Hi guys,
We'll I've just finished my most complex project so far.
You may remember a recent post I made mentioning a quick deck resto on a newly received Sony CFS-85s. The main issue that remained unresolved was a dead AM tuner and a very weak FM tuner. The deck still had a broken record key and a fault with the music search system that caused the play button to pop up when the gap in the songs was sensed.
I had just started my search for a working tuner when I got a message from Scotty telling me of an Ebay box that was 'fully operational'. Wow, I thought that sounds perfect! As it turns out, Scotty had already hit the 'Buy Now' button so yesterday, money changed hands and he dropped off CFS-85s #2. The seller thought it would be a good idea to simply wrap a single layer of cardboard around the Sony and ship it with no padding at all!!
Original Sony of left, painted black Sony on right: (After parts swap)
View attachment 3856
Scotty and I were amazed to find that no apparent damage had occured but after a closer look, after Scotty left, I discovered a 20 cent piece sized hole in the bottom panel!
Anyway, as usual the Ebay sellers' description didn't reflect reality. The Sony had a completely dead deck and a dicky band selector switch that only allowed AM to work 25% of the time. The poor quality Ebay listing photos didn't allow you to see the ugly black paint job that someone had done to the wood paneling and center silver front panel! They had also moved the Zilbap badge from the right speaker cover to the top of the front, now black center panel. They even installed the handle cross piece upside down loosing two of the four retaining screws in the process! :wacko:
I was hoping to simply drop the internals from the new unit into the nicer, original outer casing of my original Sony. Unfortunately, after a thorough switch clean etc, I couldn't resolve a right channel issue with low output and low bass so the black Sony was now a 'parts only' box.
So now the real work started.
I made up a quick list of parts to be stripped from the 'black' Sony and installed into the 'woody' Sony:
1. Tuner board.
2. 1 x Mid range speaker
3. Tuner dial and associated stereo / tuner LED circuit board
4. LED meter backing board
5. Tape deck 'Air Damped' slow eject module.
6. Tape deck cassette keys & springs.
7. Transformer and associated circuit board.
8. Switch backing pads.
9. Tuner window
10. 'Play key' micro switch
11. Cassette door
12. Tape counter
View attachment 3857
The first step was removing the tuner board. 5 Screws retain the tuner board, plus a few other screws that retain the band selector switch. A few antenna wires & the fine tune SW knob were then de-soldered and power supply cable removed. I didn't want to disturb the tuner wheel and string so had to be very careful to lift the board without also lifting the tuner wheel and disturbing the tuner string!
View attachment 3859
View attachment 3858
The tuner dial and LED meter backing board removal was straight forward. The 'black' Sony had in-tact cassette keys but as they were also painted, I decided to switch those over as a set. My original Sony had a very floppy cassette door. This was caused by the two metal tabs that retain the cassette door being bent out of shape when a previous owner had reassembled the cassette keys rod incorrectly. A quick re-bend fixed that issue now allowing the cassette door to open and close smoothly.
The slow eject module was a quick job as was the tape counter swap.
The transformer board was also a straight forward job with four screws, one plug and two wires to be de-soldered, re-soldered to complete the swap. One of my mid range speaker caps was pushed in so I nabbed a good one from the black Sony.
The reason this project took me all afternoon, is that I went to the trouble of re-installing the swapped parts from one box to the other so both boxes are now complete and operational.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The woody Sony now has a working FM tuner with stereo.
The band selector switch is still unreliable despite cleaning and around 100 switches back and forth. The AM tuner does work when the switch wants to co-operate though.
The tape deck now works 100% with the music search system operating properly. The line-in on this model is excellent with great sensitivity.
Only one other major fault remains unresolved:
When you turn up the volume when on tuner mode, the 'tune' light fades out. On FM mode, as the volume increases, the tuner & stereo lights dim and then go out. The FM tuner then falls out of stereo mode. If you lower the volume, all lights then light back up and stereo sound is restored. The center panel 'operation' and 'battery' leds also dim alot when you crank it up on all modes. The transformer/circuit board swap did not resolve this issue as hoped. I tend to remember these issues didn't exist when the tuner was in the black Sony so it sounds like an issue with the woody Sony.
Even with modest seller discounts, the cost of these two Ebay Sonys is starting to add up.
I'm open to suggestions to fix this issue. Do you guys think it may be a capacitor issue?
Please let me know if you have a possible fix.
I just love the look and sound of this 1979 Sony! The switch gear is top quality, the radio tuning knob is super smooth allowing the pointer to 'glide' across the dial. The six speaker system of the CF-85S gives a quality sound particularly on tape mode. The deck itself has a nice feel to the controls with a unique 'mechanical' sound and feel to the slow eject system. Overall, it's a typical late seventies japanese box with wonderful build quality and solid feel. IMHO It just needs a tuner dial light to finish it off.
If I can just fix the remaining tuner issues, I'll have my dream seventies box!!
A big thanks goes out to Scotty for hooking me up!
Anyway, below are a couple of outdoor shots of an almost restored Sony CFS-85S.
Thanks,
James....
