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Serious old Galaxy radio repair recommendation.

M

Mochunk

New Member
Sep 17, 2014
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I have an old Mirage 88 in need of some serious repair. It was a great radio back in the day. Already all tuned and modded, clarifier and all... But at one point it took a nasty hit to the chassis and no longer has any TX or RX. Powers up but dead in the water. Freq counter also reads one single 0.

I'd like recommendations on a good shop to ship it to or at least figure out if it's worth fixing. Obviously if it's $200 in repairs, maybe not. But maybe it's as stupid as a solder knocked out of place. Don't trust myself to go poking around to find out myself.

I recently dragged my radios out of the garage after 15 or so years of collecting dust. Also in there was a DX33HML which is doing great hooked up in the womans car, and a Galaxy II with a dead meter and lazy freq counter. The meter I can probably repair myself and I intend to use it as a base. I want to 88 fixed and in my car!

Thanks ahead of time for your wisdom and help.

559 Chicago
 

When you say a "major hit" are you talking about dropping it or it flew out the window a 90 Mph.
Take the covers off and inspect the circuit boards.There might be just a minor crack in the board or an IC chip might have been unseated if it was sitting in a socket.
If there is a crack in the circuit board it is fixable. I bought some electronic scrap from a pawn shop and there were two small color Televisions in there. I opened them up and found the main boards broken. I jumped the cracks with wire by going point to point. After about 4 hours both televisions were playing just fine.
 
Tallman said:
When you say a "major hit" are you talking about dropping it or it flew out the window a 90 Mph.
Take the covers off and inspect the circuit boards.There might be just a minor crack in the board or an IC chip might have been unseated if it was sitting in a socket.
If there is a crack in the circuit board it is fixable. I bought some electronic scrap from a pawn shop and there were two small color Televisions in there. I opened them up and found the main boards broken. I jumped the cracks with wire by going point to point. After about 4 hours both televisions were playing just fine.
Click to expand...
I did inspect back when it happened but didn't see anything obvious. I guess I'll look again.

If I recall correctly, it took an accidental steel toe to the side. Probably the equivelent to a fall onto concrete. It has a noticable dent in the case and chassis.
 
Mochunk said:
I did inspect back when it happened but didn't see anything obvious. I guess I'll look again.

If I recall correctly, it took an accidental steel toe to the side. Probably the equivelent to a fall onto concrete. It has a noticable dent in the case and chassis.
Click to expand...

Just looked and nothing noticable. It's to see much of anything with so much crap crammed in this radio. I was trying to share a gallery of pics of the guts but my phone is not letting me paste here.

I really just need a good referral of where to send it for repair. I think the thing is worth it considering how much work is already in it and my history with it.
 
Look for unseated connectors and inspect the PCB with a magnifying lens. A hairline crack is just a bad big crack. Really look closely at points where the PCB attaches to the chassis. Also inspect the area around the power connection to the PCB. If you can't find the damage get one or borrow a lighted magnifying lens and inspect every square inch of the board. If you still can't find the damage send me pm via this site.
 
check and make sure the screws holding the circuit board are tight,,, seen that in many radios and tightened up radio works again
 
sounds as if you lost the 8 volts to the front of the radio. look on the side of the case and you will see a 10 leg regulator screwed to the side. when it took the hit it may have broke the solder loose from the board or even broke a trace running along the side of the board going to the front of the radio. they are bad about breaking in that area even when some one over tightens the bracket screws at times. make sure all the small plugs are hooked up good also. so many things can cause your problem. just a plug coming loose can cause this also.
 
check IC8 and TR41. tr41 is a 3 leg device mounted to the case. the one I am talking about is between TR41 and TR51 the 2sb827 3 legged regulator for the finals. pop those legs loose and can loose a lot.
 
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I took every possible screw out and checked every board and connection. Visually at least. Nothing noticably damaged or broken. As far as out of place traces or solders, I couldn't begin to tell. There are so many mods and rewirings in this thing of varying quality that I don't know what's a sloppy solder or a broken one. This really needs a pros hands inside it.

There are bits I know and understand, but with the huge amount of daughter boards and wiring in this thing, there's not a lot of free space. I checked every screw and every plug.

I was mistaken, there is not visible damage to the chassis, just the case. However, obviously a hard enough knock to damage something. I just need a recommendation for a good reputable shop to send it to.
 
Grrrr. This site won't let me paste from another tab on my phone. Just search photobucket mochunk on google and look at the galaxy88 album. You can see the mess inside this thing.
 

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