Sometimes you have to walk away from a project for awhile and come back to it another time.

I have thought about the lower wattage output and have reconsidered my initial reaction. I’m now thinking nothing is wrong and the decrease in wattage is the result of replacing a bad capacitor. Before the switch, AM was putting out around 5 watts and sideband around 15 watts. Now I’m a little over 3 watts on AM and around 8 or 9 watts on SSB. I had also noticed that my SWR ran a little higher on this radio. I have to get the mindset out of my head that more wattage equals more power. More than likely I was generating spurious emissions which would explain the higher SWR. The note on the radio said AM was set to 2 watts which also reinforces my suspicions. The suspect capacitor was also one of the highest rating caps on the board. I’ll check the radio out later this afternoon after work and see how it performs. I’ll have to readjust the AM and ACL pots after I’m done replacing the rest of the caps.

By chance have you noticed any new solder joints made possibly by a previous owner???. The reason I ask is maybe someone in the past may have made upgrades to the radio by changing caps, and you come along and inadvertently reversed the process???.... IDK strange things happen sometimes, but don't let that discourage you, step away and start on a new project, like making a beam antenna or something?.

Hay dont give up on it that pinto is 10 times better han the 980 .