I have one of these meters and have repaired it. It is a good meter. Use it all the time. There is somewhat of a following of fans on some military equip post sites
It is more like a VTVM or modern digital meter in that it amplifies the input to achieve a high input impedance, so it loads down the circuit very little.
To check the mechanical D'Arsonval meter itself, just touch it with resistance probe of a multimeter.
There is a FET jnput and the op amp is pretty standard, as I recall.
This thing takes a LOT of batteries. I am attaching the Manual with some schematics.
Wally