Grundig 3400 Satellit 1979

Grundig 'Satlellit' 3400 all band/FM radio 1979-82. This is a battleship of a radio nearly 2 foot wide and weighing-in at 8.9 kg. Sound quality is stunning though. The dial lights moves as you change the bands, FM at top MW, LW  & SW's 1+2 in middle and SW 4-10 on a drum rotatable selection below. Digital read out or analogue tune, signal strength meter and digital clock. Nice touches are bass and treble controls, Manual/automatic signal strength control, upper and lower sideband switches and a bandwidth control, plus a whistle switch and pot.  2 function knobs had broke off and band width switch was causing SW to be dead.Great care is needed dismantle this switch if spray doesn't work, finding a replacement is not an option.

The 16 pin + 4 earth fixings 3 position switch was carefully removed and photographed so the movable contacts could be refitted in the center switch position when cleaned. I used wire wool to clean them as they were black in places.

The outside contacts very darkened, I took care to remove lose bits of wire wool with a tooth brush after the clean and added oil to protect. The metal housing or body is held in place by bending metal in the cut-outs of the circuit board.

The front control panel comes out easily with 4 fixing screws on the outer edge of the plastic frame. Just the round knobs need to be removed along with the turret knob at the side of the set to release the panel. I suggest you leave the speaker attached as it has umpteen wires attached, just curl to front clockwise on the bench, make sure you have a rubber table mat to protect everything. Removal of the meter panel is necessary and a little tricky.  Pull off the right plug from it socket and release 3 plastic spring clips with a small screwdriver and at the same time used a 3rd hand, lol, a larger screwdriver is needed underneath the panel to pull-up the two plugs on the left side. Re-fitting is not so bad as locating posts have been fitted th position the panel correct for re-fit.

I made a rocker knob for the broken light switch (original lost) by using a plastic digital styli pencil and cutting it to size (paint silver later if you wish). I set it into a nice pool of clear Araldite epoxy 2 part resin  glue and held it in place with a rubber belt over night, making sure the the glue built a support all around the base, remove excess quickly as this glue goes hard in a few minutes. While drying overnight I kept it in the upright position. This was done with another silver one that broke off during the repair process, they are quite weak after nearly 40 years off stress. 

The other problem I had with SW's 4-10 was intermittent reception while rotating the drum tuner. Other symptoms of this trouble are high read-outs on the digital display as it also gets no signals. If you remove the screening can and clip on band windows you can get at the terminals to clean them, also check the touch contacts have a nice spring action and don't get in the way of the rotating drum. if not carefully bend back into row with the other copper connectors. If one is missing you will need to make a replacement and that's a trickier job.