Friday, December 9, 2011

Second Sansui G-8000 recap!

I got another G-8000 as a project for me, it will eventually go to a friend as sort of a Christmas present. I wanted to document this in detail since I didn't with the last one. Problems are a cut power cord and broken bass pot along with a dinged faceplate, and because of the cut cord it was unable to be tested, so anything could be wrong with it. I got it in a huge box, a 35x25x20 500lb test double wall, packed with so much foam and bubble wrap it could have been run over with a train and it would have not had a scratch or ding on it. Alas, I was so excited to open it I forgot to take photos, but let it be said that it was some of the most extreme packing I've ever seen. 

I replaced the power cord and fired it up on the DBT, or dim-bulb tester and to my surprise everything seemed to work, the bulb went dim and the protection relay clicked. Took it off the DBT and went to full line power and it was fine, the DC-offset and bias was near perfect after a 10 minute warmup. Yeah baby!

Here are some before photos, it was amazing clean inside, a little dust but not much. Faceplate and knobs have been set aside for now, I'll show those later after I get it put back together.


Beefy interior!




Some before shots of the boards:

Tuner section, I will not be recapping this board as it seems that it's in perfect alignment.


Tuner power supply (yes, it has a separate power supply for the tuner!)


Phono amp board, those four orange caps go in the center and the two blue ones go where C13 and 14 are near the bottom, and the bi-polar cap was were the green cap is now. I started this board forgetting to take a before photo and then it hit me, I need to take one! Duh!


Tone/flat amp board


Driver amp board I did forget to take a before photo of, I've got to quit that!

Left channel power supply board


Right channel power supply board


Main power supply/protection board


And after the recap! Caps used are Panasonic FC for the preamp sections, Nichicon PW for the power supply boards and driver amps with the exception of the right channel power supply, I used Panasonic THA snap in caps for that one. Nichicon KL was used for the orange low noise caps, Nichicon ES and VP for the bi-polar caps and Panasonic ECQ film caps for anything under 1uF.

Tuner power supply


Phono amp board


Tone/flat amp board


Driver amp board (both of them look like this on)



Left channel power supply board, pin connectors were also cleaned.


Right channel power supply board, pin connectors were also cleaned.


Main power supply/protection board, relays and pin connectors were also cleaned.


Some interior shots after cleaning it up, though there wasn't much needing cleaned.





And it's now back together!




The bass pot I have rigged a temporary fitting for until I can find a new pot.

The G-8000 will remain one of my favorite receivers of all time, both in looks and sound. Paired with good speakers and recapped, this thing is a very clean, crisp sounding receiver with a clear powerful sound, it will literally make speakers come alive, both at high and low volume. Words can't accurately describe how it sounds, it's something that you have to hear for yourself to appreciate what it can do.

Here is a shot of both G-8000's together. Mine is on top and the new one is on the bottom.


4 comments:

  1. Matt,

    The G-8000 looks fantastic. I just took my G-8000 that I purchsed (mail order Navy Catalog)on Johnston Island in 1978 out of the basement and hooked it up. Stillworks,cleaned it up. I have a slight hum in the speakers. I guess it might to be recapped. Would you by any chance have a list of all the capacitors needed and a good source of where to get them?
    Thanks!
    Tony retcwo2006@gmail.com

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  2. Hey! Nice work on this G-8000. I’m almost finished with recapping one. I had a few hiccups but I started with no sound, then only one side working, but now it sounds great! Thanks for taking the time to publish this! Ted

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  3. Hey! Nice work on this G-8000. I’m almost finished with recapping one. I had a few hiccups but I started with no sound, then only one side working, but now it sounds great! Thanks for taking the time to publish this! Ted

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice job Matt. I bought the g8000 in 1979 and now it won't power up with protection light blinking continuously. What might be the malfunction? Thanks .

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