It has been a long time since March, but I wanted to wait until the whole thing was completed.
The story begins when Superduper posted three (yes three!) M90s for sale or trade. All were in various conditions from the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I saw an opportunity to maybe finally get one of these Beasts of Boomboxery and offered Norm a multi-box trade for one of his M90s. Well, I was too late for the good one and Norm really didn't want a truckload of boomboxes all at one time.
My dreams were dashed in an instant.
But, not too long after that, Norm got back with me and gave me an offer that (for me) was just too good to pass. He wanted to trade the third M90 (the ugly) for the Aiwa CS-880 that I had gotten from Skippy in a trade. Norm laid out the condition of the M90 and didn't try to candy-coat anything:
* - top trim is bent and coming loose
* - FM radio doesn't work
* - one antenna tip is missing, other is almost broken off at the base
* - couple of case screws are missing
* - case is dirty and has wear
One good thing - Norm had already worked on the deck to get it working again.
I actually put quite a bit of thought into considering the deal and eventually went for it. My only thought was "What am I getting myself into?"
Norm gave me a few ideas of what the FM problem could be. After receiving the M90 and further testing, it was believed that at least one of the IC chips has failed. I purchased some IC chips and sockets following Norm's advice, but when I finally opened the M90 and looked at the tuner board, I knew that my soldering abilities were not good enough. There's a bunch of really tight circuitry on there. So I PM'd my buddy Norm and told him what was going on. He said "Send me the board and the ICs. I can do that in about 15 minutes." Holy shiat! That's real talent, ladies and gentlemen!
I knew the tuner board was arriving yesterday, so I completely disassembled the M90 to get it ready for the Full Patron. All I can say is thank goodness for the service manual! The M90 is quite the little puzzle to take apart.
After the front and back pieces got a bath and a good scrubbing, the other parts got a cleaning too. The knobs went into my wife's ultrasonic jewelry cleaner, which really helps to get dirt out of the little grooves in the knobs. Oh, and even though Norm says that there are both red and yellow VU markings for the M90 (my belief was the red had faded into yellow), this one had yellow markings. I wanted the marking to be red, so I added that to the list while the knobs were soaking.
Everything got dried off and the reassembly of all the pieces commenced. Damn! It takes a long time to put an M90 back together! Speakers in. Main chassis in. New aerials from Lasonic on. Now it's time for the tuner board. I snapped it into place making sure to carefully align the tuning wheel with the tuning bar and reconnected the wires. Closed up the case and then had a moment of silence. Whew! No screws left over.
I plugged up the M90 and pushed the power button. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. WTF?! It was already about 12:30AM and I was NOT about to open this boombox again! I got another power cord and the same thing - nothing. A whole slew of expletives were muttered softly so I wouldn't wake the girls. And then, as I was grabbing the cord to unplug it from the M90, it came to life! Dirty contacts. Whew!
I didn't waste any time and went straight for the FM stereo. I was hearing static where the dial was initially tuned and static was good - seeing how I had no sound at all on FM before Norm's fix. I dialed in 105.9 The Rock and the glorious sounds of classic rock emanated from the M90 is wondrous stereo! It was fixed and finally complete!!!!
This has been quite the journey for me and this M90. I have to give thanks to the following members:
Norm - for the wonderful trade and all of his help, this guy is no mere mortal
Floyd - for helping with the information regarding aerials
Gord - for sending me a brand-new top trim
Skippy - for trading the Aiwa CS-880 to me
NOTES:
Lasonic aerials for the i931 are the perfect length for M90 replacements. However, they have a smaller diameter. I needed both the original M90 antenna washers and one Lasonic washer to ensure a tight fit. The aerials are $9.99 each and shipping is free from Lasonic.
The story begins when Superduper posted three (yes three!) M90s for sale or trade. All were in various conditions from the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I saw an opportunity to maybe finally get one of these Beasts of Boomboxery and offered Norm a multi-box trade for one of his M90s. Well, I was too late for the good one and Norm really didn't want a truckload of boomboxes all at one time.
My dreams were dashed in an instant.
But, not too long after that, Norm got back with me and gave me an offer that (for me) was just too good to pass. He wanted to trade the third M90 (the ugly) for the Aiwa CS-880 that I had gotten from Skippy in a trade. Norm laid out the condition of the M90 and didn't try to candy-coat anything:* - top trim is bent and coming loose
* - FM radio doesn't work
* - one antenna tip is missing, other is almost broken off at the base
* - couple of case screws are missing
* - case is dirty and has wear
One good thing - Norm had already worked on the deck to get it working again.
I actually put quite a bit of thought into considering the deal and eventually went for it. My only thought was "What am I getting myself into?"
Norm gave me a few ideas of what the FM problem could be. After receiving the M90 and further testing, it was believed that at least one of the IC chips has failed. I purchased some IC chips and sockets following Norm's advice, but when I finally opened the M90 and looked at the tuner board, I knew that my soldering abilities were not good enough. There's a bunch of really tight circuitry on there. So I PM'd my buddy Norm and told him what was going on. He said "Send me the board and the ICs. I can do that in about 15 minutes." Holy shiat! That's real talent, ladies and gentlemen!I knew the tuner board was arriving yesterday, so I completely disassembled the M90 to get it ready for the Full Patron. All I can say is thank goodness for the service manual! The M90 is quite the little puzzle to take apart.
After the front and back pieces got a bath and a good scrubbing, the other parts got a cleaning too. The knobs went into my wife's ultrasonic jewelry cleaner, which really helps to get dirt out of the little grooves in the knobs. Oh, and even though Norm says that there are both red and yellow VU markings for the M90 (my belief was the red had faded into yellow), this one had yellow markings. I wanted the marking to be red, so I added that to the list while the knobs were soaking.Everything got dried off and the reassembly of all the pieces commenced. Damn! It takes a long time to put an M90 back together! Speakers in. Main chassis in. New aerials from Lasonic on. Now it's time for the tuner board. I snapped it into place making sure to carefully align the tuning wheel with the tuning bar and reconnected the wires. Closed up the case and then had a moment of silence. Whew! No screws left over.
I plugged up the M90 and pushed the power button. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. WTF?! It was already about 12:30AM and I was NOT about to open this boombox again! I got another power cord and the same thing - nothing. A whole slew of expletives were muttered softly so I wouldn't wake the girls. And then, as I was grabbing the cord to unplug it from the M90, it came to life! Dirty contacts. Whew!
I didn't waste any time and went straight for the FM stereo. I was hearing static where the dial was initially tuned and static was good - seeing how I had no sound at all on FM before Norm's fix. I dialed in 105.9 The Rock and the glorious sounds of classic rock emanated from the M90 is wondrous stereo! It was fixed and finally complete!!!!
This has been quite the journey for me and this M90. I have to give thanks to the following members:
Norm - for the wonderful trade and all of his help, this guy is no mere mortal
Floyd - for helping with the information regarding aerials
Gord - for sending me a brand-new top trim
Skippy - for trading the Aiwa CS-880 to me
NOTES:
Lasonic aerials for the i931 are the perfect length for M90 replacements. However, they have a smaller diameter. I needed both the original M90 antenna washers and one Lasonic washer to ensure a tight fit. The aerials are $9.99 each and shipping is free from Lasonic.
That is none other than Fatdog Sr. chillin' and not illin' in the shade with the M90. 
It is such a great feeling when it works. 
If the yellow VUs are indeed original, I can return them to yellow even though the Sharpie is labeled as "permanent." The wife has a secret liquid from the Philippines that makes Sharpie ink disappear.