Widening modern trimpots or trimmer resistors to fit 7.5mm PCB holes

[dlucy]

I'm replacing the trimpots in a vintage (1970's) receiver and I've ordered standard Bourns trimmer resistors, but the new pots have 5mm lead spacing whereas the old ones have 7mm or 7.5mm, so the PCB has the wider-spaced holes. What is the best way to deal with this cleanly and reliably?

1. I could certainly drill new holes in the PCB at 5mm, install the modern trimpots and solder or bridge the new-holed leads to the existing circuit board traces.

2. Or I could bend the heck out of the leads on the new trimpots to reach the old holes.

3. Or maybe there's a source of modern trimpots with wider lead spacing.

4. ?

What do y'all do? Is there something better or different I should be doing?



(And yes, I know I've got to connect the wiper on the new trimpot to one of the two legs)

 

[ghazzer]

I have been replacing single turn trimmers with Bourns style multi-turn trimmers and bending the round leads as needed. The multi turn trimmers make fine adjustments much easier.

For PCBs with only two holes, just determine which side of the pot gives you the correct (SM) adjustment when you turn the pot CW or CCW, and use those two leads.

 

[turnitdown]

One could also save clipped-off leads from low wattage resistors and use those to lengthen, and make more malleable, the legs of the pots without having to stress them.