guys,
Thanks for the posts I got the condensor block rebuilt, it was a messy job but doable. Not being married I didn't have to worry about using the oven Knowin me, I wouldn't have thought twice about using it anyway, which is probably why I'm still single
Kevin