Teardown and (Minor) Repair Vintage Sony ICF-5500W - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: med6753
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2016, 03:45:37 pm
content: Today's subject is a vintage Sony ICF-5500W AM/FM/PSB Receiver in the timeless military type styling. I purchased it new in 1975 from Lafayette Radio (Remember them?) and as I recall it cost nearly $110 USD which at that time was a quite expensive sum to pay for a radio. But it was worth every penny. It has excellent sensitivity, nice audio, and is built like a tank. It once survived a fall to the floor from a full size refrigerator and the only damage was a broken antenna. I have the original owner's manual but I've never been able to find a service manual. In the 1980's I wrote Sony asking about a service manual and their response was it was no longer supported. Does anyone know of a source of service manuals? Multiple searches on the net haven't yielded anything.So why the teardown? The band switch has gotten noisy and intermittent and the only way to get to it is a complete teardown. I'm sure a few spritz of de-oxit will fix it.First step was to remove all the knobs. Remove the 4 screws on the back panel and it can be removed.Back panel removed revealing the foil side of the circuit board.Front side. It is one crowded board. It would be extremely difficult to work on without a service manual.Close up of the board. The band switch assembly is the white unit right below the S meter. It also has an additional lever to another switch just to the left of the meter. Both areas got a shot of de-oxit.The de-oxit fixed it. Reassembled and it's playing great as usual. Thanks for looking.

author: FrankE
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2016, 08:09:10 pm
content: It's on Electrotanya. I haven't checked it's a valid file, I've DLrd 2 today and can't log in as I don't understand the Magyar.I found your thread looking for info here on other ICF models, I'm struggling to ID parts for.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2016, 08:21:39 pm
content: Made in the time Sony did good stuff. Later models had capacitor problems, and they all died an early death.

author: med6753
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2016, 01:30:20 am
content: Quote from: FrankE on March 28, 2016, 08:09:10 pmThanks for the info. I checked that site and no joy. It's not listed.

author: FrankE
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2016, 01:35:13 am
content: Quote from: med6753 on March 29, 2016, 01:30:20 amSorry, I looked again and it was the 5500M.

author: theelegantman
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 12, 2017, 05:20:40 pm
content: Any ideas where I can get replacement antenna for these? Thanks

author: med6753
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2017, 05:03:45 am
content: Quote from: theelegantman on March 12, 2017, 05:20:40 pmThere's one on E-bay right now and they ship world wide....http://www.ebay.com/itm/Telescopic-Antenna-for-SONY-ICF-5500W-Receiver-/302250270407?hash=item465f851ec7:g:f28AAOSwzgBYxZI7You could adapt a universal telescoping antenna but chances are it won't fully retract into the radio.

author: Saw56
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 26, 2019, 12:33:15 am
content: Hi thereThanks for the tips....I have the same problems here.No I cannot get the assembly back together into the front half of the case...seems to be bad speaker alignment....do you have any pics of how the speaker should be aligned regarding the wiring tab?Thanks in advanceRegardsSteve