Frozen Motorola HV pot shaft

[bandersen]

I've got a frozen HV pot shaft in a Motorola VT-71 TS-4J chassis. It's one of those with the extended plastic shaft an odd tap at about 2/3. So not an easy item to replace.

Someone with a heavy-hand worked on this set back in the day. There are big solder globs on replaced components. Maybe they used a soldering gun? I see a melted spot on the side of the shaft that might be the cause of the problem.

My two thoughts at the moment are to either crank on the shaft hard with pliers and hope for the best. Or try to slice open the outer shaft lengthwise, free up the inner, and glue it back together.

Anyone have a better suggestion?