View attachment 3860
View attachment 3861
We'll I've just finished my most complex project so far.
You may remember a recent post I made mentioning a quick deck resto on a newly received Sony CFS-85s. The main issue that remained unresolved was a dead AM tuner and a very weak FM tuner. The deck still had a broken record key and a fault with the music search system that caused the play button to pop up when the gap in the songs was sensed.I had just started my search for a working tuner when I got a message from Scotty telling me of an Ebay box that was 'fully operational'. Wow, I thought that sounds perfect! As it turns out, Scotty had already hit the 'Buy Now' button so yesterday, money changed hands and he dropped off CFS-85s #2. The seller thought it would be a good idea to simply wrap a single layer of cardboard around the Sony and ship it with no padding at all!!
Original Sony of left, painted black Sony on right: (After parts swap)
View attachment 3856
Scotty and I were amazed to find that no apparent damage had occured but after a closer look, after Scotty left, I discovered a 20 cent piece sized hole in the bottom panel!
Anyway, as usual the Ebay sellers' description didn't reflect reality. The Sony had a completely dead deck and a dicky band selector switch that only allowed AM to work 25% of the time. The poor quality Ebay listing photos didn't allow you to see the ugly black paint job that someone had done to the wood paneling and center silver front panel! They had also moved the Zilbap badge from the right speaker cover to the top of the front, now black center panel.
They even installed the handle cross piece upside down loosing two of the four retaining screws in the process! :wacko:I was hoping to simply drop the internals from the new unit into the nicer, original outer casing of my original Sony. Unfortunately, after a thorough switch clean etc, I couldn't resolve a right channel issue with low output and low bass so the black Sony was now a 'parts only' box.
So now the real work started.
I made up a quick list of parts to be stripped from the 'black' Sony and installed into the 'woody' Sony:
1. Tuner board.
2. 1 x Mid range speaker
3. Tuner dial and associated stereo / tuner LED circuit board
4. LED meter backing board
5. Tape deck 'Air Damped' slow eject module.
6. Tape deck cassette keys & springs.
7. Transformer and associated circuit board.
8. Switch backing pads.
9. Tuner window
10. 'Play key' micro switch
11. Cassette door
12. Tape counter
View attachment 3857
The first step was removing the tuner board. 5 Screws retain the tuner board, plus a few other screws that retain the band selector switch. A few antenna wires & the fine tune SW knob were then de-soldered and power supply cable removed. I didn't want to disturb the tuner wheel and string so had to be very careful to lift the board without also lifting the tuner wheel and disturbing the tuner string!
View attachment 3859
View attachment 3858
The tuner dial and LED meter backing board removal was straight forward. The 'black' Sony had in-tact cassette keys but as they were also painted, I decided to switch those over as a set. My original Sony had a very floppy cassette door. This was caused by the two metal tabs that retain the cassette door being bent out of shape when a previous owner had reassembled the cassette keys rod incorrectly. A quick re-bend fixed that issue now allowing the cassette door to open and close smoothly.
The slow eject module was a quick job as was the tape counter swap.
The transformer board was also a straight forward job with four screws, one plug and two wires to be de-soldered, re-soldered to complete the swap. One of my mid range speaker caps was pushed in so I nabbed a good one from the black Sony.
The reason this project took me all afternoon, is that I went to the trouble of re-installing the swapped parts from one box to the other so both boxes are now complete and operational.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The woody Sony now has a working FM tuner with stereo.
The band selector switch is still unreliable despite cleaning and around 100 switches back and forth. The AM tuner does work when the switch wants to co-operate though.The tape deck now works 100% with the music search system operating properly. The line-in on this model is excellent with great sensitivity.
Only one other major fault remains unresolved:
When you turn up the volume when on tuner mode, the 'tune' light fades out. On FM mode, as the volume increases, the tuner & stereo lights dim and then go out. The FM tuner then falls out of stereo mode. If you lower the volume, all lights then light back up and stereo sound is restored. The center panel 'operation' and 'battery' leds also dim alot when you crank it up on all modes. The transformer/circuit board swap did not resolve this issue as hoped. I tend to remember these issues didn't exist when the tuner was in the black Sony so it sounds like an issue with the woody Sony.
Even with modest seller discounts, the cost of these two Ebay Sonys is starting to add up.
I'm open to suggestions to fix this issue. Do you guys think it may be a capacitor issue?
Please let me know if you have a possible fix.
I just love the look and sound of this 1979 Sony! The switch gear is top quality, the radio tuning knob is super smooth allowing the pointer to 'glide' across the dial. The six speaker system of the CF-85S gives a quality sound particularly on tape mode. The deck itself has a nice feel to the controls with a unique 'mechanical' sound and feel to the slow eject system. Overall, it's a typical late seventies japanese box with wonderful build quality and solid feel. IMHO It just needs a tuner dial light to finish it off.
If I can just fix the remaining tuner issues, I'll have my dream seventies box!!
A big thanks goes out to Scotty for hooking me up!
Anyway, below are a couple of outdoor shots of an almost restored Sony CFS-85S.
Thanks,
James....
View attachment 3860
View attachment 3861
