Repairing a crack in a hard nylon part

RknRusty wrote:Can you drill a couple of tiny holes in it and splint it with a strip of aluminum, or 1/16" ply or stainless steel wire? I was about to suggest plastic welding until you mentioned you'd thought already of that .

That's an idea. I'll have to look into that.

LOL, I currently have a little bit of JB Weld on it with a little weight pressing the crack together just because its going to be sitting overnight. If it holds, it holds, if it doesn't then I guess I'll have to try something else. LOL

Mudhen wrote:I've had weird stuff to fix as well.
I called 3M. You can try them here: 1-800-234-8068
Web Page: Here
Hope it helps.
As a last resort, you might try the manufacturer. They may have the part available...even if it is old.

LOL, I could drive over to 3M. I did find the exact part I needed... http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/r3074.html but I slept too long to buy it. I was going to buy a few of these units awhile back just for spare parts or projects but I never got around to doing it. That unit is the exact unit that is in my player.


Usually it is hard to find parts for these old players, there were so many different players that had different designed parts. Parts are usually available for the most popular players but most of those parts were from players that people parted out.

I see this turned into a "why bother fixing that worthless POS, 8 track is stupid" thread. This was supposed to be about repairing nylon parts, not directly about a busted 8 track head mount.

SuperDave wrote:

But it really depends on how badly you want to revive an $8 thrift shop 8 track. Personally. I wouldn't bother.

It doesn't really matter how much I paid for it or how much its worth. Its just another hobby. The reason I ask about repairing the crack is because I don't want to go find a replacement part or make the effort to recreate the part. Knowing that Soundesign is a "low end" brand and that the player itself looks to have had its day, I really don't want to put much into it until I know what it can already do. Now If this player was a Pioneer H-R100, I would put a lot more work into it.

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The JB Weld on the head mount did take hold. Its been working so far, but we'll have to see how long it lasts. After I reinstalled and cleaned the head, I popped a tape in to hear how it sounds. While the left channel sounded alright, the right channel was almost dead. I tapped on the right and left head connections on the circuit board to make a little popping noise in the speakers just to ensure there was no electronic problem. I then took a little close look at the head to see the right channel pickup was still a little dirty. I removed the head completely from the player and used some Noxon 7 metal polish to shine the head up. I reinstalled the head and popped a tape in, it sounded much better with the right channel loud and clear again. After a little alignment adjusting, the player actually sounds good, better than some of my others. The JB Welded head mount put up with me installing, removing and then reinstalling the head as well as playing different tapes continuously for the last 3 hours. We'll see how long it lasts. Since I had some JB Weld mixed up, I thought I would put some on a busted nylon gear as a second test. The JB Weld didn't seem to want to come off and it took some force to break it loose from the nylon gear. It did come off but it wasn't like it just fell off.



It could use a little cleaning up and I see one of the dial lights are out but both the tape and radio sound good.

The JB Weld is still holding! I have been using it a lot in the last few days and its still going strong!