FRS radio repair

[KI5EDJ]

Good evening. I'll start with a couple of acknowledgements. First, I'm aware that modifying an FRS radio in any way may result in it not being able to legally transmit anymore. Second, I'm also aware that this radio is not worth fixing from a financial standpoint.
That said, if I'm able to troubleshoot it accurately, I can probably learn something.
I have a "Motorola" EM1000 GMRS radio built by some company called Giant back in 2010. It's a one owner radio that, over it's life, was subject to extreme heat and abuse daily. I often charged it via USB in my truck in the Oklahoma summer heat.
Actually I had *four* of those. One vanished and the other two work fine. Of those, one suffered the same abuse. The last one was barely used at all. It works but I had to re glue the rubber antenna cover to the body.
Anyway, what I think happened here is that several capacitors burst inside this radio. It receives just fine but transmits about ten feet. I haven't tried to transmit anything with it in over a decade but I have used the weather receiver.
There is brown goo running out of a couple of caps and it's stuck several of them together near the antenna. The forums don't like my photo, file size too large so we don't see the big picture here.

 

[mmckenna]

That brown goo may be the electrolyte out of the capacitors. It'll eat the circuit board traces.

Giant makes most of the Motorola branded FRS and GMRS radios, and has for a long time.
But, still, they managed to carry on the long standing tradition of Motorola and their leaky capacitor trick….

You could try going through and replacing all the caps, but like I said, there may be permanent damage to the traces and/or other components.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Holy cow. You are up for a challenge! I can't imagine what kind of abuse apart from excess voltage would cause capacitors to burst in an FRS radio. Getting a schematic will be impossible.. You could just replace those bad parts with new and hope for the best. But if electrolyte got on the PCB the circuits could be forked up and you will waste your time.

I still have three ICOM IC4008A from way back in time. They get used only on vacations. Work great, use AA Batteries and work for days. None of the plastic or rubber has failed. Really not sure what radio I would replace them with.

My daily use radios are Motorola Systems Saber radios. Indestructible.

 

[morrisr3nd]

Electrolytics tend to fail after about 10-15 years when their insulation starts breaking down. Back in the day, I would replace hundreds of caps due to old age and the "possibility" of failure. Trace damage can be easily repaired with a little wire to make the junction once the coating is scraped back. Just my .02.

 

[GROL]

I wouldn't touch it with a 10 meter cattle prod, but hey if you can replace the caps maybe get lucky, but... good chance electrolyte etched the circuit traces off the board. Many circuit boards these days are multi layer and hard to repair traces with point to point wire, and without a schematic impossible to figure out. And you will have to wash that circuit board well to get the electrolyte off of it.

I once tried to repair a handheld VHF marine radio that received and would not transmit farther than across the room. It got salt water inside and even with a schematic could not fix the circuit board.

 

[KI5EDJ]

I managed to lose part of the thing and finish off the battery door getting it apart.
I recapped a few Sega Game Gears a while back. I'm not sure why they killed caps, the one I've owned since new has had no issues at all.
Thanks for the info. I can repair traces with considerable difficulty.
I have 12 FRS radios, two are broken. Half of them are waterproof floating units, the other half are "regular". I did find if I break a certain connection to the battery bay they will charge standard NiMH cells from the USB ports.
If I find the missing piece, I may repair this thing. Otherwise it's gonna be parts. I did figure out how to clear dust from the inners screens too... very neat!