I do know for a fact that the delay line was roughly handled when I got the set, I'm not sure if it was really damaged or not, but it was NOT treated well at all, left hanging loose with only the IF end connected, I wish I had pictures of it, it took me quite a while to work out where all the loose wires to the color PCB went.
however, L13 was damaged, ceramic broken on the leads, more than ½ way, but still had continuity, so I assumed it to be OK and suck silicone on it and put it back in.
This may be a source of a problem, no idea,
but as luck would have it, I have just found an exact replacement for it, and will come who knows when :/
Another possible problem. however I doubt it, that when I put it together, I had no real visual reference on HOW to do it, unlike I do now.
example, how it's done in the GE RCA clone,
https://i.imgur.com/FxjBWaj.jpg
you can clearly see the heavy wire going down that is grounding the delay line, in my CTC-16, that was GONE! all that was there was the grounding solder point on the DL, and since I was unsure where to ground it to, i used a piece of wire ( not as thick as seen in the pic ) that runs to a ground point to the ends on the color PCB.
I doubt that this is a problem, but who knows
Is the DL damaged , no way to tell w/o getting it out and looking at it under a scope :/
there has to be some way to find a cross for it, if it is.
As for the peaking coils, some of those oddball sizes will be hard to find.
I got lucky with L13 (72 uh ) who knows, may get lucky again!
