Yea thats what I thought too, the niccotine as a "fuse" more or less.

Anyhow all back together and working.

I put a dab of wood glue over the pad to further insulate that plate pin.

After re-installing, no more arc.

Aligning the bandswitch was not too bad. I have it running now and RX for
sure is greatly improved. I replaced L41 and the nearby FET and D2 as per KD7DNY's site...he supplied the parts.
Many signals over S9 where as before, it was rare to see a S9 on the meter.

The CAL signal level is for sure lots higher as well and the drive (rf front
end) tune is no longer flat on 40m.