[TowerTalk] opening a G 2800 rotor

[Charles Harpole]

I had to open my Yaesu G 2800 rotor.  It came down when my HyGain Xmas Tree came down with a tower that folded in the middle, swinging the top down like a hinge.  The rotor obviously had some concussion but nothing hit it directly and it was protected inside the intact upper tower section and TWO thrust bearing above it.  Thus, I had hopes it was ok. However the wind that blew over the tower also had rain in it and the rain filled the rotor housing full of water...  because the rotor was upside down and it is not at all water tight when upside down.  When I got it out of the mess, water poured out of it.  However, I mistakenly did not open it immediately, get all the water out and then dry it with a hair dryer or heat gun.  Instead it sat in a dry room for five months.  I suspected it would be ok by then, based on my several disassemblies of T2X rotors and seeing that the HyGains would dry out by themselves after draining from the bottom. Not true.  My Yaesu sustained rust on a drive sprocket wheel and damage inside the potentiometer   which meant that some twenty turns of it wore it out or broke it.Thus the sprocketed metal wheel could be cleaned with mind abrasion, and the potentiometer could be replaced.  There is a district in Bangkok that is likely even bigger than Radio Row in NYC at its peak.  An exact replacement potentiometer was found there in one of hundreds of small shops stocking every kind of potentiometer one can imagine. I now know how to take this Yaesu apart, but not totally, and can advise anyone who is going to do same.  GL on keeping the ball bearings, I say grinning.  73,

Charles Harpole
k4vud at hotmail.com