Restoring my Telefunken Opus 7 - some pointers welcome

[Josef]

Hello!

Originally Posted by radix39

Alright, I took some time today to finally
...I also came across a large black can. I assumed that it was the filter capacitor, but after undoing the hinges so I could turn it around and read the specs, it seems to be something else - a rectifier?
...

Yes, you are right-this is a rectifier. I'm going to translate the words printed on the can:
Gleichrichter> rectifier
Blau> blue
Rot> red
In this radio it is also not usefull to replace all the caps. The smaller valued silver coloured caps are usually very reliable. Only replace the black caps.
The EL 84 is a very common and extremely reliable tube. It is used in my daily player and it works well since decades
Greetings Josef

[radix39]

Wow its been a while since i've been in this thread. I thought I would just update all of you.

I finally got around to picking up the caps I needed for this project. I worked on it last night. I replaced 1-2 caps at a time and then plugged it in to make sure I didn't screw something up. So far so good. I replaced the filter caps on the top of the chassis as well as an electrolytic and some other paper caps next to the speaker output terminals. The sound so far is much improved! The constant hum is gone and the overall volume is much, MUCH louder. There is actually some decent bass response now. I can also now hear the tweeters working - something I couldn't hear before even with my ears right up to them.

The "farty" sound on FM when warmed up is still slightly there but I still have a good amount of caps to change still. I did have a couple of questions though.

1.) I was unable to find one electrolytic cap in the proper value, but I did find the proper value in non-electrolytic cap. Is it ok to substitute a non-electrolytic in its place?

2.) One of the EL84 tubes seems to be running very hot. Its the one closest to the rear of the unit by the AC line cord. The other one runs no where near as hot. If I switch them around, the heat remains coming out of the same socket, so its not related to that specific tube. Is this normal? The other tubes doesn't seem to generate anywhere close to that amount of heat.

3.) For the 2 50uf caps in the can, I assume that the negatives go to the ground (chassis) and the positives go to their respective leads?