Bass Wah Problems - getting warmer

[Roaf]

First off thanks for all the suggestions. I think I have isolated the problem but still do not know what to do about it. For sh!ts and giggles I replaced the potentiometer in the bass wah (a Dunlop GCB-100) with the pot from my guitar wah. The pot is a brand new ECB24B that I just put into my GCB-95 and it only saw about 2 hours of work.
I still got the same problem -i.e., the pedal craps out completely when it is engaged. However when I took the pot out of the saddle (with the wires still connected) and manually turned it - VOILA! there was Wah!
Apparently something is shorting out when the nut and washers make contact with the metal potentiometer saddle. I am no electrician so I am not sure how to fix this.
Does this sound like it could be the crux of my problem? Any idea how to fix this?

Thanks again.

Roaf

p.s. I checked the battery!

 

[Roaf]

here's another thing I noticed

Forgive me for my technical ignorance...
The colored wires are connected to a white piece of plastic that fits over eight pins. I slipped the cap off and noticed that the white lubricant that was used on the gears was on some of the pins. It looks like the cap was put on the pins without cleaning of the lubricant. I got most of it off but can not clean out the slots the pins fit into. How much of a problem does this present?