MOTM

What is the best way to remove the PCB mount pots from a MOTM module?
I have some repair work to do.  :(
(I think a similar thing happened to Tony Allgood a while back - pot
shafts driven through the back of the pots by a blow to the knobs on the
front panel.)

The only desoldering advice I have seen is "to prevent overheating, clip
all the leads above the board, then desolder the pins one by one".  But
of course the pots are sitting right on the board.  In a couple cases I
think I can remove the mangled pot remains from around the pins, but some
of the housings are still holding together although the pot is internally
damaged.  Should I try to crack open the pots (these are Spectrol 248s)?
Or just try to heat the solder enough that I can lift the pot up and cut
beneath it?

I'm afraid to do this because just last week I destroyed my PC sound card
in my first serious attempt at electronics repair.  I was trying to
desolder a jack whose contacts no longer held ($%&@! 1/8" mini jacks) and
replace it, but I guess I heated the board too much trying to get all the
pins out, and the card is now junk, or at least beyond my abilities to fix
(no longer recognized at bootup).  Oh well, I was going to get a new Sound
Bastard anyway.  :|

Can anybody help me out with advice?  Also, what tools are most useful for
this kind of repair?  I have a solder sucker, some braid and a couple
decent pliers (one needle nose and one diagonal cutter), but are there any
others that would come in especially handy?  The array of pliers and
tweezers in the Mouser catalog is a little intimidating :)

thanks much,
Chris Jeris

One of the nice things about the spectrol pots is that the pin spacing
is only 0.1". This means it is quite possible to heat all the pins at
the same time with a soldering iron and a generous blob of extra solder.
Use no clean type, and when all pads are molten, pull the dead pot out
with a sharp tug. Do it quickly, 5 seconds for all three should do it.

Suck out the holes with a decent solder pump. The way I do it, is to
hold the pump on the opposite side of the PCB to the soldering iron.
This should clear all the solder in one go.

Best of luck,

Tony Allgood

Penrith, Cumbria, England
www.techrepairs.freeserve.co.uk
My music: www.mp3.com/taklamakan