You all may have seen this Lasonic TRC-920 kicking around the "For Sale/Trade" section for some time earlier this year. Member JBoogie2384 had it.
At one point he had a sucker...ummmm, I mean, PROSPECTIVE BUYER
lined up, but that fell through, so I hit him up. We made a nice "Un-Taxable Trade" and I ended up with another 920.
It showed up, dead as a door nail, looking real rough, with broken rear case posts, the volume / bass / treble knob assembly was loose, all as it was described.
But since I have a pile of parts for these, I figured I should be the one to bring her back from the dead.
These are the pictures I first got and as you can see, she is complete, all knobs and switches. Battery door and BOTH rotary switches for the AM/FM and Function were working. That right there told me this was a good deal.
The first thing I did was plug her in. As expected DEAD. Off came the back and I started at the plug, making sure I had power at the first points of contact inside the radio using my multi-meter.
I checked the 120/220v switch, the AC/DC switch, the power transformer, the board after the transformer and then the wires to the main board and BINGO! There was a bad solder joint on the main positive on the main board. I hit it with the soldering iron and PRESTO, she fired up the first time I pressed the power button!
Video of it first coming back to life!
https://youtu.be/vlQYt0snXIk
The line in works great, the tuner is good and strong but the dead is dead dead dead. Either the motor is burnt or it's not getting any power. I will work on that at a later date, because the deck is clean inside, the heads look good and the belts are good and tight.
One of the reasons I picked this radio up was because I bought one of the Blue Tooth receivers Joe (Blu_Fuz) used to mod his M70 & M90 SEE HERE
I figured, even if the tuner and deck were dead, I could still use the line in and Blue Tooth.
If you read Joe's thread on the M70/M90 Blue Tooth modding, then you see he added a power switch for the BT module. But since the TRC-920 has a mechanical power switch, I was able to simply put the ground wire to the ground on the negative end of the battery block and the positive on the switched terminal of the power switch. So when you turn the radio on, it powers up the BT module at the same time AC or DC. I cut the RCA plugs out of one of my parts 920's some time back for another project and still had parts laying around, so I soldiered wires to those RCA plugs, then to the main board for the line in and simply plugged the BT module into those. That was it, DONE, Modded!
Video of the Blue Tooth mod
https://youtu.be/1biEz-qUI_8
Since I had the radio torn down this far, I figured I would take the best parts from my parts boxes and clean it up as best I could. The case is covered in something that looks like paint, but is more like epoxy or something, so it's not going to clean up too much, but the chrome all came off and got a polishing.
I ended up using the face from another 920 that was in better condition and also had these felt ring pads around the knob holes (he he, "Knob Holes"
)
It got the best of the chrome I had, the best deck crash bar, the best speaker grills, the best knobs and the best tuner glass.
I had to clean off this foam crud that someone had used to glue the tuner glass in once before in it's life time.
The volume / bass / treble knob assembly screw post had broken, but I simply had to use a longer screw. I also put some felt behind it so it wouldn't rattle.
That last thing I had to do was deal with the rear case post issues. The holes in the rear panel were "Pulled through" meaning if you put a screw in the hole on the rear case it would just fall all the way through. Also, one of the posts on the radio chassis was split, which is so common.
So, what I did was, find screws the correct length I needed, re-drilled the holes a little bigger to fit the screws. I screwed them in a little at a time, backing them out, cleaning the plastic out of the threads and repeating till I got the screws at the depth I needed. This way it prevented the posts from splitting again.
To correct the issue of the screws just falling threw the rear case, I simply used washers on the back case.
. No, not a "Pro" restoration, but the back is on, it has all the screws being used and the radio is as tight as it can be with no squeaks or rattles.
In the end, she isn't going to win any beauty contests, but it's a 920 that can me tossed in the back seat and see some action on the street.
Video of the finished product
https://youtu.be/_Osbvu-iDI0
I want to thank member JBoogie2384 for a great trade, he's one of our great top tier members!
