[Guest]

Hi everyone, I purchased a 42-380 from a local antique store and replaced the caps, etc with the help of your forum and others. The radio now plays fine and the cabinet looks great. I've noticed that lately the push button tuning does not stay on station and when you push adjacent buttons it will "catch" the station again. It seems that it is worst when the unit is warming up for 5-10 minutes.

I gave the unit a general cleaning when I had it apart but I feel it might need a more in depth cleaning of the push button assembly. What would be the best cleaner to use and how would I go about it?

Thanks to everyone who helps out on the forums. I received several estimates on restoring the radio that started at $450 and went up to $600. I paid $100 for the unit at the antique store and could not afford the rest to restore it. With your help and about $50 I now have a beautiful, playing radio that occupies a prominent place in my country farmhouse. I can only imagine the families gathered around it to hear war news and their favorite radio shows.

Happy Holidays!

[Ron Ramirez]

Hi

Good news indeed! Congratulations on getting your 42-380 up and running!

Are you saying that a preset AM station drifts when you use one of the preset buttons, or do they cut in and out?

If they are drifting, replace capacitors (5) and (9), 370 pF each, with new mica capacitors - do not use ceramics in this application unless they have an NP0 rating. Here, it is much better to spend the extra $ and get quality mica caps as replacements to prevent station drift. Most ceramics will drift as the radio warms up; you don't want that to happen. The originals are mica but are of open construction, coated only in wax, and are almost always bad by now. New dipped mica caps and NP0 ceramic caps will not allow the preset stations to drift.

If your preset stations are cutting out, the pushbutton mechanism is still dirty. These can be sometimes very difficult to get clean and to get working properly. I repaired one once, where the pushbuttons refused to work properly no matter how much I cleaned them, Replacement of the entire pushbutton assembly (no easy task!) was the only cure. Fortunately, the parts set used as a donor had a good pushbutton assembly...

[Guest]

Ron,

Thanks for your input. The unit will not be playing when it is first plugged in even though I know it is on station. When I push in the broadcast button the sound will come in for a short while and then back out. The sound does not stay on permanently until the set has been warmed up for 10 minutes or longer. I replaced all the caps when i repaired the set but I don't remember whether they were mica or not for those you mentioned.

As far as cleaning, what is the best solution to use on this type of set?

Thanks

[Ron Ramirez]

Probably Caig Deoxit. There is also an electronic contact cleaner made by CRC that usually gives acceptable results.