needing help with a hitachi trk w550

[1982 cce boombox]

hello, I have a hitachi trk w 550 that I found at a street fair, I paid over 20 dollars on it however when I got home I called it but its sound comes out almost inaudible. has anyone ever had a hitachi like this with a similar probremal? I believe that it is the source or the amplifier of output that is bad, however I am only 13 years old and I do not have much technical knowledge, I am afraid of ending up burning the radio but I do not have money to send to a technician ...

 

[dubout]

Try to move all sliders – volume, balance etc. – 20 to 30 times up and down and see what happens. Normally the contacts are oxidated and at some point it should at least start to cracle. If so, the next step would be to get some contact cleaner spray and repeat the procedure after applying contact cleaner first. There are different types of contact spray, make sure not to use too aggressive ones as it might damage the insides after a while.

If that doesn't help next thing would be to press play and record at the same time for mutiple times and see if that changes anything.

Report back as I am curious if you get this thing running!

 

[1982 cce boombox]

I tried to use the contact cleaner but it didn’t change anything ... I also tried to clean the recording key but it also didn’t change anything ..

 

[masterblaster]

Hi 1982 cce, did you try connecting headphone? Or put volume halfway, and switch longtime/many times the radio/cassette/audio-in/audio-out switches. When you hear some crackling noise, you just have to go on, and sometimes it will work. When this all does not help you might have to change some elco's (electrolytical condensators).
Some elco's will start leaking after several years, and might need replacement. The values you can often read, also the polarisation is important.
Open the radio and try to find schematics on the internet, I;m sure there are people who know exactly what has to be done.
Cassette adapter is also a nice possebillity (look on internet what this is) you can buy these cheap, and connect it to your phone or MP3 player.
Good Luck!

 

[floyd]

I would also check the headphone jack to see if the output is on both sides if the headphone jack gets dirty it can interfere with the speakers.

 

[1982 cce boombox]

I did the test too, but the same result ... even today, in the afternoon I will try to connect a 15 volt source directly to the radio and try to diagnose if the source is bad ... one more thing I noticed about him is that the tape direction led doesn’t light up as it should, it’s weak and flickering, sometimes it lights up a little bit, sometimes it almost goes out, and I also noticed that both deck motors don’t run, they seem to be dead .. later on and notice if there was any difference

 

[1982 cce boombox]

I'm sure it's not dirty contact, I cleaned everything that could go wrong, all sliders, keys, connectors ...

 

[masterblaster]

WORKING CASSETTES IS BIGGER PROBLEM, FIRST TRY TO LET THE RADIO/TUNER MAKE SOUND. CASSETTE PART IS OFTEN A PROBLEM WITH RUBBER BELTS WHICH DRY OUT DURING 20/30 YEARS.