Green Wagon Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 (edited) I had no idea what a 'Suckface' was before this. An interesting nickname for an interesting unit. I don't want to give it back. Sounds really, really, nice. New recap record - 122 off the buggers :o Resolder where needed, also did a full resolder of main amp and speaker selector boards New speaker selector switches. New speaker terminals. Reset Bias (was very low 8mv vs the correct 14mv). Reset dc offset, now 0.1mv. Not much chit chat this time sorry. Lots of pics though. Enjoy. Next 2 pics show why its nicknamed a 'suckface. When its turned off the right side of the front panel sits flush with the main dials. Turn it on, and the front panel 'sucks' back to allow access to the dials. Bloody neat idea. The actuator is a motor driven slide with a flywheel loaded spring return when turned off. Front panel doesn't 'snap' back and forth, it slides either way in under 2 seconds. Boards can then be fully removed for servicing. Very nice to work on, all boards can be removed or worked on by removing a few screws then maneuvering that board out. Messy 'lying down' caps made neater by using parts that actually fit the available space. Mmmmmmm yummy flux clean up... Undo 4 screws, front section swings out to allow full access to all the front boards. Yup, Fun was had Old and new speaker terminals. Replacing speaker selector switches. Yum. "Gorilla snot". After two main caps were removed, and after the snot was scraped off and chemically cleaned. I do have a heap more pics, but these should be enough to give you an idea of how much work some units can take. And the awesome results that can be achieved Edited July 2, 2015 by Green Wagon 9
Full Range Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Should I be looking for a suck face ? I like good design
Green Wagon Posted July 2, 2015 Author Posted July 2, 2015 Dunno. thats your choice. It is such a unique design. Apparently the original face servo failed previously and the owner ended up buying another second hand unit (interstate) to repair this one. He also says he has not seen another one that actually has a working 'face'.... I openly admit, I do like the sound from luxmans. So I'm biased. HA, ironic, I've never owned a luxman...............
Full Range Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 May need to give you my Sansui Receiver for a service then
Green Wagon Posted July 2, 2015 Author Posted July 2, 2015 Wait, What, you have something I haven't fixed/worked on ? 1
Green Wagon Posted July 2, 2015 Author Posted July 2, 2015 Ohhhhhhhhhhh I see. Hiding things from the wife for fear of premature castration. :ph34r: Being single I don't have that issue. Mind you that's a win lose sorta situation.. In that case, anything over 10 years needs to be thought about. anything over 15 years needs to be examined. 1
Raffinator Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 Ohhhhhhhhhhh I see. Hiding things from the wife for fear of premature castration. :ph34r: Being single I don't have that issue. Mind you that's a win lose sorta situation.. In that case, anything over 10 years needs to be thought about. anything over 15 years needs to be examined. Are you referring to the amp or to a wife? [emoji6] 1
Mr 57 Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 Loving your work , young man ! Always lusted a Luxman, but likewise , never owned one. Appreciate your sharing of such things
Guest Sime Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 I might need a Yamaha RX-Z9 recapped sometime in the near future.
Batty Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 GW have you worked on a '73 Pioneer SA 500. I'm going to clean one up, any advice would be welcome.
Green Wagon Posted July 3, 2015 Author Posted July 3, 2015 (edited) Are you referring to the amp or to a wife? [emoji6] My run with the opposite sex has not been, good. (Last one was a private nurse that stole her patients medications for her own use) So I'll leave that decision to the individual concerned.. Loving your work , young man ! Always lusted a Luxman, but likewise , never owned one. Appreciate your sharing of such things Thank you. But young I aint. Ohh so old. No worries. I'm as much of an 'internals perv' as the next guy. And some of these older units really do put the new stuff to shame. Not always in sound quality, but just in sheer style or form. Bridget bardot may not be the best looking these days, but hell in her day, Phoooooooooooarrrrrr. I might need a Yamaha RX-Z9 recapped sometime in the near future. Since your in canberra, why not get onto skippy or pete mac. EDIT or Zaphod. Knew I'd forgotten someone. Sorry bout that. Their in your neck o the woods. And all I can say is, don't put it off. Just cause it works today, doesn't mean it isn't getting damaged further. This luxman had one channel intermittent. Caps. purely down to old leaking caps. Edited July 3, 2015 by Green Wagon
Green Wagon Posted July 3, 2015 Author Posted July 3, 2015 (edited) GW have you worked on a '73 Pioneer SA 500. I'm going to clean one up, any advice would be welcome. Nope. But that means very little these days. Best I can suggest is starting a thread for it, maybe in amps or diy ? EDIT - ( I'm just thinking this way you can get far better answers directed at your particular unit for best results ) Do up a list of questions and observations. That way everyone can throw in their thoughts and suggestions. There are some very clever, well learned people here. And I am more than 100% that with all the knowledge we/they/them can walk you through anything that could come up:) The 'crowd' is a force that can fix anything. Edited July 3, 2015 by Green Wagon
automated Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 (edited) Very cool, any chance of a video so that we can see Suckface in action? edit: youtube to the rescue Edited July 3, 2015 by automated 3
Green Wagon Posted July 3, 2015 Author Posted July 3, 2015 Sorry no i didnt think to take video of it. But yes, exactly as the one you linked. Owners dad has just picked it up. And yeah, cool is the word for this beast.
