Easy & Simple

Fixing the volume control on a radio

The volume dial on my relatively inexpensive digital radio has recently been crackling and working eratically.   The fix for this relatively easy by just applying some electrical contact cleaner.


First, one has to open up the radio.  There were two screws on the top back of the case, one inside the battery compartment and two sneaking away under the rubber feet on the bottom of the case:

Screws indicated by the helpful arrows on the case

Screw hiding under a rubber foot pad

Opening the case required a little bit of wiggling to pop the headphone socket out of position.  One has to be careful not to snap the socket off the mounting, but apart from that it isn't too hard to do.

Next, a small plastic cover over the volume control had to be removed to reveal the potentiometer.  A small spray of electrical contact cleaner followed by exercising the potentiometer back and forth to work the cleaner over the dirty metal contact surface is enough to do the job.

Cleaning the contacts of the potentiometer does the trick

After re-assembly the radio works as good as new.