[TowerTalk] Big vacuum variables..

[Dan Zimmerman N3OX]

A little next-door to the topic at hand, but I'll use them in antennas
if they're still good, I promise.

I have a couple of Jensen 3kV vacuum variables that may have been
shocked pretty hard by a fall.  They were mounted in a chassis on
teflon plates that i hope absorbed the shock a little, but I wonder
what happens to them if they're shocked but don't show any visible
external damage.

I know they're "fragile" but what is the typical failure ?  Are the
plates inside prone to moving around with respect to each other?

They're free so it hardly matters, but I just wonder if a 4-5 foot
drop when mounted in a chassis is just a death sentence for these
things or if they may still be good.

Dan