From: ohg...@gmail.com   
      
   On Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at 6:47:33 PM UTC-4, Wu Ming wrote:   
   > jad...@vwtype3.org  wrote:    
   > > On Tuesday, September 12, 2023 at 7:03:10 AM UTC-5, Wu Ming wrote:    
   > >    
   > >> On multiple accounts a simple turning of the selector forth and back    
   > >> repeatedly for few minutes should fix the issue. It did few years back   
   but    
   > >> the trick doesn’t work anymore.    
   > >    
   > >> Anyone with direct experience of it? Thanks for sharing.    
   > >    
   > > If you look at the tuning capacitor in any older radio, you'll see that    
   > > it consists of a bunch of interleaved plates, half of which are mounted    
   > > on a shaft that rotates to let them mesh more or less. The more they are    
   > > intermeshed, the higher the capacitance and the lower the tuned    
   > > frequency. Taking a more careful look, you'll notice that the stationary    
   > > plates are insulated from the frame of the capacitor while the rotatable    
   > > plates are mounted directly on the shaft which is in contact with that    
   > > frame. The electrical connection between the shaft and the frame is thru    
   > > a ball bearing on one end and usually a brass spring on the other end.    
   > > Both ends were lubricated at the factory, but, with time, that    
   > > lubrication dries out and oxidation occurs. Metal oxides tend to be    
   > > insulators. Once the contact between the shaft and the frame, where the    
   > > radio makes its connection, becomes unreliable or intermittent, you'll    
   > > stop getting reception or there will be a lot of noise as the shaft is   
   turned.    
   > >    
   > > Moving the shaft back and forth can break thru those insulating films.    
   > > You can try Deoxit to remove the oxides and follow up with Shield to    
   > > provide some longer term conductivity. I like to also add a bit of high    
   > > quality corrosion preventive grease at the same time, for the longest term   
   benefit.    
   > >   
   > Thank you for the details. Interesting. Will try.   
      
   If it's one of those open frame tuners, have at it. If it's one of those clear   
   plastic super compact square tuners with plastic film separating the plates,   
   then any cleaner you use that carries a lube that doesn't evaporate will   
   detune the tuner.  It    
   will work, but it will cause your dial to be off, sometimes quite a bit.  Over   
   time, the error will slowly decrease but never go away.  If the radio has an   
   osc trimmer, you might be able to fudge a lot of the error away.     
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)