Generally, those transmit/receive dishes are very accurate, and on a very sturdy mount.
So, they are worth recycling, especially if they have been properly mounted to a roof!
Unfortunately, it sounds like going up a ladder to work on it, is causing a lot of grief.
One thought, would be to take it down, post some good pictures, and we can help you get it operational again using a ground mount.
I've seen so many HughesNet, DirecPC, StarBand, and various similar systems, I can't keep track of what it what.
Plus, over the years, many services have deployed totally different sets of hardware.
For instance, if we were talking about of of the Ka-band systems, the dish is too small to be really useful on Ku band.
Hate to repeat myself, but better pictures and maybe some dish measurements would help make the most of what ya got.