- The vol/bal pot is soldered to a small PCB via 14 pins, several of which are bent over flush to the board. 9 wires connect to the board Removing the pot from the board and disassembling would be a last resort.
- You can get cleaner into the pot by leaving everything attached and bring the pot out through the bottom. The access into the pot for the cleaner is from the bottom of the pot between the board and the opening for the pins. It's tight, but can be done. The square sections at the rear are volume, the round sections are balance. The rearmost volume section has huge openings on the side where you can introduce cleaner
- The faceplate can stay put. Remove the bottom cover, the vol knob and the balance ring, then remove the nut holding the pot to the frame and maneuver it out through the bottom.
-The signal passes through most every switch and pot and could be getting lost in any of them. Frequent offenders are the filter switches and norm/sep. The toggle switches are difficult to clean on this amp.
- You can jumper around the normal/separate switch with a standard RCA cable going from pre-out to power in for both channels.
- Popping is more indicative of a failing transistor, but who knows - cleaning switches might cure it.
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