OK, then I'm back with the meter, hell its had a hard life, the photos never showed that up because they were shitty photos TBH. The leather case I'm going to chuck out, its all in one piece but its really rank and smelly. Case is OK but the overload cutout appears to be welded up and the rubber boot perished, the meter reverse button boot has also perished, not sure if it works even TBH.
Have given the entire thing a good wipe over with some IPA sprayed over it, hopefully to kill off anything nasty like Covid-19, that bastard can fuck right off
Battery terminals are OK, no corrosion, powered from bench supply, \$\Omega\$X1 works OK, \$\Omega\$X100 dead and \$\Omega\$X10K working OK. Meter movement sticky around the normal resting position, suspect foreign matter in the suspension system, one common track on the blue ribbon cable has been vaporised so has been used incorrectly and explains why I think the cutout has welded closed. That means by default that the model is a model 8 Mk5 as its the only one that has that horrible blue plastic ribbon cable with the printed tracks in it.
So early indications are that its repairable at least for bench use if not to a standard that would allow me to flip it on
but it means a complete strip down as per last one and the blue plastic ribbon cable shit, ripped out and rewired with the multicoloured ribbon cable again.
I'm going to grab a bite to eat now and I will if people really want to see them, take a few photos of the meter inside etc and post them.
As to why people like them, its because they are not only iconic, but they were quite essential meter back in the day and were the universal standard for British meters, much the same as Simpsons were in the USA market and both are still very capable of doing a job of work today, but most of the younger bods struggle to understand them. Anything that is not autoranging and has a digital display is bin fodder in lots of peoples eye, and they are really missing out big time.