[mikethedruid]

I've been reading the thread and have a few ideas and thoughts about multi gang variable condensers. First, all of your rotor plates from each gang are connected together electrically, there may be a few odd cases where they aren't, but yours ain't one I think. Now these rotor plates connect electrically to the frame of the condenser assembly, most often through a phosphor bronze spring contact, or something akin, often more than one, or one for each gang sometimes. On some cheap sets they actually rely on the bearings for contact, but not yours, I think. So, first thing is check continuity between the frame and the rotor shaft through the whole rotation of the condenser. Next, check for the electronic isolation of each section of stator from the frame, this should be infinite ohms with nothing connected. Next check each section for shorting between the plates through the whole rotation using an analog ohm meter preferably, easier to see. If you find shorting, look to see if the plates are touching anywhere in the rotation. If the short is when the plates are wide open, check the padder for that section. Is the mica good? Try unscrewing it a bit and check continuity again. If it is OK with the padder very loose, but bad when it is nearly closed, you have a bad mica. While it comes to mind, NEVER crank down on a padder, when you feel them bottom that is it, no more. When everything is proper, there should be infinite ohms between the frame and its connected rotor plates, and any of the stator sections, with the condenser assembly out of the circuit. I hope this is of help. I saw you asked these questions early on, so I figured I'd throw in my thoughts. Personally, if they are particularly skanky, I just clean them with a plain Dill's pipe cleaner soaked with alcohol and leave them assembled unless there is some drastic reason to do otherwise. This lets me keep the wet away from the padders and just clean the plates. It takes patience, but it works. I learned long ago, the hard way of course, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it, you may just f*&k it up." By the way, we've all had our tuning condenser woes. The worst I have encountered was on a nice Allied 2515 I picked up off ePay. Some idiot had "installed" a speaker inside the cabinet, which had broken loose at some time; and, with shipping and all I was amazed that only 5 plates of the rotor (which had been left almost fully open) were bent. That took me the better part of a day to fix, but I still didn't have to disassemble the condenser, just gently tweak the plates until they all were perfectly straight and aligned again. Good luck when you get back to it, keep us posted on how things are progressing.