Colin and Don,

Thank you for your suggestions, however in my case I don't think they
will apply...

Unfortunately, a grid dipper is one item I do not own, so I am flying
blindly in that respect. To determine the oscillator frequency, I have
been tuning an Icom IC745 455 kHz above the target frequency and
listening for the S 20R's oscillator. As for your otber suggestions:
1. I have not been able to find any undocumented fixed caps in the
circuit. (Unless one was hidden inside the coil.....)
2. I checked the padder with a capacitor checker and it seemed to
adjust OK.
3. The coils on this receiver, unlike those on an S-40, are not
adjustable.
4. The coil does not "appear" to have been molested
5. Since there are no slugs, and no place for slugs, that wouldn't be
the case.

Since the other bands line up fine, I think the procedure I am
following should be OK.

I can't imagine something like that having slipped through from the
factory, but I suppose anything is possible...fortunatly I do have a
junker set to get the coil from, I just wanted to see if there was
anything I overlooked before removing the whole oscillator coil
sub-assemblies (probably would swap the entire units rather than take
them apart to replace one coil....)