Nicotine drenched Bush RP60.

[kirstyd]

I rescued another Bush from a house clearance last week. I am not a stranger to nicotine soaked gear but this must be the worst. Having said that I usually find once cleaned up the thing is in good condition almost as though the Nicotine has protected it, this one is no exception. Because it was so filthy I decided to plug it in and if there were no signs of life I would leave it where it was. It fired up and although the cart was dead the amp is working so it came home. After removing the amp I noticed it seem to have an extra electrolytic cap that is not on the service sheet can anyone tell me what its purpose is please? It's the blue one in the photo. I opened the dead cartridge and carefully cleaned the contacts and put it back together and it's now working with a good loud output. As you can see even the cart has a coating of the dreaded nicotine.

[Station X]

Looks like the blue cap is wired chassis to pin 8 of the UCL82, so someone has added a cathode bypass cap. What's its value?

EDIT. It's C5 50uF. Appears on both service sheets available from VRSD. You must have a different version of the service sheet

[cathoderay57]

I have come across the odd radio set with yellowed speaker cloth and sticky yellow nicotine coating on the valves, cabinet and chassis, along with the expected whiff. I think the phrase used to describe such sets is "a kipper". Nice work on the Bush. Cheers, Jerry

[kirstyd]

Originally Posted by Station X

Looks like the blue cap is wired chassis to pin 8 of the UCL82, so someone has added a cathode bypass cap. What's its value?

EDIT. It's C5 50uF. Appears on both service sheets available from VRSD. You must have a different version of the service sheet

I have the service sheet for the Murphy version

[kirstyd]

Originally Posted by cathoderay57

I have come across the odd radio set with yellowed speaker cloth and sticky yellow nicotine coating on the valves, cabinet and chassis, along with the expected whiff. I think the phrase used to describe such sets is "a kipper". Nice work on the Bush. Cheers, Jerry

It stinks .god only knows what it previous owners lungs must have been like.

[kirstyd]

i got one of these new for my 11th birthday back in 69 .i was delighted with it at the time although it didn't sound very good it started me off buying records [lots of em] It now lives in the spare room and gets used occasionally for playing a few of said records .I have often wondered what could be done to it to make it sound better

[Edward Huggins]

It will clean up very well using detergent + white spirit + patience. In terms of "making it sound better" there is very litte that can be done. It already has a large enough speaker and a 2 stage amp with feedabck. It is what it is.

[paulsherwin]

I find ordinary foaming cleaner removes nicotine filth very well. The smell will be more of a problem as the smoke will have penetrated the interior and can't be cleaned off easily.

[kirstyd]

Well its had a bath today and is looking a lot cleaner and smelling fresher .checking over the amp i found that the big 120 ohm resistor connected to the rectifier had gone high and when i touched it one of its leads just came away so i have replaced it with a new one same rating but higher wattage .there was also another resistor that was way higher than it should have been so i replaced that as well along with that blue electrolytic. Just the deck to service and then i can put it back together and see how it performs