The stereo light comes on only once in a blue moon. Very hard to achieve. Also, when the stereo switch is set on stereo, the right speaker is very weak. When it's on wide or mono, it's a lot better, but it's still not stereo sound.

Any ideas? I lubed the stereo switch and it seems fine, what else should I check while the box is apart?

Hi Reli, I don't own this box so I can't be real specific but I have seen this symptom before. If you believe your switches are ok then it sounds to me like your stereo decoder my be out of alignment which causes everything to work fine in mono mode but stereo sounds like total crap. Now usually on the tuner board there will be 2 or 3 ic's one of these chips will be a stereo decoder chip and around that chip there will be an adjustable resistor. It's used for a 19khz pilot which seperates your left and right channels. These variable resistors go flaky just like your switches and pots do after so long. Now I don't know if you have any electronics know how but if you do start moving pots (variable resistors)around things can get messed up but..... if you see anything like the picture below and it says 19khz or stereo pilot I would try cleaning it with your switch cleaner and very carefully move it back and forth and see if it makes any difference.

Well there are several pots that look like that, but none of them are labeled 19 khz. I would have to try all of them. You're saying take a screwdriver and turn it back and forth?

Now, I am only talking about the variable resistors that are on the tuner board and more specifically the one that is around a stereo decoder chip. There will be many of these resistors located though out the radio so you really need to narrow it down a little. I don't have that box so I can't give great detail. Can you tell which area is the tuning circuit board area? If you can, there is usually a couple ic chips (14 to 18 pin) devoted to the tuning section and a lot of variable coils and variable caps closer to the internal antenna in this area too. Usually only 1 or 2 of the variable resistors are in that section. Yes moving them back and forth just like a dirty volume knob sometimes does the trick. Again if your not familiar or not sure, don't try turning everything that can be turned you can mess things up. Maybe someone has a schematic Reli that would give you a little more detail.

Well here's a pic of what MIGHT be a stereo chip, it's black and it has 16 pins, and there are 2 of those resistors above it (my fingers are pointing to them).




And then on the other side of the box, there are two more variable resistors near where the left and right channel power is sent to the speakers.



But there's a tuner problem as well.....It picks up stations fine, but the stereo light never comes on except during the blast of static between two competing stations.

My 9696 has suddenly developed this problem
Had a quick look but to no avail.....

Reli that first picture is the one you want. Thats the stereo decoder chip. I would try cleaning those pots with some cleaner (radio off of course) take a note of there position and move them back and forth. let the cleaner dry and then power up and slowly move each one seperatly and see if the stereo indicator lights. As long as you know where you started from you can always put them back to the original location. Not saying it will fix your problem....but I have seen those pots go bad (dry up) and that is what the cause has been with the symptoms you indicate. But there are alot of other possibilities too, but this is something you could try without having some test gear.

OK, what kind of cleaner would you recommend?

I use DeoxIT. It's real good for pots and switches. If you have any old gear like these radios I would recommend getting some good cleaner it can really help the controls ( volume balance bass treble)work much better. It is a little pricey though. I guess I would not go out and buy it just for this occasion Reli, but if you do work on boxes you will use it. If you don't have cleaner try moving the pots back and forth see if it makes any difference again just note where they are now.

Welp, fiddled with the pot and got the stereo sound back on, but the right channel is still low on power on everything except mono. Another funny thing is that when I turn the power switch off, the right channel VU spikes for a split second.

Reli is the right channel low on everything.....tape, aux, and radio or just radio. I was thinking it was just radio. Is your stereo light comming on better now or is it about the same?

The light comes on fine now. However the right channel is very weak on stereo mode (the right volume slider needs to be cranked to max), better on the wide mode (but not perfect), and fine on mono.