I have an old AM/FM solar one I got in the mid-1990s. My spring mechanism crank handle hangs up now, and the radio quits. If I help it turn, the radio is fine. whats the problem?

There might be a spring to return the handle to it's proper position. This spring is not available from the manufacturer, but a super mechanic might be able to find one that would work for you.
Now, to find that mechanic!
God bless your efforts.

Purchase a mid-1990s Chilton or Haynes service manual for your VW. Common tasks such as radio replacement covered. Transmission rebuild, not covered.
Unofficial versions of a Bentley manual 1995-1997 could be found, a little birdy told me.

MOIN PRINCE

Others said it was the belt. One person replaced it with a rubber band. This is the belt size for Model FPR2SM. It is a neoprene drive belt 78mm (diameter) x 1.2mm x 1.2mm square in cross-section.

One day while cranking the freeplay PLUS Radio on a job site with no power, something inside snapped, and made a horrid grinding noise. All of my co - workers laughed. From then on I only used the radio with the AC plug in adapter.
After 8 years of keeping the freeplay plugged in to listen to it I finally decided to open it up and take a look.
Low, and behold I found some broken pieces that looked like a belt. HMMM?
After a little more investigating I found the 2 drive wheels that power the generator... with no belt on them. I looked in my junk drawer, and found a small blue rubber band amongst the others that I save from packaging items. It looked suitable to do the task. After stretching it around the generator drive wheels, I cranked it up, and IT WORKED!
I'm still waiting to see how long this fix works, but in a pinch... keep some rubber bands and a phillips head screwdriver around. This may be the same problem your having. I'm now getting the long lost last laugh.

Hope this helps! KMT

KMT

Some newer radios do not have the quality build that the old ones had. The switch over to cheaper labor countries have lessened the quality and lack of good parts have lead to newer designs but not always better. My old SONY ICF-7600, not the G or GR, has a great receiver on LW and MW but after replacing aging capacitors!

I would think it's a fluke thing,radios just quit,it's their thing.A new radio shoud fix your problem.

Nothing that Ive seen for a scanner, probably too advanced for a 14yo. Usually an AM/FM radio or other type solar kits, try this link. I'.m sure you'll find somehting interesting. I remember when I was 14, we couldn;t afford these types of things and I would have loved to have had them. Good luck on the project. You can also Google solar powered kits to see if anything else comes up, I'm sure their are 100's if not 1000's of kits out there.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A1%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A1234&_nkw=science%20fair%20kit&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_pgn=2

http://www.hobbyplace.com/science/solar.php

Hi , you have probably expired the battery life out of the radio [ they have a recharge battery life ] but all you have to do is replace those recharge batteries with new recharge batteries and your as good as new

In the original big black Baygen radio there is a blue wire with a solder joint that breaks. This wire shunts part of the load back to the generator and prevents it from running to fast and going over-voltage. I am guessing that a similar problem is affecting your newer smaller radio. On the original radio after you take the two halves of the case apart there is a blue wire that comes from the 3v input jack on the back half of the case and goes to the radio circuit board near the top corner. The solder joint where the wire is soldered breaks easily. With this wire broken the generator will run to fast because there is very little load. The radio will still play if you slow the generator with your hand as it is playing back. If you resolder this wire the radio will work and the generator will run at the proper speed. This takes only a moment or two.

Good luck.