Another Lasonic TRC-920 out on the streets, pissing off the neighbors
At one point he had a sucker...ummmm, I mean, PROSPECTIVE BUYER
lined up, but that fell through, so I hit him up. We made a nice "Un-Taxable Trade" and I ended up with another 920.It showed up, dead as a door nail, looking real rough, with broken rear case posts, the volume / bass / treble knob assembly was loose, all as it was described.
But since I have a pile of parts for these, I figured I should be the one to bring her back from the dead.
These are the pictures I first got and as you can see, she is complete, all knobs and switches. Battery door and BOTH rotary switches for the AM/FM and Function were working. That right there told me this was a good deal.
The first thing I did was plug her in. As expected DEAD. Off came the back and I started at the plug, making sure I had power at the first points of contact inside the radio using my multi-meter.
I checked the 120/220v switch, the AC/DC switch, the power transformer, the board after the transformer and then the wires to the main board and BINGO! There was a bad solder joint on the main positive on the main board. I hit it with the soldering iron and PRESTO, she fired up the first time I pressed the power button!
Video of it first coming back to life!
https://youtu.be/vlQYt0snXIk
The line in works great, the tuner is good and strong but the dead is dead dead dead. Either the motor is burnt or it's not getting any power. I will work on that at a later date, because the deck is clean inside, the heads look good and the belts are good and tight.
One of the reasons I picked this radio up was because I bought one of the Blue Tooth receivers Joe (Blu_Fuz) used to mod his M70 & M90 SEE HERE
I figured, even if the tuner and deck were dead, I could still use the line in and Blue Tooth.
If you read Joe's thread on the M70/M90 Blue Tooth modding, then you see he added a power switch for the BT module. But since the TRC-920 has a mechanical power switch, I was able to simply put the ground wire to the ground on the negative end of the battery block and the positive on the switched terminal of the power switch. So when you turn the radio on, it powers up the BT module at the same time AC or DC. I cut the RCA plugs out of one of my parts 920's some time back for another project and still had parts laying around, so I soldiered wires to those RCA plugs, then to the main board for the line in and simply plugged the BT module into those. That was it, DONE, Modded!
Video of the Blue Tooth mod
https://youtu.be/1biEz-qUI_8
Since I had the radio torn down this far, I figured I would take the best parts from my parts boxes and clean it up as best I could. The case is covered in something that looks like paint, but is more like epoxy or something, so it's not going to clean up too much, but the chrome all came off and got a polishing.
I ended up using the face from another 920 that was in better condition and also had these felt ring pads around the knob holes (he he, "Knob Holes"
)It got the best of the chrome I had, the best deck crash bar, the best speaker grills, the best knobs and the best tuner glass.
I had to clean off this foam crud that someone had used to glue the tuner glass in once before in it's life time.
The volume / bass / treble knob assembly screw post had broken, but I simply had to use a longer screw. I also put some felt behind it so it wouldn't rattle.
That last thing I had to do was deal with the rear case post issues. The holes in the rear panel were "Pulled through" meaning if you put a screw in the hole on the rear case it would just fall all the way through. Also, one of the posts on the radio chassis was split, which is so common.
So, what I did was, find screws the correct length I needed, re-drilled the holes a little bigger to fit the screws. I screwed them in a little at a time, backing them out, cleaning the plastic out of the threads and repeating till I got the screws at the depth I needed. This way it prevented the posts from splitting again.
To correct the issue of the screws just falling threw the rear case, I simply used washers on the back case.
. No, not a "Pro" restoration, but the back is on, it has all the screws being used and the radio is as tight as it can be with no squeaks or rattles.In the end, she isn't going to win any beauty contests, but it's a 920 that can me tossed in the back seat and see some action on the street.
Video of the finished product
https://youtu.be/_Osbvu-iDI0
I want to thank member JBoogie2384 for a great trade, he's one of our great top tier members!
Another Lasonic TRC-920 out on the streets, pissing off the neighbors
