[Boatanchors] Re Johnson Navigator Meter

[JAMES HANLON]

I'm certainly no meter mechanic, but the several times I've had to deal with a dead meter, for example on my Elmac AF-67, I've found another working meter made by the same manufacturer and swapped out the movement and calibration card.  Sometimes the back half of the case will even fit into the front face portion of the bad meter.

At least open it up and do an inspection under a good magnifying glass.  You just might find something you could fix.  I've got an old, WW2 ATD on my bench right now, and it had a dead meter that is supposed to measure grid drive to the final and battery voltage.  It turned out to be a 1 ma movement with a 30K series resistor to make it into a 30 volt, 1000 ohms per volt voltmeter.  The 30 K resistor was open, but the 1 ma movement was still OK.  I carefully put a short around the bad resistor and put a new one outside, and I've got the meter working again.  Try looking inside.  At this point you have nothing to lose.

Jim, W8KGI