05-18-2026, 09:29 PM
I've started looking at the Emerson 558 portable I recently acquired. Its got a relatively nice plaskon cabinet although the lid is slightly warped as many of this model are. From what I've read and seen online there is no good way to unwarp it. Heating can cause problems such as cracking and deformation so I'll leave it alone.
Inside the set, its jam packed. Most of the paper caps seem to be in places that I should be able to get them swapped out and there is an electrolytic cap that is also accessible. You can take the chassis completely out of the plastic cabinet but it requires some desoldering of the on/off switch activated by opening the lid and perhaps a few other things I haven't seen yet. I think I'll try to do the recap without removing it and only attempt it if I hit a roadblock.
As long as all else is OK I think the main problem will be getting the "A" Batter holder back into reasonable shape. Its had a battery leak causing considerable corrosion to the point where the connection point for the negative end of the A battery was corroded away and someone put a small screw in its place.
In the category of "Things you find in your radios" a previous owner or owner's child has scratched two names into the antenna board on the inside of the lid of the radio. It says "Lynn" and "Leslie."
For those of you who want to follow along, here's the link to the schematic.
I don't quite know why there would be a 16uF electrolytic (C17 between the audio transformer primary and ground) in a battery set. I have a 22uF 160v cap I could put there, is the capacitance value critical in this situation? Its not smoothing AC like in a filter circuit. Any thoughts?
Should be fun...more later
Inside the set, its jam packed. Most of the paper caps seem to be in places that I should be able to get them swapped out and there is an electrolytic cap that is also accessible. You can take the chassis completely out of the plastic cabinet but it requires some desoldering of the on/off switch activated by opening the lid and perhaps a few other things I haven't seen yet. I think I'll try to do the recap without removing it and only attempt it if I hit a roadblock.
As long as all else is OK I think the main problem will be getting the "A" Batter holder back into reasonable shape. Its had a battery leak causing considerable corrosion to the point where the connection point for the negative end of the A battery was corroded away and someone put a small screw in its place.
In the category of "Things you find in your radios" a previous owner or owner's child has scratched two names into the antenna board on the inside of the lid of the radio. It says "Lynn" and "Leslie."
For those of you who want to follow along, here's the link to the schematic.
I don't quite know why there would be a 16uF electrolytic (C17 between the audio transformer primary and ground) in a battery set. I have a 22uF 160v cap I could put there, is the capacitance value critical in this situation? Its not smoothing AC like in a filter circuit. Any thoughts?
Should be fun...more later




