does radio work okay right and left on mono stereo and wide ?

right --some electrical switches get so arced out and worn out -

that they can never be saved by deoxit, etc -

they need their contacts rebuilt or replaced

does radio work okay right and left on mono stereo and wide ?

it acts that way on all functions.. ive played a tape in it, but mostly been enjoying the FM radio to play Classic Rock..

i appreciate the comments, ill try cleaning the contacts first.. Apparently an old lady owned it so i assume it was never abused, it LOOKS mint, so now i want it to perform that way as well!
I just wonder about that "hiss" in the left channel wether volume up or down, on tape or radio..?

  pm stormin norman sure he will be able to help.

You can see how little the LED meter is lit up on the left channel, but the higher I turn the volume, the louder the left speakers play..

I would say left Channel 25%  and right Channel 75%  volume output

first detoxit all swiches...it could be a faulty cap...i had an almost dead cap in my crown 970...also as mentioned it could be a faulty switch....also you need to clean the record swich inside the unit with detoxit...it created havoc with my 970....even after the dead cap was replaced....good luck, let us know how you get on

THanks, I don't expect to buy any boxes soon.. So, I'm going to go through each one at a time cleaning/restoring them..  Built some new shelves today, so they are a lil easier to work on as well! I'll probably start with this Crown, since it might be a minor repair..

HI J-Mez

Any luck with the Crown fix. I ask because now my Prosonic box is doing the same thing

I'm going to try the switch cleaning routine and give it a good swab out but I was curious if you'd had any luck with the Detoxit route?

Im going out on a limb here as I can't use my meter on this unit from where I sit. What really grabbed my attention was the LED meter emphasizing the low signal. This tells me that the amp is not seeing a full signal on that channel. This makes be believe the issue is before the amp. It's basically amplifying what its seeing. Since its doing this with everything and without knowing this specific model functions I would suspect the following. I would start with any mechanical contact that ties everything together for sound output to the amp such as Headphone Jack contacts, selector switch contacts, stereo/mono selector switch, volume pot and balance pot. The wide function will tend to bring back the channel slightly because it adds a slight mono effect so the strong channel is bleeding over to the weak channel. Im not ruling out the possibility of a capacitor which is drying up. This will cause a hissing sound but so will a dirty contact. Strange things start happening like this when tolerences change due to connection issues and/or component failures. My fingers are crossed and hoping its a mechanical contact/switch. They're easier to test. :-) Good Luck.

Hey thanks for the input, I'm actually mustering up the courage to start working on it..

If it needs a capacitor so be it, I can solder.  But I have now tester to check which ones are bad..  This will be my first serious troubleshoot, but I want to fix it..

Never been much into taking my things in to be serviced..

I don't want to have more than one boombox torn apart at a time, but I want to fix this soon!

How about the POWER switch?  When I turn the unit on/off it feels like the Power switch is grinding/broken so I assume the contacts are completely worn out..

Would this affect the left channel not powering up properly? Or does the power switch not affect which side is being powered on? 

I was right about the power switch feeling funny, 2 of the contacts were worn real bad, looking like they were causing some arcing of the switch..

The 2 on the right side of picture were on the bottom part of switch, making me wonder if they weren't properly turning the whole unit on..?

The switch is an ALPS 115F switch, I'm hoping I can get a replacement from the company who makes them..  Wondering if fixing this switch will remedy my hissing/left channel not playing problem??

The rest of the switch, you can see the arcing soot on the bottom.. where those worn contacts should have been connecting..

Completely disassembled it last night, this unit is so mint.. I feel like I'm working on a brand new Lamborghini!

That is great progress man,i like it when people give a detailed step by step progress

report as they go along,it will be interesting to see how this goes,and finally see a solution and out come,and when it restored,put a new pic up of the lights all nice and level i'm waiting with my popcorn lol ...