Lubricating pots ?

[spitfire9]

Hi ,,ve4anc !

I recently purchased some spray called "Control Tuner and Lubricant" from Radioshack .It is made for rotary and slide audio pots and such.

I read about it on a different forum ( I can't remember which one) and some guys were using it to good effect.
Apparently when you spray it in the pot ,you are supposed to work the pot back and forth a bit. It will feel a bit gritty at first ( cleaning ,I suppose) then everything is supposed to work better.

The pots are alright,, but as you can see from the picture I attached,, the springs are pulling the slider back to neutral position. I don't want to use heavier springs for fear of breaking the slider arm .
With these springs,, if you cut the throttle or reverser too quickly, the spring ( sometimes ) is a little slower (than the throttle arm) to bring the slider back.

I thought a bit of lubricant every so often would keep it sliding nicely.

I'll post here after I give it a try,, which will be soon.

throttle pots.jpg

[superconnie]

I agree... my experience is more with old radios...

If the pot starts to act funny because it was used so much... well then the best would be to replace it.

A good advise will be to use really good pots. I bought some for $20 per piece. They are made of conductive plastic and should have a lifetime of 10'000'000 cycles. We will see if it's true.

[superconnie]

String pots are cool but $183 is a bit too expensive. They seem to be watertight if you can install it under your car. The most expensive pot I bought was a slider normally used for professional mixing consoles (music) That was about $50. I use it for the rudder pedals.