[Gerry O’Hara]

While restoring a 1930’s Sparton radio chassis I noted that the tuning shaft bearing, which passes through a brass bearing mounted on the front of the tuning gang and has a quadrant-type rack and pinion slow-motion drive to the tuning capacitor gang was worn and felt loose and a bit ‘rattly’ (lower shaft on the photo below).

To fix this I used some Rocol Kilopoise ‘goo’ (very high viscosity lubricant) on the tuning shaft bearing: the bearing is a bit worn and the ‘feel’ of the tuning with just ordinary grease on it was very ‘slack’. Adding some Kilopoise made a huge difference – it both stopped the slight ‘loose bearing rattle’ and gave a nice smooooth ‘inertia’ feel to the tuning. To get the stuff into the bearing I stood the chassis on its back (tuning shaft pointing upwards), draped some Kilopoise around the shaft/bearing area and heated the shaft and Kilopoise up using a heat gun (paint stripper) for a few seconds to make the Kilopoise less viscous so it would gravity-flow into the bearing, turning the shaft at the same time and repeating several times. I then wiped the excess Kilopoise off.

If you want some Kilopoise ‘goo’, try phoning/emailing Rocol and ask for a sample for ‘testing purposes, having seen their website’ – I did and they sent me a small tub of the stuff free. Rocol are based in the UK, but their website is (https://www.rocol.com/lubricants/english … e/damping/), lubricant type is ‘Kilopoise 0868’. It is also great for lubricating IF and RF coil slugs.

Download DSC00132 [1024×768].JPG. (Caution: This file may not be virus scanned.)

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