Hacking Slot-loading mechanism repair, with pics!

Hanafuda

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I posted the day after Christmas about my Wii breaking down ... here. The slot-loading device was broken, and at that time I was pretty sure I'd have to buy a new console. I opened the Wii up and found that one of the plastic axles to the series of gears that drives the slot loading&ejecting had shorn clean off from the frame of the disk drive. The Wii was a gift from relatives in Japan, and the warranty is expired, so returning it for service would be at, or exceed, the cost of buying a new Wii at home. I had no option but to attampt repair myself. I sought help at a couple other places online where model glue, super glue, and 2-part epoxy were suggested. I had my doubts, since the little plastic post that had broken off was only about the diameter of a pencil lead, and it needed to be reattached standing up on-end, and still be able to take a little lateral force without breaking off again.


After spending a few dollars at the hobby shop, my suspicions were confirmed - model glue and super glue were ineffective at binding the broken gear axle back in place. So, I went with plan B - make my own 'custom' axle. I took the gear along with me to the Home Depot, and found that a 5/64" drill bit would drill a hole of the correct size. Unfortunately, tolerances here were basically nonexistant - the gear in question drives two other gears, and is itself diven by a worm gear, so I had to place the axle in exactly the right position so the gear could engage three other sets of teeth. Just fractions of a mm off in any direction, and it wouldn't function. So it was just my luck that once I drilled it, the hole was off, but just a little bit. I had to enlarge the hole somewhat in order to get the axle into the correct alignment, and then used duct tape as filler all around the shaft. (What repair job is complete without duct tape!?!) Then I ran krazy glue into the hole, letting it seep in between the axle shaft and the duct tape filler, and then ran some more krazy glue in from the back to fill in between the outer wall of the duct tape filler and the inside wall of the hole. After the glue had fully set, I trimmed away the excess tape.

Oh and what did I use for the axle? The same drill bit that drilled the hole! I broke it off on the blunt end and ground it down to the correct length! Cost $1.30

So, here's the finished job. The drilling got things a little dirty, and I cleaned up a bit after this, but some grit was an inevitable side-effect of a job like this.

001pm7.jpg



And here it is with the gears back in place

002fe5.jpg



So far, loading and ejecting are working fine, and the sound is smooth. In fact, I used to hear some crunchy sounds from the Wii, but others have said they've got that too so I didn't worry too much about it. Those sounds are now gone. I hope this repair holds, but even if it turns out to be short-lived, I'm happy I beat the odds for now.

I wouldn't wish this problem on anyone, but it could happen as easily for anyone else as it did to me, so if it does I hope this helps.
 

James B.

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nice pics, I can never get my camera to get good resolution on things close up.

And nice repair job, it looks like the real deal
tongue.gif
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