[Elecraft] K2 deaf

[Leslie Austin]

Folks,

i have an old K2, s/n 0505 which was built by a friend, then later sold 
to me. It has started to go deaf. At first a tap on the key or paddle 
would immediately restore it to normal, but its now getting to be noisy 
most of the time and a struggle to hear signals at all sometimes.

I confess to feeling a little lost inside the rig (its more complicated 
than my lovely little K1 for sure) but I have tried checking for dry 
joints, and have been round as much as I could reach with a soldering 
iron, though the guy who built it is a skilled home-brewer and he'd be 
unlikely to have messed up like that. Besides the rig has worked well 
for years, and started playing up in a mild way perhaps two years ago, 
and just lately has got much worse.

Help!
Any suggestions to guide me would be appreciated.

Regards,
Les Austin g0nmd