Green Wagon Posted July 3, 2015 Author Posted July 3, 2015 Its a nickname given by the populace due to its unique design where once turned on, it 'Sucks' the face plate back about 2cm to give access to the dials and lower buttons. Have you not been paying attention Go stand in the corner until you learn how to behave
Equaliser Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 lol ok. Those speaker terminals are horrible 80's twist lock styled ones that I can't stand.
Green Wagon Posted July 3, 2015 Author Posted July 3, 2015 Yeah suprisingly, of the few sansuis I've done with that type of terminal, they've all been falling apart. For whatever reason, these were perfect. No signs of cracks at all. Best part for me was the new ones could be assembled onto the back panel without having to make a mounting plate. Looks much neater. But then I did have to unsolder the terminal board and relocate that before running jumper wires between board and new terminals. Thankfully there was a bit of spare room in that back corner.
Green Wagon Posted July 5, 2015 Author Posted July 5, 2015 GW have you worked on a '73 Pioneer SA 500. I'm going to clean one up, any advice would be welcome. Hey Steve, I've replied in your thread (http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/84597-pioneer-sa-500-vintage-gear/#entry1381075 ) with my thoughts on recap etc.. Maybe some others can chime in with their thoughts. I've got the schematic pdf if anyone wants it. Just pm me your email (its just under 4mg).
bobbly_bob Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 Geeny, I was a bit late in getting this guy set up and listening to it... Brilliant! There's a whole new warmth to the amplifier that wasn't there before. It made me realize that in the 10 odd years I've had this guy, putting up with static in the pots and all else I've never heard it as it was originally designed. Excellent work, I couldn't be happier. I took a video of the suckface / servo face working when I originally repaired it about 6 years ago. It's somewhere on the youtube, I'll try and track it down. The problem with them is that they used a small rubber belt in the gear box which inevitably perished after about 20 years (they just don't make things to last!). It's not too difficult to fix them after you know how, but its very rare to find one that's working 1
Green Wagon Posted July 18, 2015 Author Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) Hey John. Thats ok, I get the impression your a rather busy man. I suspect we repairers are a little Narcissistic so your praise is like chocolate coated ice cream to a child I believe that todays caps are far better made than ones of yore, and that accounts for the better sound. Although, all the orange caps in the signal path in yours were leaking so that can't have been doing any favours. I didn't pull the face mech apart so its interesting to hear about the belt. It's disgraceful it only lasted 20 years, I'd be telling luxman to replace it with a new unit. At any rate, I'm glad your happy with it and I see no reason why it won't last long enough to be passed down to the next generation of Scott's EDIT - 'automated' above posted a you tube of the face in action... Edited July 18, 2015 by Green Wagon 1
Dadrepus Posted August 26, 2019 Posted August 26, 2019 Just started to acquire these. I have a 101, 102 and 103. All have various degrees of problems, all have the suck face non functional. I repaired my suck face K101 myself but it really needed little soldering just belts and suck face repair. Done that, yay. but now I want to tackle the r101. since I'm no wiz at this can I ask questions of Green Wagon? I want to disassemble everything as some of the frame has rust on it and would like to sand and repair same. do i just pop off the wires attached to the boards, I see some have clips on the side for easy removal but some don't. Like these: I assume the wires come unattached from the other end but I want to make sure i'm doing this right before I break something permanently. Any advice would be appreciated. See the rust?
pete_mac Posted August 27, 2019 Posted August 27, 2019 13 hours ago, Dadrepus said: since I'm no wiz at this can I ask questions of Green Wagon? Unfortunately Greenie's profile shows that he hasn't logged onto the forum for almost two years now.
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