Hello everybody !

This silver is my new find

Unfortunately its condition is not so good as it looks

At the pics you can see it at my technicians table.

Now the problem with it is that

the radio receives 5 bands and the '' thing''

at the pics below the Boombox

is not working at all and

the radio doesnt receive anything at all

because of this.

The techncian said he needs a ''capacitor''

like this one to make it work on all bands and

not only on 4 or 3 or 2 bands.

What i m asking is a piece of advice on where to look for

a part like the one pictured to receive all 5 bands for the radio

Or is someone has one like this i can buy it so that i can

bring this Silver bbox back to its previous glory !!

it's not all silver all that glitters then...  just joking, this is a beauty even in non-working conditions. vertical VUs, omg! let's cross fingers & hope that some technician here is capable to find the capacitors you need 

nice find deech i have a minty one love it good luck finding the tuner part 

Always liked the look of these deech... as del says good luck finding the tuner

thank you Deli,RR,Sal for your nice words

I was wondering how can i search for this part?

What is it called?

Excuse my ignorance about it but i really dont

know where to search.

All i know is what the tech said

about the 5 bands.

they are bigger than the photos portray,seen Dels great boxes.

the Silver brand are a dark horse imo

Iss this part difficult to find??

Key bunch of words...  variable air capacitor 

Found this close to your's

SHARP Dual Air Variable Capacitors 2 x 340 pF + 4 x trimmer NOS

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SHARP-Dual-Air-Variable-Capacitors-2-x-340-pF-4-x-trimmer-NOS-/151007245150?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item2328bbb35e

SHARP Dual Air Variable Capacitors 2 x 340 pF  + 4 x trimmer NOS

I cant understand a word except the capacitor

let alone air capacitor pF 340 ??? 4xtrimmer?

but i ll give it a try . its 10 dollars

Thank you traveler i knew you could help !

pf = picofarad (pF)

read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farad

Variable air capacitor's:  as a rule dont really go bad, either they get dirty (a speck of dust) can ruin the ability of the air capacitor to 'hold a capacitance'  and or physical damage thus allowing the plus and minus side's to touch ( and short out together) & therefore ruining the variable air capacitor.

     There are other factor's in why the radio wont tune and whatever circuit is feeding the variable air capacitor you have, there may have a issue.     

     Me I would find a better technician to find other parts of the radio circuitry that may be bad first, before attempting to replace this part.

Thank you for the advice traveler,i understand clearly what you say

though i promised to find him the part he needs for it

so i will buy this from ebay and if it wont get fixed

i ll have to see what should be done !!

You think other parts of the board are bad for not tuning??

(if yes what might be that?)

Is it common for boxes to have 5 band tuners?

(from my experience so far i ve only seen boxes to get until 4 bands)

i m asking this because he explained to me that

he can replace it with another capacitor but it wont get to the FM range

(actually he doent want to replace it but he was generally speaking to me

about the problem)

I m a bit confused here

Basically Cap's have these issue's ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor

Capacitor's -

Read down to ( Non-ideal behavior, Leakage, Electrolytic failure from disuse )

 A bad cap in circuit will affect other part's of the circuit & in older

ANY Electronic equipment is prone to this type of failure...

dont be confused ... Educate yourself  

So you think it might be a bad capacitor?

Is it something non fixable??

That is my main concern if its something

that can be fixed or not!

What in this boombox is non-fixable, this is not the question....

     Real Question is:   

How much are you in LOVE with this particular boombox & 

Since you ARE in LOVE with this boombox 'Money' is of NO Issue when it come's to getting it repaired back to it's like New operating condition

Just repeat to yourself:  This can be fixed at any cost !

     and You are just the person to do so for this particular box

This can be fixed at any cost !

This can be fixed at any cost ! This can be fixed at any cost !

This can be fixed at any cost !

hhehehe !

I will surely going to fix it,

well not me but someone else

but thats not the point !

This can be fixed at any cost !

This can be fixed at any cost ! This can be fixed at any cost !

I've Created a monster boombox repair'er Slogan

Brainwashed !

Boombox Propaganda !

Your're in good Company

So have you fixed it?

I am curious why he removed that part if he wasn't sure it's the bad part.

Also, even if it IS the problem, replacing it with a non-original part would probably mess up the tuning alignment.

Reli you are right.

If you replace it with another

capacitor it would mess with the radio bands.

Since then the old ST-868 is now fixed and

fully working.Never really asked the tech what the

previous owner done with the capacitor.

Its a shame i havent heard of it the last 2 months though.

Among with the ST-858 are the best radio receivers

from the boomboxes i had. You can tune in from

FW-MW-SW1-SW2-SW3 !

How did he fix it?  Did he align it?

I have one too that needs aligning.

Aligning that thing without proper tools is a pain. I do it sometimes, it works... But I have no idea what I'm doing 

Reli i havent got a clue on what the tech might have done and fix it !!

Sorry for my ignorance but i didnt ask him too.

I do plastic repairs and I will do speaker swaps but the only time I tried a component repair I ended up with smoke coming from it so I don't do that any more. Chris (Deliverance) would kill me if i tried that again!

All hail the masterful technical people.

Unusual for a tuning cap to fail.....I have never had that one before.....

Problem is, it's a multiband double stacked type of varicap you need & finding one now could be difficult - Is it definite that this is the component that has failed?

I would get a second opinion seriously.