I recently managed to buy a Futaba 9ZAP transmitter at a pretty good price and the dismal weather has given the opportunity to do some refurbishment to it.


From the start it was obvious that the eight cell NiCd battery was not holding a charge so I bought a pack of Sanyo Eneloops and fitted them. The battery in the 9ZAP is in a cassette so that it can be unplugged but this requires removal and dismantling to get at the cells. The cells themselves are wired to a circuit board so the old pack needs unsoldering and the new one fits right in.

There was a broken switch which I was going to put up with but Steve Webb Models can get the genuine replacements from Ripmax. These switches are much easier to replace than the ones in a FF8 or 9. Once the back of the case is removed the small section of the case holding a pair of switches can be removed and unplugged. The switches are soldered to a small circuit board and after a bit of unsoldering and resoldering they are easily replaced. One small gripe is that I don't really mind paying £7.99 for a sub-miniature toggle switch but think it a bit mean it doesn't come with a new nut/bezal to secure it in place. No problem using the old one I took off but stingy not to supply a new one!!

Before and after shots.




Done.



All I need now is for the snow to go away and I can try it out for real.