Grundig yacht boy 210 wavechange buttons.

[JVWILD49]

Hi,
I have just acquired a Grundig Yacht Boy 210 from early 70's. It is in good working order but LW & MW were intermittent so I gave the radio a good clean and sprayed the wavechange button switches with switch cleaner.
Unfortunately now LW & MW won't work !, SW and FM work fine so I can only think it is the switches, there doesn't seem to be any dry joints on switch soldered joints.
Is this a common problem with these radios ?. Can't see if it could be anything else.
Thanks in advance for any help.
John

[Edward Huggins]

Both FM and SW rely on the telescopic antennae - whereas the LW an MW rely on the internal Ferrite rod. A loose connection from the ferrite rod to those 2 switches?

[poppydog]

Sometimes the switch cleaner inadvertently goes into other parts of the radio that it shouldn't causing things to cease to work properly. I've done it and found that after things dry out (may take a while) the radio will work ok.

regards poppydog

[JVWILD49]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for reply's, I tried the radio again today and sure enough as mentioned it now works on all bands.
It is a bit hit and miss at times ie. You can select say LW or MW and no audio, press it again slightly and it bursts into life !.
I suppose we should remember that these sets are nearly 50 years old. !.
There are some push switches on E bay which measure the same as the ones in radio for £5.95 each.
Many thanks
Regards John

[John Caswell]

What I now do for dirty push button switches is give them a good spray with IPA, operate them as may times as possible then blow the excess IPA away with an airline/airspray then give them a light spray with contact cleaner, trying to keep it away from coils/capacitors especially in the oscillator circuits. Do the same with rotary switches/controls
Works 9 times out of 10.

John

[poppydog]

You could invert the radio so that any excess switch cleaner doesn't go where its not wanted and try more switch cleaner down the switches, Switch replacement on these grundigs I don't think is for the faint hearted.

regards poppydog

[paulsherwin]

Yes, have another go cleaning the switch contacts. Try to make sure the cleaner goes where you want it to go and not elsewhere. It's very unlikely that the switch contacts are worn or damaged. Radios often spend decades without the wavechange switches being operated, and the switch contacts oxidise badly.

[Boulevardier]

Originally Posted by poppydog

You could invert the radio so that any excess switch cleaner doesn't go where its not wanted and try more switch cleaner down the switches, Switch replacement on these grundigs I don't think is for the faint hearted.

regards poppydog

I agree with Poppydog, in fact replacement of many things on these Grundigs is not for the faint-hearted! You risk doing a lot of damage by trying to unsolder the switch bays from the now 50-years-old PCB traces. The original Grundig switch will almost certainly be a high-quality one, and better than most you will find on e-bay. So worth persevering with the cleaning process.

Also, worth checking the existing switch connections to PCB for bad joints if cleaning doesn't improve things.

Mike

[JVWILD49]

Thanks all for the advice, they are working quite well now but I will have another go at cleaning them, and no, I won't be replacing any switches as you say it looks problematic !!.
I got the radio for £25 as a non runner but I reckon the seller must have come across the switch problem !.
Regards John

[GeoffK]

Note if you press the mw and lw together it connects the audio section line input. There is a 'pick up' symbol on the space between mw, lw for a record player pickup. No doubt nowadays a digital input to the DIN socket under the slider on the back. But any analogue input can connect here.

[JVWILD49]

Ahh thanks for that, I wondered what that symbol was !!.
Regards John