[Drake] T4XC PTO repair

[Kevin Berlen]

First, let me apologize for what maybe a rather long post.

I have recently acquired a R4C and T4XC from separate sellers off of 
ebay. The R4C is in good condition, and the PTO tunes easily, with a 
light touch. The
T4XC PTO is a different story. The seller advertised it as having a 
frozen PTO, so I knew there would be some repair required. I had 
checked out the WB4HFN
pages regarding the various PTO problems/remedies, and kind of knew 
what I would be in for.

When the transmitter arrived, I found the PTO was indeed stuck tight. 
Following the repair notes, I carefully disassembled and inspected 
the PTO gear train,
and found some kind of substance that resembled a soft drink, or 
coffee with sugar had been spilled into the gear assembly. There does 
not appear to be any
trace of this material, other than in the gear train.

I carefully cleaned and lightly sanded each of the nylon gears until 
individually they all fit well, and turn with little noticeable 
friction. When I reassembled
the entire gear train however, approximately twice the amount of 
force is required to tune the reassembled PTO in the T4XC as in my 
R4C. Everything does
work, and the PTO tunes smoothly, but just requires greater force 
that it should.

Following the advice on the WB4HFN site, I have left the entire gear 
train totally dry, with the exception of the ball bearing race and worm gear.

As an aside, I have a TR-4C parts rig that is way too far gone to 
ever be brought back. The PTO in it tunes very smoothly, and there is 
so much oil
on the nylon gears that it is almost dripping off of them.

I am looking for any and all suggestions and ideas. The PTO  by it 
self tunes very easily with the rubber bushing removed.

Other than this, the transmitter appear to be in working and in 
reasonably good condition. The switches need a good cleaning, and 
both rigs need the
alignment touched up.

Thanks and 73,

Kevin, K9HX