[mikethedruid]

Ya ever have "one of those days"? Well today is one for me. I finally got around to pulling the speaker out of the cabinet preparatory to hooking it up to the radio so I could begin testing and alignment. I used a little spatula all around its edges so that if the cardboard ring of the speaker had stuck to the mounting board it wouldn't damage the speaker and it would come loose easily. I learned my lesson the hard way on that, if you've read my previous posts about repairs you know the story.It came out fine. I then traced a cardboard shield for the front to protect the cone, cut it out, and punched holes in it so that the sound could come out. I then taped the cardboard over the speaker. While I was putting on the final pieces of tape, I get a look at the underside of the cone. It is now clear to me that mice have been at the radio, which accounts for the condition of the chassis, and the dirt, which had a lot of tiny grey hairs in it. Inside the basket were sure signs of mouse droppings, and the wires that run from the voice coil to the transformer were gone from the little metal clip inside the basket to the transformer. The wires from the voice coil itself are intact up to the little metal clip, but one of the tabs from the transformer is broken off short, the one which should have that missing wire going to it. There is enough left to solder to, and enough of the voice coil wires so that I can reconnect everything so it should work OK. I have yet to ring out the transformer completely, or ring out the field coil. I have stopped for the night in disgust. I see little way of performing the repair I am going to have to do short of removing the cone, and doing the voice coil wire repairs, then putting in a new cone, which, fortunately I have. Oh well. I've gone this far, may as well keep going. It is disheartening though. This is, by far, the most annoying radio I have ever worked on. Had I realized its condition before I bought it, I would not have looked at it twice. It's a real shame though. The original cone is in great shape. If anyone has any idea how to go about this repair any other way than to pull and replace the cone, do let me know. I'll give it a rest for a day or two and see if any of you have any ideas.