Ranger VFO giving grief.

[KC2TAU]

I noticed recently that the kicker cam on my Ranger was out of alignment as it was impossible to change from 80 to 40m as I felt stiff physical resistance on the bandswitch knob when I attempted to change bands to 40m. I went to reset the kicker switch and now something is up.

- VFO does not switch bands no matter what position the band switch is in.
- While in TUNE mode if I zero beat to the carrier and move the VFO switch from VFO to ZERO the beat note remains.
- The VFO only changes frequency when the kicker switch is physically moved. One would expect that if one was zero beat    on,say,7200kc with the bandswitch on 40 meters if one was to move the bandswitch to 20 meters the beat note would disappear. This is not the case.
- Very low grid current on 160m and 80m.
- The grid current used to change as you changed bands,which is to be expected,but now grid current does not change as I rotate the bandswitch knob. The only time it changes is when the kicker switch is moved.
- The VFO itself tunes just fine and I can find a carrier on any band.

The kicker moves when changing between 80 and 40 and from between 10 and 11 as it should.

Let me know if you have any ideas,I'm stumped here. The Ranger assembly manual details the assembly of it but is it worded in a rather confusing fashion. On my Ranger if "up" is toward the 5R4 rectifier and "down" is towards the modulator tubes then when the bandswitch is set to 80/160m the kicker is "down",when the bandswitch is on 40-10m it is in the middle and when it is on 11m it is in the "up" position.

[KC2TAU]

Just to give an update of what I've found so far.

I'm pretty sure I have the VFO switch set correct as it is in the middle position of the three for 40m-10m. I have plenty of grid current on this switch setting as well as the one for 11m. When the switch is in the position for 160-80m position which is the "down" position(i.e closest to the modulator tubes)I have very little grid drive.

It still seems like the band switch is doing precious little besides actuating the VFO switch. As I mentioned before when I would switch bands and note the grid current it would change as I changed bands but now switching bands within the confines of a VFO switch position does not change the grid drive. I have observed the shaft that is attached to the band switch and it is connected to wiper arm that rotates around in front of SW3A. A shaft extends from the end of this shaft to SW3B. I noticed that the shaft that connects to SW3B rotates. Is this supposed to rotate as well when the band switch is moved?

In summary the VFO switch works fine but I think that no band switching is occurring. As I mentioned before I can hear a carrier on each band(not very loud,though)but if I'm on 20 meters and listening to the carrier and switch to 40m the carrier does not disappear.

[KC2TAU]

I believe I found the problem. The band switch shaft that leads to SW3A is connected to another shaft that leads to SW3B. This second shaft has a tab on it that slides into a slot on SW3A. This tab has broken off of the second shaft so when I was turning the band switch nothing was actually happening!

Does anyone have a spare Ranger band switch shaft(the one with the tab on the end)that they wouldn't mind parting with?

[flintstone mop]

I thought there might be some hope on YOUTUBE to show the mechanical. But I was not successful.
It should not be hard to see what is turning and what is not turning with the band switch knob up front.

But now the rig is out of mechanical alignment.

Fred

[KC2TAU]

The shaft that connects from SW3A to SW3B,the one with the tab on the end,is the one that has broken. This shaft runs from the middle of the chassis to the rear where the final tank coil and the 6146 reside. I'm attempting to see if adhesives can help cure this problem. I have studied the schematic and carefully realigned this shaft to the first one to make sure the rig is aligned mechanically. Ideally if anyone has both band switch shafts for a Ranger I would appreciate it if they would contact me.

[w5omr]

The shaft that connects from SW3A to SW3B,the one with the tab on the end,is the one that has broken. This shaft runs from the middle of the chassis to the rear where the final tank coil and the 6146 reside. I'm attempting to see if adhesives can help cure this problem. I have studied the schematic and carefully realigned this shaft to the first one to make sure the rig is aligned mechanically. Ideally if anyone has both band switch shafts for a Ranger I would appreciate if they would contact me.

Failing finding a replacement shaft, Loctite 2-part epoxy is said to harden almost as hard as glass.

[KC2TAU]

The shaft that connects from SW3A to SW3B,the one with the tab on the end,is the one that has broken. This shaft runs from the middle of the chassis to the rear where the final tank coil and the 6146 reside. I'm attempting to see if adhesives can help cure this problem. I have studied the schematic and carefully realigned this shaft to the first one to make sure the rig is aligned mechanically. Ideally if anyone has both band switch shafts for a Ranger I would appreciate if they would contact me.

Failing finding a replacement shaft, Loctite 2-part epoxy is said to harden almost as hard as glass.

Noted,thanks for the suggestion. There are so many adhesives out there it can get a bit ridiculous. I just plugged the Ranger in after realigning the band switch wafers by following what the diagram in the schematic. The schematic shows the wafers set up for 160m so I set the band switch to 160m and then matched my wafers to the schematic diagram. and I breathed a massive sigh of relief as I saw the grid current rise up to where it should be on 80 and 160m.

I'll let the adhesive I used set overnight and then we'll see how well it holds up over time.