Hi Guys,
Well to make a short story long, soon after I started here at Boomboxery.com, I posted about a Hitachi TRK-9140E I purchased from Ebay. Yes, fully operational etc, etc, etc! It arrived well packed but it had a very low left channel, completely dead tape deck, poor sound quality and needed a bath.
The first port of call was a clean. I separated the internal chassis from the case and gave the casing a warm bath. Next job was to clean/lube the band selector switch (the cause of the low left channel). Next I cleaned the scratchy pots and function selector. Now at this stage it sounded ok on radio mode but the left channel output kept dropping down on its' own every couple of minutes. If you rotated the band selector a few times it would come good but only momentarily.
At that stage, a service of the deck was beyond me so I visited my local repairer and had him service the deck with new belts etc. So now the deck worked fine if a bit muffled but the left channel issue was still there. Also, the sound quality from 3/10 volume and up was terrible - distorted and flat with very little treble. The tech tested the amp output and said" it was to spec and maybe this is how crappy these old radios sounded!"
I knew nobody would have bought one of these things back in the day if it sounded like this one did! I must admit I was a little disappointed as it sounded like it may have needed a recap. I certainly couldn't afford to have a tech do that job so I reluctantly shelved the 9140E and moved on to other radios.
Every now and then though, I'd pull the old girl out and see if by some miracle it had sorted it self out - no luck apart from the low left channel issue had corrected itself.
Fast forward to this week, I spot a TRK-9200 on Ebay. The wording of the ad didn't include the words 'boombox or ghettoblaster' and didn't seem to be getting much attention - well the auction ended with only two bids. I scored this cheap but very rough Hitachi for $11.50
The seller was only 10kms away so the next day I go and pick it up - at 7.00pm in the guys front yard!
I get it home and fire it up - guess what? The left channel output is low!
Unfortunately no amount of cleaning of the band selector sorted the problem. The unit cosmetically was a mess with cracked rear speaker casings, serial number etchings on almost all exterior panels too! The tape deck was dead and all the chrome was pitted or peeling off due to him having the unit next to the beach for 30 years! I thought I could maybe swap the nicer chrome knobs from the 9200W to my 9140 but again no dice. See the 9200 is defeatured and doesn't have a phono input, sleep function, exterior FM antenna connections, manual recording modes and levels, AFC of RIF controls. Anybody with a 9140E would know that if you turn the power switch off whilst a tape is playing, the unit continues to run only turning off at the end of the tape. The 9200W never had this feature for some reason.
Now I'm thinking I've just spent $11.50 for a new, very heavy paperweight! I got out my trusty 9140E and put them side by side for a visional comparision and get the idea to try the speaker boxes from the 9200W on the 9140E.
Yahoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Suddenly my 9140E has become a bass and treble monster!!! People always talked about the 9140E as a beast but until now I didn't believe them. My original drivers in the 9140E also didn't look like any other 9140. Obviously, I decided to swap over the drivers and tweeters from the 9200 to the 9140E. I must admit, it was one of the most enjoyable half hours of boombox exploration knowing at the end of the process, I was going to have a fully operational and awesome sounding 9140!!
After removing the old 9140 speakers, I realise they were not the original speakers. They were the right size with a similar magnet size but otherwise looked completely different. The cones were very, very stiff and gritty too.
The 9200W speakers were the exact same size but the cones moved freely and looked much healthier. So after I swap them over, I fire up the 9140W and I'm in heaven!! 
After months of wondering, my head unit wasn't at fault at all.
I then pulled down the head unit again to clean the recording bars due to a new fault where left channel is lost completely when you hit record. After giving them a good work over, I take a look at the tape head and realise someone had wound out the left adjusting screw leaving the tape head completely out of alignment!!
I re-adjust it back to the factory mark and give it a test - now I've got a beautiful, bassy sound with clear highs and record now works again!!
The TRK-9140E now holds its own against the TRK-9300W with the 9140E pushing stronger bass.
These old late seventies/early eights TRKs are so over built it's almost funny - each detachable speaker box weighs 2.30 kgs on it's own!
Below are a few photos showing the huge driver magnets and the thickness of the speaker casings.
Photo of the 9140E after the speaker swap: now that's better!
I've seen smaller magnets on 8 inch speakers!
Non original, faulty and ugly old drivers & a tweeter missing its' dust cap: Be gone!!
Super thick plastic casing:
Defeatured dash board of the TRK-9200W:
I know she's no beauty but she has got it where it counts!!
Sorry about the huge post but I'm so happy I had to share!!
