Recently grabbed a Conion C-100f

[icemanxp300]

Hi, new here and just joined to see if I can get some helpful pointers.

First off let me say I know very little on Boomboxes. I have a sony xplod that is sweet and I take it to drive-ins with me. Set an air mattress on the ground and blast the Xplod behind me for an awesome experience. With that said last week I seen a facebook ad for this boombox. I messaged him and asked if it all worked including the tape decks. He replied it all worked and he wanted $250. I offered $200 and he agreed.

He wanted me to meet him at a Grocery store, I needed to test it so he gave me his address. I got there and all of the sudden one of the top led light bars (left one) did not work. Then the bottom tray did not push in and stay. Then I opened the battery cover to find corroded batteries in the back. Then to top it off I couldn't even eject the tape deck and pressing play does not even turn the spindles. I ended up telling the guy I would give him $60 and he said $70 so I bit. I'm not real experienced in these but based off ebay sales I think I made a good buy.

On a bright side the stereo and speakers work amazing. The stereo goes to level 100 but I have yet to take it to level 10, just getting at 8 is insanely loud.

I have been researching a bit on restoring these and I found one video of a guy using a SBM 10.0 belt for one of the tape decks. Which I believe to be from this site below.
https://www.studioso...s.com/belts.htm

I imagine when I open this thing it will need some major cleaning. What do you guys suggest for cleaning the pcb and such?

I am as well considering doing a full swap on all capacitors. While most of the casing appears to be plastic there is quite a bit of chrome I will have to see if I can shine that up.

Any advise on this would be greatly appreciated. I have already been reading through lots of threads on this site and will def. be taping the wires and numbering them. I have not taken anything apart yet. Is there anything I should be careful on that is easy to break?

It looks to be mainly in good condition, except maybe a piece of trim on the bottom tray is missing? My main goal to begin with will be fixing the known problems above.

Thanks in advance.



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[T-STER]

Oh damn a 70 dollar C100!

 

[Northerner]

Wow that is a major major bargain, well done. Fairly typical that they’re described as fully working and turn out not to be! But everything in this is fixable! Excellent stuff

 

[caution]

You'd be lucky to get one in that condition these days for five times that much, you scored bigtime! These are not beginner's boxes, so be prepared for it to take time, it won't be just a day or two. Don't use anything on the boards other than some compressed air, you don't want to introduce liquids on any of them.

The lower deck uses SBS 8.9 for the counter and reel belts. The Flywheel belt is FBM 9.6. The upper deck uses a single SBS 10.0 belt.

I have some lower tray trim available but they need to be bent, I might be able to do that for you. Info for the recap I did and other repairs are here, a chassis wiring diagram I drew is here and the schematic is here. I'm restoring a second right now, got the lower deck apart, so holler if you want any pics of the inside. This is one of the most worked-on boxes out there so you'll have no shortage of help here!

 

[icemanxp300]

Thanks guys. Yeah Caution I actually read that entire thread you did before I even joined here. I must say you did an awesome job and reading that thread you were making me want to do that all that to mine lol. As far as the PCB goes you don't think cleaning it w/iso alcohol and q-tips/rag is a good idea? I actually bookmarked that link when I first read it because of the capacitor list you posted

I'll def. be taking pictures when I do open it up. Thinking I will likely get working on this soon. I want to order the belts first and maybe the caps. I do see behind the tray what looks like it could be the spring for it, I'm hoping plastic isn't cracked inside. I might have to take you up on the trim as I doubt I will be able to find it anywhere else. Looks like they just glued it on.

 

[mar(k)]

.

 

[caution]

Thanks brother, I appreciate the kind words! Yeah as long as you don't spray/drench the board in solvent you'll avoid dissolving the flux all over the back (nice to have there for rework) and also the grease in the switches and pots. Some still might if you clean them with a contact cleaner spray, versus the manual method of pulling them apart. The guide pin on the back of the tray might have snapped off, that's very common.

 

[Transistorized]

Congratulations on your great find!

And just for the record....it is possible to replace all the belts without removing the chassis....it's just a PITA

 

[icemanxp300]

I need to do more than just replace the belts. Are the speakers suppose to light up? Right now not much lights up at all. The right LED bar, the top tuner area, and the small cassette lights up. When I hit the power button it doesn't shut off the radio?

I tell you after seeing all the caps listed I'm not as gung ho on sourcing them all and then replacing them all. This looks like a major job I don't have the time for right now. Lights, belts, caps, tray, battery corrosion. This will likely sit around for awhile before I even begin to get to it. I have too many other projects to do first. Once I start this I will want to finish it. This does not seem like something I want sitting apart for a few months,

 

[caution]

You don't have to replace them all, you really only need to focus on those that lie in the audio path. It might take a little time finding them on the schematic, but would probably save you a lot of soldering time and money spent on caps.

The only lights you missed are the ones next to the alarm and power buttons, and the tape run display for the lower deck. The speakers don't light up.

A quick and dirty way of cleaning the battery contacts is to just use some sandpaper. For the hard-to-reach ones back in there you can attach some sandpaper to the butt end of a long screwdriver or some sort of thing like that and twist it against the very tip of the coil.

To do a deep clean, you need to remove the battery contacts and soak them. I use apple cider vinegar, but you could also use CLR or similar, but those bathroom cleaners contain phosphorous, which leaves behind a black coating that protects from rust. It's not conductive, so it will have to be sandpapered off where the batteries will touch them.

The black plate inside the rear cabinet that covers the hard-to-reach contacts will have to be removed. It's attached with little plastic posts that were melted down into a sort of rivet head, so you will have to glue it back into place. I wanted to maintain the stock look so I rebuilt the posts and re-melted them, but this isn't necessary. It can be tricky working that pair of contacts out of the slot they've been pushed down into, but just takes patience.

 

[harry.stone1111]

Wow! That's an awesome find! Congratulations. I'll give you $80 for it. That's an easy $10 profit!

 

[icemanxp300]

Wow! That's an awesome find! Congratulations. I'll give you $80 for it. That's an easy $10 profit!

lol not when you consider I spent an hour getting it and gas. I am pondering selling it as it takes up a lot of room and I don't really feel like fixing it. I imaging this thing will cost an easy $50-$100 to ship it properly so that would likely kill my ambition to sell it anyhow.

 

[Northerner]

Yeh that’s what they cost to ship. Doesn’t stop us buying them tho lol

 

[nmboombox]

anyone know where to get the aluminum trim for a spare tape holder? mine is missing

 

[docs]

caution on this forum makes them.

 

[Transistorized]

The trim that Caution makes are awesome because the lettering will not wear off. Also, I believe he has the clings for the cassette door.......heck.....he makes the entire door, feet and miscellaneous parts for a bunch of boxes! He's a genius