[Ron Ramirez]

PART 2

Last night, the 89 seemed to be doing OK - until I pulled the trigger on my soldering gun to do something else, at which point it quit working again!

AAAARRGGGHHH!!!!!

To make a long story short, I robbed an oscillator coil from my "shelf queen" Model 32B (same basic circuitry, made to operate on 32 volts DC). Cooked it with a hair dryer, then rewound the open tickler winding. Installed it in the cantankerous 89 and...BINGO.

It came right to life, loud and clear. It passed my "stress test" of being picked up an inch or two from the bench and dropped repeatedly. I turned the soldering gun on and off; other things in the work room on and off; it kept on playing, rock solid.

I'll let it play the rest of this evening, and if it doesn't cut out anymore, THEN I will declare victory.

Lesson learned: From now on, I plan to use heat to bake EVERY Model 89 oscillator coil I encounter. I am convinced that doing so will help avoid such problems in the future.