"Ed G." wrote:

Givem hell, Dean!

On the coils, I've found that heating the coil form (heat gun is best
but solder iron if done carefully ) will sometimes melt the wax on the
coil form allowing the slug to turn.

If not available, I have on occasion drilled a hole in the PC board
bottom of the coil; sometimes getting access for the tool through the
other end of the coil will make the difference.

If you do crack the coil, I assume you know its pretty much worthless
for reliability and proper tuning after that. Worse case, try to dig up
some used coils from other gear and just drill out the old core and
install a new one.

Good luck

Ed WB6SAT

I have put an old Allen wrench into a stuck slug and heated it with a
large soldering iron, then carefully remove the slug by turning the
Allen wrench with a pair of pliers while the slug was warm enough to
melt the wax.

One other thing, some coils are sealed with "Printer's Ink", a water
based ink that chips easily. We used it on all the coils in the PRC-77
radios built by CE.

You have to be careful drilling holes in circuit boards. I have
worked on a lot of RF boards with traces run under coils that will be
destroyed with a drill bit.
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida