Delco Wonderbar Mystery

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by philcophan

I could be full of it, since I haven't touched a Wonderbar for at least 40 years, BUT, if I recall, the return was by a solenoid and the drive was provided by a spring. (You do need a decent power source to activate the solenoid, if I recall) Cleaning and sparse lubrication may do it, but don't over do it as lube tends to collect scuz....

Jim

Well, that was it!, Thanks Greg - a few drops of oil on the worm drive and holding the radio in a way it runs into the motor did the trick. I also assumed these units function as if there is a hold-in contact and the bar is pressed only momentarily, but that is not the case. You need to press and hold the "wonder bar" UNTIL it advances to the next strong station, last night it was consistently stopping right at KYW 1060 and 2-3 others.

That motor is pretty small but draws about 3.2 amps when initial power is applied and drops to 0.5 amps when advancing the tuner, which it does now. That taxes my bench supply and voltage drops to 6 upon starting the motor, but it does work now.

I can see how useful this function was; All the presets are normally set for your area, then you take a road trip and have to twist the knob. How much better it was just to push a bar in and have it stop pretty close, if not spot-on, to the next powerful station. Pretty helpful in the days when distracted driving was to be avoided