Browning golden eagle mark II problem

[William G Ransom]

Hello everyone, maybe someone could help me figure out my no transmit problem, it was working fine and last week I lost transmit, so I shut everything down and opened top and bottom covers and looked for anything burnt or bad, did not see anything suspicious so I powered radio back up and it was transmitting again, after one day of a few key ups, I was in the middle of transmitting (talking) it just unkeyed by itself losing transmit again and ever since I cannot get radio to keyup again, I replaced the 7558 tube with a 70% good tube because when I checked the one I took out there was no reading at all on the tube tester, I'm so confused about this, I want my radio back up and working.
Please anyone can help me?
Thanks for all input

 

[KneeBiter]

Did you try a different mic? Wiggle the cable where it goes in the radio and at the mic while keyed. What mic are you using?

 

[William G Ransom]

Did you try a different mic? Wiggle the cable where it goes in the radio and at the mic while keyed. What mic are you using?

Thank you sir for replying back to me, but yes I did wiggle the mic cord around , and nothing, I am using a d104 amplified microphone, I did put the ohms meter on the microphone pins, one lead on the pin and the other lead on the ground and it would beeped when I keyed the mic, also the spot button does nothing, I did notice the neon lamp inside the transmitter was not glowing as it did when I had the cover removed from the bottom of transmitter, would that cause no transmit from receiver? Thanks for any info

 

[nomadradio]

One very large detail would point where to check next.

Do you hear the relay go "click" when you key the mike?

If you don't the problem may well be the power supply.

If you do here the "click" it could be the fault of the relay.

Oh, and about wiggling the mike cord. Do it carefully. The ground connection inside the plug tends to come loose first. When this happens, it creates a shock hazard. A mike with a metal body will have about 300 Volts DC on it when you press the switch if the mike cord's ground connection comes loose. Touching any grounded metal while keying the mike becomes shocking experience.

73

 

[William G Ransom]

One very large detail would point where to check next.

Do you hear the relay go "click" when you key the mike?

If you don't the problem may well be the power supply.

If you do here the "click" it could be the fault of the relay.

Oh, and about wiggling the mike cord. Do it carefully. The ground connection inside the plug tends to come loose first. When this happens, it creates a shock hazard. A mike with a metal body will have about 300 Volts DC on it when you press the switch if the mike cord's ground connection comes loose. Touching any grounded metal while keying the mike becomes shocking experience.

73

Nomadradio, thanks for helping me try to figure this out, and no I do not hear the relay clicking at all when I key the mic, so you think it could be power supply? Oh man I guess this is going to be more than I could've imagined, would it be the main big power supply or is there another one also? And is there a way I can test it with my multimeter? Would it be hard to replace or repair it myself? Again thank you for you input and help with my issue

 

[nomadradio]

The Mark 2 was their 1969 model. Some things just don't last 50 years.

If the last 50 years of upkeep has not been done, good chance it won't work until all of those chores have been caught up.

Age and mileage both count. Even if it were a 'barn find' with 500 original miles you would expect the filter capacitors to have failed from age alone. Every electrolytic capacitor in it should get changed. You can try replacing just the ones that check bad, but first you need a way to check electrolytic capacitors if you want to go that route. Replacing every, single electrolytic cap is the only rational approach. When I said "power supply" I meant the parts in it, not the whole thing.

But there's more. A radio that was used a lot will have worn-out tubes to deal with. No odometer to read the mileage from, so this part of the picture is fuzzy.

The PA/CB switch has everything in the transmitter passing through it. Oxidized contacts in that switch alone can shut it down. Same goes for the tube sockets. Cleaning oxide from the tube-socket contacts and the tube pins helps if this is part of the picture.

Last, you can't easily find out how many of the channel crystals are dead or off frequency until you have spent a bundle of money to make it transmit again. How big a bundle? Again, depends on mileage as well as age. Might have five bad crystals. Might have five good ones. Or less.

The relay has been out of production for decades. The types you can still obtain won't fit the original socket. Good news is that a new socket to fit relays you CAN buy will fit in the same size chassis hole. But the wires do NOT go to all the same lug positions. The new relay has the pins wired in a different pattern than the original. Once every ten years or so we see one of those relays with a bad coil, prevents it from going "click". But it's that rare. A relay that won't go "click" is nearly but not always because the power supply has become too feeble to power it, or the mike has a problem.

Nothing easy about the Mark 2. This is why anyone you can talk into servicing them wants to charge a bundle to do it.

Enough rant for now. With any luck the receiver still works.

For now.

73

 

[William G Ransom]

The Mark 2 was their 1969 model. Some things just don't last 50 years.

If the last 50 years of upkeep has not been done, good chance it won't work until all of those chores have been caught up.

Age and mileage both count. Even if it were a 'barn find' with 500 original miles you would expect the filter capacitors to have failed from age alone. Every electrolytic capacitor in it should get changed. You can try replacing just the ones that check bad, but first you need a way to check electrolytic capacitors if you want to go that route. Replacing every, single electrolytic cap is the only rational approach. When I said "power supply" I meant the parts in it, not the whole thing.

But there's more. A radio that was used a lot will have worn-out tubes to deal with. No odometer to read the mileage from, so this part of the picture is fuzzy.

The PA/CB switch has everything in the transmitter passing through it. Oxidized contacts in that switch alone can shut it down. Same goes for the tube sockets. Cleaning oxide from the tube-socket contacts and the tube pins helps if this is part of the picture.

Last, you can't easily find out how many of the channel crystals are dead or off frequency until you have spent a bundle of money to make it transmit again. How big a bundle? Again, depends on mileage as well as age. Might have five bad crystals. Might have five good ones. Or less.

