Here’s my approach to problem with the cracked plastic shaft couplings in the Kenwood TS-830S hybrid transceiver. As you may already know, after 30+ years, these couplings tend to crack and almost no adjustments could be made to the TS-830S. One of the main reasons for the cracking of these couplings is overtightening the set screws. The other is of course, the ageing of material. Mine transceiver is no exception of the mentioned above.
If you have an access to a lathe /or to a craftsman with a lathe/ it’s relatively easy to make your own couplings. Well, the couplings won’t be as the original – with axial angular misalignment capability, but they’ll do the job. Dimensions of the original part are: 15mm OD x 15mm length, and the bore diameter is 6mm. The fasteners are 4pc. M3x4mm set screws.
Mine new couplings are 17mm in length, with the rest all the same as the original. First version was made of white Polyamide. Second version of the couplings was made of POM or Delrin /black/. Both designs worked well – no slips of the shafts.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an affordable method of producing flexible couplings so far, but I’m still thinking of it 🙂 …
Thanks for looking es 73!