The only thing clubby about this is a wish to have a freakin' battery charger that does what the name implies. I will say this: A decent pencil type solder iron is needed. Radio Shack solder will do fine and that third hand gizmo (really cheap at Harbor Freight online) is almost essential.
Dig up a short length of twin lead tiny wire somewhere. Off a computer muffin fan or junk plug-in wall adapter. This will be the connection between the tabs on the existing potentiometer and the new one. Also you need something to glop onto these wires where they're soldered onto the pot's tabs. Don't want them breaking off after an "oops, clumsy me".
I am going to do the 4-hour Intermatic timer thing. Your decision yes or no. For battery charging having the Mega shut off means faster way faster charging when using a generator for power. The Intermatics do not have a "hold" setting but they do click off by timer or by twisting the dial.
A big recommendation is to start ordering this stuff right away. The heat sink compound will take nearly a month to arrive from China. Same for the 10 turn pot.
And don't sweat getting Shanghai'ed into a project you can't handle. When I wrote instructions I got kudos. I know what confusion and unclear E=MC2 means. None of that here. The most technical things will get is finding 2 of the three terminals you need on the new pot. 0-500 ohms range. Big deal. The meter will also help you set the new pot and the you'll lock it with it's thumb lever.
And yeah when you're done you'll have a 36 amp charger that a wimpy 500 watt Honda won't gag on. Dial the voltage setting back until the generator stays running then every half hour or so bump it up until the generator starts loading down. Yeah I'd -love- to see a smart battery charger do THAT.