The relay has been out of production for decades. The types you can still obtain won't fit the original socket. Good news is that a new socket to fit relays you CAN buy will fit in the same size chassis hole. But the wires do NOT go to all the same lug positions. The new relay has the pins wired in a different pattern than the original. Once every ten years or so we see one of those relays with a bad coil, prevents it from going "click". But it's that rare. A relay that won't go "click" is nearly but not always because the power supply has become too feeble to power it, or the mike has a problem.

Nothing easy about the Mark 2. This is why anyone you can talk into servicing them wants to charge a bundle to do it.

Enough rant for now. With any luck the receiver still works.

For now.

73

Thank you Nomadradio, your answer just cleared it up for me and it makes good sense of what your explaining to me, yes receiver works fine, I haven't messed with the cb/pa switch yet, I will check that next for sure, in the meantime I think I will change all the electrolytic caps in it that I can access,I'm not a tech but I do have soldering skills from previous years of working at Gtech, and electronic work, I guess I just have to find out the values and voltages of them and order them and give my best shot to install them, what else besides the caps would need to get changed? Do all those little ceramic caps also go bad? There is a ton of them throughout the radio, or just mainly the electrolytic caps should all get changed? Also I actually just purchased another mark ll complete radio set that's been sitting for quite some time, I'm in the process of cleaning it up , I just tested all tubes in transmitter and all checked good, and I'm just cleaning dust from everything i can access, transmitter first then i will start on the receiver, i have not tried to power it up yet due to age of units so i actually just purchased a Variac, 20 amp, just waiting for it to come in this week sometimes should arrive, all your info is awesome for my learning experience, so anything you can tell me about what I should or shouldn't be doing is greatly appreciated, is there any special place or page that would let me know about the electrolytic caps that are in this mark ll and where i can purchase them?
Thanks again for your valuable feedback, your awesome!
Thank you NomadRadio.

 

[Dmans]

The Service manual can be purchased here.

https://stores.goldeneagleradios.com/manuals/

73
David

 

[William G Ransom]

The Service manual can be purchased here.

https://stores.goldeneagleradios.com/manuals/

73
David

Thanks David, does this service manual have all the parts, resistors,capacitors and values also ? That would be nice for sure, thank you for response.

 

[Dmans]

I couldn't answer that question but I would think if a schematic is included in the Service Manual, the parts would be identified on that schematic. You also have 2 examples to use for identification as well.

I have bought from Barkett/goldeneagleradios before. He is good to deal with.

Good Luck

73
David

 

[nomadradio]

The manual posted here: http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/brow.../graphics/browning_golden_eagle_mark2_om .pdf

It's pretty bare bones. A description of the circuits and schematics. Not much else.

Don't know if it's the same manual Barkett sells.

Howard Sams will sell you a pdf of this radio from their CB27 volume. It has parts lists. Sams famously sends a nastygram from their lawyer if your web site posts that kind of info for free download. As a result you'll find it's hard to locate that way.

73

 

[William G Ransom]

The manual posted here: http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/browning/golden_eagle_mark_2/graphics/browning_golden_eagle_mark2_om .pdf

It's pretty bare bones. A description of the circuits and schematics. Not much else.

Don't know if it's the same manual Barkett sells.

Howard Sams will sell you a pdf of this radio from their CB27 volume. It has parts lists. Sams famously sends a nastygram from their lawyer if your web site posts that kind of info for free download. As a result you'll find it's hard to locate that way.

73

The manual posted here: http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/browning/golden_eagle_mark_2/graphics/browning_golden_eagle_mark2_om .pdf

It's pretty bare bones. A description of the circuits and schematics. Not much else.

Don't know if it's the same manual Barkett sells.

Howard Sams will sell you a pdf of this radio from their CB27 volume. It has parts lists. Sams famously sends a nastygram from their lawyer if your web site posts that kind of info for free download. As a result you'll find it's hard to locate that way.

73

 

[William G Ransom]

Thanks NomadRadio, I actually went through the units and wrote down all the electrolytic capacitors values and voltages, there was a few that were hard to find like the 20uf 450v caps, so I ordered the 22uf 450v ones, will that hurt anything? Same with the 4mfd 150v, I ordered the 4.7uf 150v, and the 5mfd 50v, I ordered the 4.7uf 100v for replacements, am I making a mistake by not putting exact valued components back in line? Also another question my friend is, you know the big can capacitor s mounted on chassis, would it be possible to put individual caps under chassis with all grounds connected and soldered to ground, and attach each positive lead to each location of wires that attach to can capacitor pins, I would have to detach wires from pins first if possible right? Just for test purpose until I can ge oem replacement, and again the cardboard tube can is 30 to 40mfd x 3 450v x 3, the caps I have are 47uf 450v. Would that work for me? Sorry for all this yappin, lol just so interests in this learning about these radios and how they function, thank you again bud,
73

 

[nomadradio]

The electrolytic capacitors are used for filtering only. As a result, the exact capacitance value is not important. Many of them are made with a 20% tolerance range. Means that a part marked "100 uf" can be as low as 80 or as high as 120uf and still meet the rating printed on it. The general rule when an original marked value gets replaced with a substitute is to use a higher value. And if it's no more than 20% different, there should never be a problem.

73

 

[William G Ransom]

NomadRadio your post is like music to my ears, just what I needed to know, your awesome man, thank you for the learning experience here, I am absorbing all information like a sponge now I'm just waiting for all the parts to arrive along with the Variac I ordered, will try and do my best, clean and neat install and then power up with variac and hope for the best, I will definitely keep you posted on my outcome, thanks again my friend and I will chat with ya really soon for sure.
73