More sound problems! Help please!

[rouge_leader]

Okay, for those of you who read my post yesterday you know I was asking about how to adjust the sound on a TMN Turtles PCB.  I found a knob on the PCB that I assumed and later confirmed (thanks to this board) that the knob was the volume control.  However, I found the knob because I was poking around in the back of my cabinet exploring a whole new problem....

First let me make it clear I had not touched ANYTHING on the board before this problem began.

I went downstairs this evening to play and turned it on and there was no sound.  After assuming I had been smited by the arcade gods for complaining that the sound was to loud I started to explore.  I found the knob.  Turned it.  Nothing happened.  Plugged in my old ALIENS board which previously had had sound.  Nothing happened.  I started to get depressed and hit the machine.  Still nothing hap-pened.  Finaly, I noticed a couple of bits of electric tape halfway up the speaker wire.  I picked of the tape and discovered that the wires had been spliced together and then taped.  I thought maybe the tape had gotten some moisture in them as it rained today and my dehumidfier filled up and shut off.  So I dried the wires with a bit of cloth and put them back together using two of those twisting caps.  Turned it on and... AHHH!  It sounded like machine gun fire!  I turned it back off and reconected the wires again.  This time it worked!  However I discovered that when I turn the knob the sound goes very quickly from non exsistent to very loud, to the machine gun sound (pop pop pop).  

After my long story here are my questions....

1) What could have caused the speakers to stop working temporarily?  Was I correct in assuming it is the moisture?

2) Any idea why the knob goes form nothing at all to very loud to machine gun fire with nothing in between?  

3) Is there no hope in getting it any quieter?  Thanks!