James...
Well to make a short story long, soon after I started here at Boomboxery.com, I posted about a Hitachi TRK-9140E I purchased from Ebay. Yes, fully operational etc, etc, etc! It arrived well packed but it had a very low left channel, completely dead tape deck, poor sound quality and needed a bath.
The first port of call was a clean. I separated the internal chassis from the case and gave the casing a warm bath. Next job was to clean/lube the band selector switch (the cause of the low left channel). Next I cleaned the scratchy pots and function selector. Now at this stage it sounded ok on radio mode but the left channel output kept dropping down on its' own every couple of minutes. If you rotated the band selector a few times it would come good but only momentarily.
At that stage, a service of the deck was beyond me so I visited my local repairer and had him service the deck with new belts etc. So now the deck worked fine if a bit muffled but the left channel issue was still there. Also, the sound quality from 3/10 volume and up was terrible - distorted and flat with very little treble. The tech tested the amp output and said" it was to spec and maybe this is how crappy these old radios sounded!"
I knew nobody would have bought one of these things back in the day if it sounded like this one did! I must admit I was a little disappointed as it sounded like it may have needed a recap. I certainly couldn't afford to have a tech do that job so I reluctantly shelved the 9140E and moved on to other radios.Every now and then though, I'd pull the old girl out and see if by some miracle it had sorted it self out - no luck apart from the low left channel issue had corrected itself.
Fast forward to this week, I spot a TRK-9200 on Ebay. The wording of the ad didn't include the words 'boombox or ghettoblaster' and didn't seem to be getting much attention - well the auction ended with only two bids. I scored this cheap but very rough Hitachi for $11.50
The seller was only 10kms away so the next day I go and pick it up - at 7.00pm in the guys front yard!
I get it home and fire it up - guess what? The left channel output is low!
Unfortunately no amount of cleaning of the band selector sorted the problem. The unit cosmetically was a mess with cracked rear speaker casings, serial number etchings on almost all exterior panels too! The tape deck was dead and all the chrome was pitted or peeling off due to him having the unit next to the beach for 30 years! I thought I could maybe swap the nicer chrome knobs from the 9200W to my 9140 but again no dice. See the 9200 is defeatured and doesn't have a phono input, sleep function, exterior FM antenna connections, manual recording modes and levels, AFC of RIF controls. Anybody with a 9140E would know that if you turn the power switch off whilst a tape is playing, the unit continues to run only turning off at the end of the tape. The 9200W never had this feature for some reason.Now I'm thinking I've just spent $11.50 for a new, very heavy paperweight! I got out my trusty 9140E and put them side by side for a visional comparision and get the idea to try the speaker boxes from the 9200W on the 9140E.
Yahoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Suddenly my 9140E has become a bass and treble monster!!! People always talked about the 9140E as a beast but until now I didn't believe them. My original drivers in the 9140E also didn't look like any other 9140. Obviously, I decided to swap over the drivers and tweeters from the 9200 to the 9140E. I must admit, it was one of the most enjoyable half hours of boombox exploration knowing at the end of the process, I was going to have a fully operational and awesome sounding 9140!!
After removing the old 9140 speakers, I realise they were not the original speakers. They were the right size with a similar magnet size but otherwise looked completely different. The cones were very, very stiff and gritty too.
The 9200W speakers were the exact same size but the cones moved freely and looked much healthier. So after I swap them over, I fire up the 9140W and I'm in heaven!! After months of wondering, my head unit wasn't at fault at all. I then pulled down the head unit again to clean the recording bars due to a new fault where left channel is lost completely when you hit record. After giving them a good work over, I take a look at the tape head and realise someone had wound out the left adjusting screw leaving the tape head completely out of alignment!!
I re-adjust it back to the factory mark and give it a test - now I've got a beautiful, bassy sound with clear highs and record now works again!!
The TRK-9140E now holds its own against the TRK-9300W with the 9140E pushing stronger bass.
These old late seventies/early eights TRKs are so over built it's almost funny - each detachable speaker box weighs 2.30 kgs on it's own!
Below are a few photos showing the huge driver magnets and the thickness of the speaker casings.
Photo of the 9140E after the speaker swap: now that's better!
I've seen smaller magnets on 8 inch speakers!
Non original, faulty and ugly old drivers & a tweeter missing its' dust cap: Be gone!!
Super thick plastic casing:
Defeatured dash board of the TRK-9200W:
I know she's no beauty but she has got it where it counts!!
Sorry about the huge post but I'm so happy I had to share!!
James...
