I would look at doing some simple continuity checks from the antenna's connector - to the main PCB, back along it, thru the SWR "riser card" and back even further.
IF the radio seems to TX ok, and you seem to have wattage, have you put - hooked up the radio to a regular CB antenna - and SWR shows ok, - you may have a failed part in the AM "strip" section PAST the split that the FM riser card, the one in the middle - uses.
It shares the same strip to make itself work, and splits off it's own receive detector output - but that does not mean it was never messed with - the edge connector on this card is fragile and sensitive to heating cycles, too many of them the foil trace edge connection lifts and shreds / tears off - it's copper foil - which can interrupt the flow of IF information.
So if FM works, great, but AM uses this from that card onwards - so might need some more work or worse, a cap that I know exists that if you put it in, kills AM receive - its' by the FM riser card - if it didn't have a cap in there and you put one it - it can act up like this.
So to start, look and review the FM riser card, then look beyond the card along the direction towards the Audio Amp chip (TDA1905) - and see if you might have missed something in your initial inspection. He may have been tracking down a problem in the radio and lost interest - so it was left for you to pick up his legacy and take it from here.