If FM doesn't work but the other bands do, that could be bad news. Sometimes the FM circuitry in radios goes bad and needs to be replaced, assuming that's even possible. Hopefully it's just a disconnected antenna wire.
Well, the interesting thing is that it works on the radio. I don't know if it's going to be the switch, unless the switch has separate contacts for every input... that would be one heck of a switch! I'll find out in due course. The first thing will be to replace caps and treat all switches and see what faults are left after that... but the Panasonic will get first look at, as I don't think there are any faults with it... and before that, come the walkmans... the last caps should arrive in a few weeks now. Ha! You haven't seen how many shelves I haven't got I considered taking out a second mortgage, but for some reason the bank manager thought it wasn't a worthwhile investment. Obviously not a boombox fan.
Many radios like the Aiwa have a function switch that doubles as the power switch. This is a poor design choice, because it can result in arcing between the metal leafs inside the switch. Over time, it is possible that this arcing may damage the leafs so much that they need replacement --- Cleaner alone will not work.
I was afraid of that. The one thing that gives me hope, is that they work for the radio, so it may be somewhere else in the circuitry... it all depends on how it is wired. Next week I'll start looking for the service manual, as I doubt I'll be able to find another switch to replace it with... still... I'll just have to wait and see.
Worst case scenario is of course the ouput amplifier is down on 1 channel - switching to stereo wide would indeed inject a small amount of the opposite channel into the blown speaker.....sorry to say, you should expect this to be the case Replace both channels output transistor pairs or the STK chip if your panny has that & all should be well Don't worry, these are repairable I have done a few
That is, actually, good news. Much more repairable than a failed switch, I believe. One thing I'm going to have to do, is put together a collection of caps for the Panasonic and the Aiwa. Otherwise I'm going to have to take them apart, catalogue everything, and then they'll be sitting around for a while, waiting for an order to come. Any ideas on this would be gratefully received!
And now... live... from Galveston, performing in the UK thanks to an international voltage selector... Ladies and Gentlemen... give it up for.... C3-P... oh sorry... RX-C45 ... yeaahhhhh.....
It is a nice beast, sure. The radio isn't catching on the channels properly, so I suspect that the radio side needs recapping. Also, the rewind on the tape is a bit weak, so that's either a belt issue or perhaps something else. That'll require investigation. The Aiwa is also having a radio issue. Reported on ebay as FM not working, but I got the slightest, fraction of a second out of it, before it immediately faded away, so I suspect a cap problem rather than an IC. Haven't tried the tape yet as I'm still at work. Likely approach to this will be to replace all caps and see where I go from there.
If the problem is that the stereo light rarely illuminates, you can adjust the stereo pot which is located on the tuner board. Or the function switch needs cleaning...….. or possibly it has been damaged by internal arcing.