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Who can I trust?

jazzsinger said:
i've also used many 20+ year old radios (many boxed for years on end) and never had to replace an electrolytic capacitor either.

i find the, if it ain't broke , don't fix it method to be very reliable, nearly as reliable as not abusing my equipment with the so called "peformance mods" in the first place.

component failure is far more common due to abuse than it ever has been due to age, although the occasional thing may blow over time whilst operating under sensible conditions, many manufacturers used borderline components that easily pop when you try to screw every last ounce of power from the final/s, not necessarily in the rf amp circuit itself.
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i have to agree. the caps that were used in these vintage radios were borderline at best. with a ten volt rating they are known to go in normal use, let alone abuse. the fact of the matter is, if you want the radio to last another 20 years of normal use i would take an ounce of preventive maintainance instead of a pound of " if it aint broke.. don't fix it" in this case. ignoring the possible problems will only lead to discontent, when in fact they could have been prevented in the first place.

when you decide what shop to take it to, ask them about it. if they are a reputable shop they will tell you the same. a little more $$$ now will lessen the chance of having failures down the road. this is a fact and not my opinion. this is all out there in balck and white on the net about these issues with those vintage mobile radios, as in the grant, jackson, and cobra 148's. all one has to do is look it up.
 
The 148 GTL DX Still has a massive following in the UK.

Here it was the one to have for a good few years too.

Seems that many people still use them along with the Superstar 360.

Personally I would get it fixed, they still seem to work ok.

Ta.

Mike
 
i would have to agree with that.


over here those radios are pretty much a dead stick. i haven't seen a 148gtl dx, or any of the other vintage mobiles in good condition for over ten years. the ones i have seen look like they have been drug through the woods with an atv.
 
bandit35 said:
wow, if it has been sitting for 20 years there may be more than just a botched repair job to worry about. it will need the electrolitic caps replaced in it as well as they tend to only have about a 11 year shelf life. im not sure how much $$$ you want to invest, but im sure it can be repaired.
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Thats bullsh**. I run radios (NOT tube radios! Those i DO replace!)) that still have the original caps in them and they work just fine. The whole replace the caps is bull. Sorry but thats how i feel about that.:glare:
 
Zman said:
Thats bullsh**. I run radios (NOT tube radios! Those i DO replace!)) that still have the original caps in them and they work just fine. The whole replace the caps is bull. Sorry but thats how i feel about that.:glare:
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for the most part i agree will you, enviroment and abuse have a bigger role than age imho.
 
I have had vintage stereos with capacitors that look good but are way out of specs due to age. The result was almost catastrophic. Re capped the unit and all is well. Same with cross overs on vintage speakers. The caps looked good nothing leaking and not bulging but way out of specs and the speakers sounded like shit.

Re built the cross overs with the same value caps and it is as sweet a stereo as it was in the 70's.

Do you have to replace 20 year old caps, well maybe maybe not but you need to ask if the risk is worth possibly a big problem down the road.

20 dollars worth of parts and a little time to replace or if i really liked the radio i would at least break out the meter and start checking things out..

could be worse it could be SMT..:eek:
 
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Zman said:
Thats bullsh**. I run radios (NOT tube radios! Those i DO replace!)) that still have the original caps in them and they work just fine. The whole replace the caps is bull. Sorry but thats how i feel about that.:glare:
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is it?!?! i to have radios pushing 30+years old in which i have replaced most but not all of them. geese man, i am not saying that it is manditory to do so. i am saying that it is good practice to. that fact of the matter is those 10 volt caps WILL cause you trouble, it is not a matter of IF, but a matter of WHEN.

what is the matter with you? what you "feel" has nothing to do with it! how can you shrug off propper preventive maintainance and suggest your own subjective opinion? that is what is B.S.......PERIOD!
 
Capacitors needing replacement isn't BS. Why, just a few years back there was a huge flap about cheap made caps that were failing left and right in consumer electronics that made the news. Such as video cards, LCD monitors, motherboards, power supplies - you name it. I have a LCD monitor that I need to replace the caps in; a video card as well. But this failure was far more reaching than just computer parts.

Read ALL of this page:
Capacitor plague - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How are you going to know if a poor grade of cap off of the ass'y line that may be more marginal than the others isn't already in your radio? For that matter; what quality of caps are used in CB radios? The best? OK? Fair? Passable? Poor? Junk? You can bet that since the price of a radio isn't as expensive as a Ham radio or some high-end audio equipment that they aren't the best that money can buy.

Some of this one too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitors

As far as radios go, so long as the liquid dielectric chemicals in the caps haven't all separated out and they aren't too old they may well work. A thirty-five year old radio that hasn't been used in 25 might have a problem. Maybe not.

Some types of caps have a higher failure rate over time. Such as tantalum caps; they are known for being a trouble source. They are known for having the shortest life of any cap. Radios often include a few. Largest known failure on the 858 chassis radios was a tantalum cap. IIRC; it was either C172 or 178. Disc cap failure isn't non-existant either; just not nearly as common as the tantalum and the electrolytic.

CB radio mfrs don't buy and build with the best caps. They buy them in bulk lots and it is doubtful that they test each one before the radio is assembled. Sometimes they use a value that is below what is best or optimal for some circuits. Then, there is also the possibility that the values will change over time too. Any one of these factors may be considered a reason why replacing old caps in a radio as one of the steps to restore it.

The electrolytic caps in many CB radio power supplies will leak and give a nasty hum in TX and RX. Happens all of the time. Told a friend to use an external power supply and that problem went away. More common in an old radio than a new one. Have a Cobra 142GTL that has the same problem too. The caps are old and failing; not defective from the mfr.

Klondike Mike is a member on this forum that sells cap kits for various radios at a discount to forum members. Want to make that old Cobra 2000GTL sound and work like it did when new - with better cap quality/values/voltages than the mfr used?

Just another two cents . . .
 
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