Another Sharp vertical HiFi in for repair, this one in very clean condition. According to it’s owner it had been bought new 36 years ago and then been stored behind a sofa for many years. All the belts needed replacing, the turntable belt was almost in a liquid state and had to be peeled from the platter, all the others…three on the tape deck and one on the door mechanism had lost their elasticity. New styli were fitted and it was reassembled for testing, the turntable was fine, as was the radio, but when it came to the tape deck everything seemed good for five minutes but then the volume dropped sharply. Investigation showed this to be a problem with the record / playback switch, a multi pin sliding switch used to direct the audio signal during playback or recording. Impossible to get switch cleaner in to it, the only options are to replace it (fine in the 1980’s but not possible now), or strip it and clean the contacts, not easy but the only option. The switch has 30 pins with 10 sliding contacts, these were removed from the body of the switch and soaked in switch cleaner, the pins were then deoxidised using a very fine emery paper and more switch cleaner. Reassembly produced perfect playback, a fiddly and nerve wracking job but very satisfying when it all worked.