Yashica Electro 35 GTN – Cause of inconsistent metering?

Welcome to the forum Delltar. First thing to do with your camera is to check the battery compartment to see if there was ever any corrosion from old batteries in there. The corrosion could climb along the feed wire to the meter system, and over time eat it away, giving you that random over-under exposure due to resistance in the wire building up. If no corrosion is evident, then a good cleaning of the contact points in the well, and a fresh battery are called for next.

Then of course there is the pod issue. But I'm not sure how it would affect the meter reading though it could affect the shutter release. Sometimes it's a matter of the camera not having been used for quite a while, and the contacts on the shutter release get a bit dirty. Then you can do like fifty quick shutter actuation's to clean them off a little. Sticky blades from the lens focusing helical lubricant migrating to them could give you under exposures mostly, but over exposures are possible too. Check the blades closely to see if there is any oil on them.

Russ would have more knowledge of what your camera symptoms represent, so hopefully he'll chime in in a short while.

Again, welcome, and good luck.

PF