[Johnson] Valiant VFO diagnosis and prognosis

[John Lawson]

   Thanx entirely to the folks who turned me on to the wonderful 
'set-screw' hole on the Valiant chassis - I was able to confirm that I 
have snapped the Micarta spider in the coupling - luckily only in two 
places - both on the 'capacitor' end of the unit.

   Rather than disassemble the entire VFO, I have opted to 'glue' the 
spider back, since, in the position the rig is now (on it's side on the 
bench) these parts line up and actually work.

   Rather than JBWeld, I'm trying good ol' RTV silicon.  There's next 
to no torque on the coupling, and a bit more resilience might be a Good 
Thing.  Anyway I carried little dollops of RTV in through the access hole 
on the tip of a small long-handled screwdriver - took a little squinting 
and a 'service mirror' but I seem to have slathered a sufficient amount 
onto the ears of the broken bits... so now I'll mess around for a couple 
of hours and see how it works after the adhesive has set up. The reduction 
drive is in fact turning the VFO cap well at this point, with just the 
broken ends "meshed" to the remnants still attached to the rivets.

   If it's unseccessful for some reason, *then* I'll mix up the JBWeld - I 
already have the 'delivery mechanism' worked out. But the RTV is 
'reversible' and 'correctible' - whereas JBWeld is, as we all know, 
forever.

   And I know better than to pull on the panel like that again - although a 
bit of lame 'defense' - there are two "L" brackets attached to the top of 
the VFO can and to the panel - I notice these were both missing the VFO 
side screws - they might have taken up that strain from pulling on the 
coupling; I bet that's why they're there in the first place... so like all 
train wrecks - there's a "chain of causality" working here...


    Cheerz


John  KB6SCO