I've seen that before.. cracked coils and trimmers are the signs
of a twirler,someone with tools but little skills with regard to
rf alignment. was the trimmer accessable before dismantling?

The trimmer is only accessable once you remove the chassis from the cabinet.
It wasn't a matter of somebody destroying it..it didn't need any help. It
just fell apart over the years. I did replace the trimmer, and the alignment
notes stated that an external frequency counter could be used if the radio's
digital display was defective. Of course, the internal display wasn't
defective, but Sony's alignment notes are utterly useless. They tell you to
disable the high frequency PLL.......once you do this, the system goes out
of lock and the internal display shows what appears to be the preset
frequency.
Ok..............I decided to use an external frequency counter. The only
problem here is that the useless service manual doesn't show where to hook
up the counter.
The radio went back to its owner, and a Grundig 3400 was traded to me
instead. I am working on the Grundig unit now. I just got through cleaning
the I.F. bandwidth switch and adjusting the indexing mechanism for the SW
bands.
One thing I can say after comparing the innards to my Grundig
TR-6001.....the mechanical construction of the indexing mechanism on the
TR-6001 is much better than the 3400. Instead of using these leaves sticking
out from each of the band range modules the way it is done on the 3400, the
6001 has either gold plated or brass rivets that make contact with the leaf
springs instead.
A much more reliable radio.......I think that the 6000 series was the best
of their whole model line, although the 3400 was still made in Germany, it
still used ERO polypropolene audio capacitors, and it still used a
Variometer that was mechanically coupled to the main 2-gang tuning capacitor
to add that extra 3rd gand, so it wasn't completely without its good points.
Once I finish it up, I will play with it for awhile, and then trade it off.

Pete