I was thinking about starting related to repair of 6517A, but I rather use this thread.
Unit does not power up, which is quite often failure of 6517 (based on in formations on forums).
So I started to reading service manual and found there is lot of various power rails.All were OK and within spec.
Another step was connecting GPIB to check if the problem is not only related to display ( there is no beep after power on, only relay click).
On GPIB no communication at all, so I tried RS232 with same results.
What I remember from repairing K2002 is tat without display unit does not power up due to display self test).
Fortunately the display board in 6517A is the K2002 display board
It was question of two minutes to disassemble K2002 and hook display to faulty 6517A and bingo - unit is working.
Checked Voltage source - OK
Current measurement - OK
Firmware is C04 which seems to be latest working. Just uploaded to TiN Keithley repository.It does not use the ST Micro 27C4001 UV EPROM but OTP from Atmel 27C040.
Now I needs to check if I will found some cheap Keithley 7001 as a display donor.