Measuring Up...

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The teardown begins. On the left you can see the guts of the thing on the back of the front panel and on the right, the removed battery-box and its sorry-looking contents: two 4.5V cycle batteries and a 1.5V D-Cell (U2 to the older amongst us). As both types are readily available, I'll try replacing them like for like. Considering how long these have been in the meter, the amount of damage is minimal and confined to corrosion of the brass contacts in the battery box, as by some miracle, the batteries themselves have not leaked.

The clue as to just how long these batteries have been in situ is the name on the D-Cell: 'Tandy', a company which was dissolved in 2000 and replaced by Radio Shack; at a guess, making them a quarter of a century old. As to the last time the AVO was serviced, I think the pencil inscription on the meter backplate in the left-hand picture gives us a good clue: the date 9/12/58, when I was only four years old.

I'll clean up the verdigris on the contacts, install some new batteries and see if this rather ancient and frankly crude wee beastie actually works. At least an expensive AVO service and recalibration won't be necessary, as this really qualifies as a curio only; my twenty quid digital meter doing far more, far more accurately, than this thing ever could during its working life. This looks far, far better, though, and should be quite decorative when it's cleaned up. Keep you posted...

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