At once I discovered that all the contact points under the straps were oxidized and loosened.
The decision to clean all the parts was easy to take, but how ?

• 2 phases had to be planned :
  • 1) cleaning the oxidized parts and
  • 2) refastening the straps and the clamps to the elements

In the above image I have marked all the contact points .
Follow this link to download the full element drawing about 1600x470 pixels : half_element in full
There are 8 most important contacts plus 2 clamps per half element and there are 10 half elements on the whole antenna.
That means 80 points for the straps and 20 points for the clamps to be cleaned and re-fastened.

Part 1: cleaning.

Beside all the usual tools that everyone has at home it is needed
a Mini_Grinder or Dremel like tool with variable speed.

Here is the one I use.
Its dimensions are compared to a pen .

This work could be also done with some most modern Balck&Decker drill
but the choice is yours.

link to large picture

link to large picture

This 5+1 ele. yagi is a BIG Thing, almost 70mq to seat on the roof . But if you have it you already know!
Cleaning the internal points of each strap by hand was discarded after some testing with various sand_papers.
In my hardware equipments I have a mini_grinder dremel like tool, the idea was fine.
If I could use those small brushes of the kit I could expedite all the cleaning work.
But the dremel brushes (shown just above the tool) are too "gentle" to do such a hard work.

After some guessing came to me the idea on how to clean the "straps" in a quickly way .
From my gunsmithing hobby I took some rifle brushes and after some tests I decided that a steel_brush was
hard enough to do the work than those of bronze or copper .

The steel rifle brushes are very easy to obtain. The caliber could be anyone from cal.30 or nearer.
I have tried also some cal.22 but are too small.
When you go to the gunsmith-shop take the dremel head with you and try various brand of brushes
which one seats firmly into the Tool's head.

The pictures in the above table are self explanatory. The speed of the tool will be chosen on the field.
Be very carefull because the brush must be well centered in the Tool's head.

*** WEAR PROTECTIVE GLASSES , Dust Mask & Gloves ***
The brushes hairs and alluminium particles fly all around during the polishing process

Be also prepared to use many brushes, so buy 10 pieces of them if you live far away of a gun-shop.
If I remember well I used 5 to 7 pieces to polish all the antenna straps.
The grinder helped very much and the work was completed in a couple of days.

Part 2: fastening.

Fastening was the second problem: almost all of the straps have become loosened due to the torsional movement
of the antenna. This problem was much more complex to solve because the aluminium straps were not more so solid
to keep its round forms as when it come out of the box at its "young age".