I have been dreading it.. I have put it off for ages, Yes the 746 has been fixed.
A few months ago, I had been using the radio (my main HF rig) and it started making funny noises when the internal tuner tried to match the aerial. It also would not match.
I looked up on the internet for possible issue and solution and discovered that the radio had a known issue with the tuners motors, where a sonic weld fails between the ferrite core and a spindle and washer. The thing is I had a workaround which was to use an external manual ATU, so knowing just how many screws I would have to remove just to get to the motor, the job got put off for some time.
I finally bit the bullet because of the way I operate. With band conditions quite lacklustre at the moment, I frequently band hop, which necessitates frequent re-matching of the aerials. It was becoming a real drag keying up and manually tuning all the time, so I though “damn it, lets get this done’. First thing was to get the video I found about this repair up on my iPad. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdY6RhNOCWg ) and then it was a matter of removing over 30 screws and de-soldering the aerial sockets from the board before I could get to the motor and fix it.
The motor was extremely difficult to get apart without either damaging it or impaling my hand on a screwdriver, but eventually I got into it and glued the bits together, reassembled it all and hey presto a few hours after I started the 746 is back in action and working perfectly.
I think my new years resolution is to get things done and not let things build up. You never seem to have enough enthusiasm to fix something when you know what a ball-ache it is going to be to do it and the jobs then start to pile up and you never get around to doing them.