At 01:50 AM 1/19/2023 +0000, gary_mayfield@hotmail.comwrote:

Vince,

            I have repaired several 5400 rotators (I no longer own 

one). The pot can often be repaired. There is a small wire connecting the center of the pot to the solder lug (this will make sense when you see it). The wire twists as the pot and rotator rotate. It will often fail at the solder joint making intermittent contact causing the position indication to jump and/or have dead zones. Replace the small wire and it will work another 10 years or so.

Thanks to everyone for advice on the azimuth pot, I'll give Yaesu parts a call and cross my fingers.

Amazing the rotor worked this long with no problems or maintenance.

Has anyone found a video on the web of disassembly and re-assembly of the rotor, with important points to be aware of? I only want to disassemble just enough to work on the pot and its connecting wires.

From my testing I'm sure it's a combination of bad pot and connecting wires. Issue only manifests itself from around 300 to 0 degrees azimuth with it occurring at different spots in that location depending on whether it's rotating clockwise or counter clockwise . The ohms reading across pins one and three drops from 500 ohms to around 200 ohms or less.

Testing resistance between pins 1 and 2 when rotating, smooth 0 to 500 ohms, Between pins 2 and 3 when rotating is where I get the resistance hiccup.

It won't keep me off the birds, but I'll mainly only be able to do satellite passes that are east of me until fixed.

KB7ADL