For quite a few years now the volume pot on my control for my speaker system has been a little screwy.

When the pot is in the around 50-80% range the value will jump around. If you jostle the control or push on the wheel, it might get louder or quieter (Not insignificantly) And also usually when I'm in that range, the value stays the same throughout. Sometimes the pot works perfectly fine and I can't even get the value to jump but other times I have to completely avoid the range. A few months ago I hit it with a bit of contact cleaner, it might've made it a little better, but I can't really tell.

Eventually I'm going to replace the pot, but anyone have an idea of what's actually wrong with it? Thanks!

 

It's worn out or dirty. It happens.

 

Years ago we would just wash out the pot with some contact cleaner. A Google of "contact cleaner" should bring up a dozen hits on the stuff. When possible we would also use isopropanol alcohol to wash out the volume pot and switch contacts.

Ron