Zenith 25" Sentry 2, intermittent audio static, powers back on by itself

[CRTguy]

I just picked up a 25" Zenith Sentry 2 model (Model SS2561S, made in 1990). The picture looks great but the TV has some issues. For some reason, the previous owner did an audio modification (white sticker on back of set that says this) that raised the minimum audio level and prevents me from muting the audio. There is frequent intermittent static noise in the audio that gets worse when no audio is playing. The audio will also sometimes get quieter then go back to being at the volume that it was. I opened up the set and noticed that the audio level pot (R1247) has been removed and a jumper wire put in its place. There are a few other issues as well.

When I power the set off, it will power back on a few seconds later.

Several of the wires going to the control panel at the front of the TV have been cut. I'm assuming that the wires that were cut were for controlling the menu and a few other functions on the front of the TV because those functions don't work when I press the buttons on the front panel. I would imagine that if I reconnect those wires, I'll get full control of the front panel again.

The person that sold me the TV doesn't know why these modifications to the TV were done. I don't understand why the original owner would have done this. Maybe they didn't want to have anybody change the settings on the TV? Maybe there was some issue with the audio and with the front panel so they tried to bypass these issues with the modification? I at least have the remote and can control the TV that way.

I was thinking about replacing the audio level pot with either a replacement pot of the same value or a fixed level resistor of maybe 10k Ohm. I suspect that the intermittent audio is because the audio floor has been set too high with the audio level pot removed and possibly some capacitors in the audio section and power supply are bad. The picture looks great so I'd like to try and repair these issues.

What do you all think are the most likely causes for the issues I'm describing? I'm guessing it wouldn't be too difficult to fix these issues but I don't know.