On Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:51:27 +0100, "N_Cook"
wrote:


I'd not thought of that as a reason but it makes some sort of sense. I
suppose the first pot one ,I cleared the grease out with meths and
reassembled dry, refitted, and returned to owner must be about 5 years ago.
That one and subsequent ones, have not bounced back with worn tracks , so
superfluous as far as electrical function is concerned , IWS. I suppose
someone will now tell me I should have replaced like for like, not going
against the "designer's" wishes.


I've had good luck disassembling and cleaning these types of
mechanical encoders that are often used as volume controls. They have
to be disassembled. Using something like deoxit will work for a
while, but it's not usually a lasting fix. I do normally replace the
grease since I figure it was there for a reason (probably lubrication,
and possibly to prevent oxidation of the contacts).

I recently repaired a 33120A, and the encoder was just held together
with bent metal tabs, and should be easy to disassemble.