I recently picked up a G5400B AZ-EL rotor unit, which had been down on ground for sometime. I recall it had been stored upside down outdoors. When I got it home and hooked it up in the shop, the Azmiuth rotor was stuck, but some manual help, broke whatever was stuck loose and it started to operate, even abit noisy. The Elevation rotor is nice and quiet and works fine. I notice now, after being used for afew weeks, that the noise is getting more pronounced and also the meter indicator flickers, so I suspect water probably got into the unit.
Who does repair work on these rotors? I dont dare try it myself, as I know I would end up with extra parts at the end of the day, even working in a tub. So, would appreciate any help in finding a business that repairs these Yaesu rotors..
John W6ZKH
Sadly, in my experience, only Yaesu will service them. YMMV.
On the other hand, my experience with having Yaesu service a G-1000SDX rotator was positive, so I'm not knocking them per se, just saying I have not found anyone else who will touch them. I had used some mounting screws that were too long, and when fully inserted, they broke off some bits of metal from inside of the housing casting, which found their way into the gears, and cause them to self-destruct pretty badly. Got it back from Yaesu service and it has worked fine ever since.
73 de W0JT
w6zkh@comcast.net wrote:
I recently picked up a G5400B AZ-EL rotor unit, which had been down on ground for sometime. I recall it had been stored upside down outdoors. When I got it home and hooked it up in the shop, the Azmiuth rotor was stuck, but some manual help, broke whatever was stuck loose and it started to operate, even abit noisy. The Elevation rotor is nice and quiet and works fine. I notice now, after being used for afew weeks, that the noise is getting more pronounced and also the meter indicator flickers, so I suspect water probably got into the unit.
Who does repair work on these rotors? I dont dare try it myself, as I know I would end up with extra parts at the end of the day, even working in a tub. So, would appreciate any help in finding a business that repairs these Yaesu rotors..
John W6ZKH
First determine whether it is just a dirty or worn winding in the POT that is causing needle flicker. Run the rotator on the bench with an ohm meter across A2 and A1, then A2 and A3 ( same numbering on the EL - see schematic ) while running full rotation. Don't connect the 1,2, 3 terminals to the controller. If it is smooth and uniform 0-500 ohms there is nothing wrong in the rotators except your noise problem. I've found the AZ always noisier than the EL.
Storing the AZ upside down ( or in fact mounting it up side down as I once did in error ) is big trouble as water will run into the ball race and probably rust a few of the ball bearings and compromise the grease. They can be replaced easily and new grease installed. That was probably your stuck rotator. It is probably all you need to do to get the noise problem resolved. It should at least be inspected to see what damage was done by storing upside down exposed to the elements as dirt will have been cared in with the rain.
It is not too difficult to get inside and snoop around. You can start my just removing the inspection plate to see the condition of the internal POT. My experience is that the EL rarely needs to be opened up as it doesn't do much travelling - at most 180 degrees but I bet most folks don't flip their EL and so all it does is go up and down 90 degrees most of its life with far fewer jogs than the AZ.
Below is a link to a rebuild where I replaced many of the metric screws and did a re-grease for our -40/+40C WX in EN19. The ball bearing were not replaced as they were pristine. Make sure you have a place for metric machine screws before you start to open up. The Home Depots in Canada had all the metric screws I needed. For Canadians contemplating a rebuild, I found Canadian Tire had the largest selection of metric screws followed by Roma and then Home Depot. Auto suppliers will also have them for the "foreign" cars made in NA.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ve4yz.alan/RotatorRebuild2009#
Good luck... Alan
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of w6zkh@comcast.net Sent: September 11, 2009 12:47 PM To: amsat-bb Subject: [amsat-bb] G5400B rotor maintenance
I recently picked up a G5400B AZ-EL rotor unit, which had been down on ground for sometime. I recall it had been stored upside down outdoors. When I got it home and hooked it up in the shop, the Azmiuth rotor was stuck, but some manual help, broke whatever was stuck loose and it started to operate, even abit noisy. The Elevation rotor is nice and quiet and works fine. I notice now, after being used for afew weeks, that the noise is getting more pronounced and also the meter indicator flickers, so I suspect water probably got into the unit.
Who does repair work on these rotors? I dont dare try it myself, as I know I would end up with extra parts at the end of the day, even working in a tub. So, would appreciate any help in finding a business that repairs these Yaesu rotors..
John W6ZKH
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participants (3)
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Alan VE4YZ -
John P. Toscano -
w6zkh＠comcast.net