Teardown and (Minor) Repair Vintage Sony ICF-5500W

[med6753]

Today's subject is a vintage Sony ICF-5500W AM/FM/PSB Receiver in the timeless military type styling. I purchased it new in 1975 from Lafayette Radio (Remember them?) and as I recall it cost nearly $110 USD which at that time was a quite expensive sum to pay for a radio. But it was worth every penny. It has excellent sensitivity, nice audio, and is built like a tank. It once survived a fall to the floor from a full size refrigerator and the only damage was a broken antenna. I have the original owner's manual but I've never been able to find a service manual. In the 1980's I wrote Sony asking about a service manual and their response was it was no longer supported. Does anyone know of a source of service manuals? Multiple searches on the net haven't yielded anything.

So why the teardown? The band switch has gotten noisy and intermittent and the only way to get to it is a complete teardown. I'm sure a few spritz of de-oxit will fix it.   



First step was to remove all the knobs. Remove the 4 screws on the back panel and it can be removed.


Back panel removed revealing the foil side of the circuit board.


Front side. It is one crowded board. It would be extremely difficult to work on without a service manual.


Close up of the board. The band switch assembly is the white unit right below the S meter. It also has an additional lever to another switch just to the left of the meter. Both areas got a shot of de-oxit.



The de-oxit fixed it. Reassembled and it's playing great as usual. Thanks for looking. 

[FrankE]

It's on Electrotanya. I haven't checked it's a valid file, I've DLrd 2 today and can't log in as I don't understand the Magyar.I found your thread looking for info here on other ICF models, I'm struggling to ID parts for.

[SeanB]

Made in the time Sony did good stuff. Later models had capacitor problems, and they all died an early death.

[med6753]

It's on Electrotanya. I haven't checked it's a valid file, I've DLrd 2 today and can't log in as I don't understand the Magyar.I found your thread looking for info here on other ICF models, I'm struggling to ID parts for.

Thanks for the info. I checked that site and no joy. It's not listed. 

[FrankE]

It's on Electrotanya. I haven't checked it's a valid file, I've DLrd 2 today and can't log in as I don't understand the Magyar.I found your thread looking for info here on other ICF models, I'm struggling to ID parts for.

Thanks for the info. I checked that site and no joy. It's not listed. 

Sorry, I looked again and it was the 5500M.

[theelegantman]

Any ideas where I can get replacement antenna for these? Thanks

[med6753]

Any ideas where I can get replacement antenna for these? Thanks

There's one on E-bay right now and they ship world wide....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Telescopic-Antenna-for-SONY-ICF-5500W-Receiver-/302250270407?hash=item465f851ec7:g:f28AAOSwzgBYxZI7

You could adapt a universal telescoping antenna but chances are it won't fully retract into the radio.

[Saw56]

Hi there

Thanks for the tips....I have the same problems here.
No I cannot get the assembly back together into the front half of the case...seems to be bad speaker alignment....do you have any pics of how the speaker should be aligned regarding the wiring tab?
Thanks in advance
Regards

Steve