I bet this is why this FT-101EE wont transmit. At least, I'm pretty sure.

[N3DRB The Derb]

When you put a 20 amp fuse, where teh 5 amp fuse should be in the back panel and smoke comes out the bottom of the radio,

You're a radio dumbass!

Dont let this happen to you! Dont be a radio dumbass.  if the correct size fuse blows, you replace it, and it blows again,
it's trying to tell you something. Listen up instead of putting in a 20 A fuse in the fuse holder.

Blargh. Ack. Bleah. Makes me sick it does.

BIG tnx to teh buddly. We will have it fixed up in no time at all, Bud!  Now we got our pair of Yaesus. 

(Just to clarify, I'm serious. Radios like this are easy to fix. It's the ones that dont show any visuals trails that are tougher to fix.)

Intarweb sometimes does not pass on intended meaning of statements. 

back to work on Jenny Gonset so we can get on and swing instead of doing bench work. Tnx JN for the care package, we got it in good shape. Will be working installing same after I go get 2 new tires on the truck.

[AF9J]

BTW Derb,

Dumb question - did you check for the jumper wire in the VFO/accessory plug in back?  If it isn't there, you'll just have a glorified receiver.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[N3DRB The Derb]

yeah, it's present and accounted for. 

It also has the CW filter, a G3LLL rf speech compressor, and some bad caps. resistors are "tattletales", meaning they usually burn
becuase of some other fault in the radio. Something else makes them burn up, usually bad filters or a shorted coupling cap. That board is the power distribution board for the entire set. It looks worse than it is. It will clean up just fine.  I LOVE radios that have had smokey burnouts because they are almost always easy to fix. Follow your nose.

It's much harder to repair a radio that shows no obvious signs of radio blunt force trauma by Johnny Ham-bone's operator stupidity than a radio like this one that tells a tale of same.
Putting a 20A fuse where a 5A should go qualifies in my mind because the 5A fuse kept doing it's job.   
First thing you do when you get a new patient is LOOK at it. Too many people go off on tangents. 

[AF9J]

Sorry Derb,

It was early in the morning, and didn't bother looking at the photos.  Call it an attack of sleep induced stupidity.  Yep, you're right - wrong fuse.  Boy, is that board cooked.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[N3DRB The Derb]

yeah, but those old boards have copper traces thick as hell.  Even if the board traces are gone I can lay down new ones. That's what I did fer a living before I got sick. SMD repair and board repair. Cant do SMD anymore, you really need 2 good hands,  but I can still lay down new traces. I even got the right size copper sheet.

[WD8BIL]

Good deal Derb. I didn't dig into that radio much at all. So it's pretty much in the condition I received it.

Glad it arrived in basically one piece.
Enjoy.

[AF9J]

yeah, but those old boards have copper traces thick as hell.  Even if the board traces are gone I can lay down new ones. That's what I did fer a living before I got sick. SMD repair and board repair. Cant do SMD anymore, you really need 2 good hands,  but I can still lay down new traces. I even got the right size copper sheet.

Yep, you're right about that Derb.  I did that one time with a Yaesu FT-221 (a 2m all mode rig from the mid-late 70s).  It was non-functioning when I bought it a couple of years ago.  One of the board traces leading from the power plug  was burned through.  But the remaining trace was so thick, a new wire was soldered on to bridge the gap, and the radio worked fine.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[N3DRB The Derb]

For the record, Bud didnt have anything to do with these rigs before he sent em down to me. he just turned em around and pointed them my way, and I'm indebted to him for doing so, same as with everyone else who has helped. ( APEMAN, Frank, JN, HUZ, Buddly) Becuase of that, I feel a responsibility to make sure when they dont work ( and Bud told me beforehand this one did not transmit but he didnt know why) they get repaired to stay repaired. It takes longer but once you get them done they stay done and you dont lose operating time to crapout's.

A major part of the fun of doing bench work is finding teh crapouts.  I like to share the wreckage and blastage, but I went back over my last few posts and I think I'm getting preachy and loudmouthed.  The intent wasn't to 'pile on' the gear that everyone has blessed me with, but just to show how much fun I am having going over it all and showing how far the station has come.

It's also a great morale booster to me to prove to myself that I can do this stuff about as well as I used to.

I thought I would set the record straight to everyone. Forgive if I have come off as anything other than humbled that you would think enough of me to help out as much as you all have. For my part, making sure the gear gets back on the air to stay is holding up my end so we can talk and carry on like old times and have some new times as well.

[WD8BIL]

Ah knew it all along Tim. No offence taken. I'm havin' a blast watching ya. Like a kid at Christmas.

Oh BTW, ain't ham radio jest a lifetime of operating between crapouts ?

[N3DRB The Derb]

Yeah, but I'm not doing my job right if the crapouts happen more than about once a year. 

I swear Bud, I'm having more fun going through this stuff. It feels like I'm back in 1983. I just want to share everything I'm doing, an what I'm doing now is repairing stuff. So you find JS's and crapouts. You fix everything until there's nothing left to fix, and you put it online and rap. I'm impressed with the ft-101's. I wish I had gotten some and went the 101/linear route a long time ago.

My "official" training for the smd and board work I did for a long time is getting in the way. I'm used to having perfection demanded of me as part of my job, or I got a red tag that said 'rejected/rework' from Mr. Inspector and it's hard for me to revert back to "you dont have to look at these solder joints for voids at 50X" standards as part of my bench work.