[Heath] AR-3 issues

[Fred]

I had this problem with an AR-2. At first I thought it was supposed to be 1:1. I removed the tuning cap and soaked the shaft with Liquid Wrench. It took a lot of working it free by hand but it works smoothly now. It’s a planetary drive with three small ball bearings. There’s no way I  see  to  disassemble it without destroying it.
Unfortunately, I need the vernier dial for my AR-3 also. I have the brass shaft bushing but the plastic disc is cracked in half. I hope to try and fashion one.

Fred
WA3KIO

Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 19, 2018, at 1:05 PM, Kenneth G. Gordon <kgordon2006 at frontier.com> wrote:
> 
> I want to restore at least one of the two AR-3s I have here since my very first Novice 
> receiver in 1956 was an AR-3. I couldn't afford a cabinet for it.
> 
> Previous to that, I had worked all summer for my step-father's construction company to buy 
> a DX-35, which I used subsequently for many years.
> 
> The BFO in my first AR-3 never worked and due, at least partially, to that problem, I made 
> exactly two contacts my entire Novice year, one of which was a local about 2 miles away.
> 
> I subsequently studied hard and passed my Conditional Class license test the next year, 
> 1957, at which time a sub-contractor for my step-father's general construction company 
> gave me a Hallicrafters S-41G which he had found abandoned in the basement of the home 
> he had recently bought. At least the BFO in that thing worked.
> 
> I made many contacts with that almost-useless piece of junk receiver. Subsequent to that, 
> my Mother took pity on me and bought a BC-348 for me. Then I was in heaven.
> 
> Now, I want to restore an AR-3 mainly to see just how bad it really was/is when it is working 
> at "peak efficiency".
> 
> The main problem I am having with BOTH of these two AR-3s is that although the 
> main-tuning capacitor in the AR-3 normally has a built-in 5:1 vernier, BOTH of mine are 
> frozen solid and are now a simple 1:1 dial.
> 
> I propose to remove the capacitors and soak them in a jar filled to the brim with PB-Blaster 
> in hopes that the stuff will soak down into the mechanism and loosen at least one of them 
> up. 
> 
> But, does anyone here have anything which might work better to do this?
> 
> Ken W7EKB
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