Fix your Yamaha A4000 or A5000 Rotary Encoders Permanently.

[@Abruzzo333]

Thanks, I have the replacement encoders but have been procrastinating on the actual repair. Is it difficult to take everything apart to get to them?

[@justhardware]

Getting to them isn't difficult, the service manual shows you how to take the board out. You don't even have to unplug the board. The hardest part is desoldering the old encoders, but a manual desoldering pump with desoldering braid was enough for me to do the job. Use a flat piece of metal to get all the new encoders lined up during soldering. The old encoders have a slightly different front than the new encoders, so don't line up new encoders to the old ones, use a flat metal piece only to line up the new encoders to each other. If you don't feel comfortable desoldering/soldering, you can always unplug the board, and take it to an electronics/cell phone repair shop, just make sure they know to use a flat piece of metal to align the new encoders.

[@SamiJumppanen]

Be careful with the mode buttons too, the white caps fall off easily and you can lose them. I serviced one of the old encoders, I mean took apart, cleaned, relubed. Don't need to solder off for that, but it's delicate for the tiny steel strap manipulation, those hold the halves together. It wasn't perfect, worked perfectly but only for some time. The surface of the encoder disk looked worn at first, but after taking off the old grease I could see the groove was only in the grease and the disk only has oxidation trace which I smeared off with a flat screwdriver. So it should work, but I have to try again with other kind of grease or oil.

[@NunyaB1s]

Will the ec11b15242AE work? I can’t seem to find a data sheet for the AF to compare. They seem identical to me but I’m barely a novice. Also what are the specs for the spacers? Reverb has a guy selling encoders plus spacers but for like $15 each.

[@justhardware]

I added the datasheet here: www.justhardwaresound.com/maintenance/yamaha-a4000-restoration For the spacers, I just used any cuttable hard material, and added more layers as needed, to get the desired result.

[@NunyaB1s]

@@justhardware Thank you! Both models are on the sheet. Looks like the EC11B15242AE is the shorter version that was out of stock for you when you did this repair. I will order them and follow up here. I might not need the spacers. By the way, genius idea of using the HD rack as the guide!