• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Dustcover Hinge Fix

boreas said:
There's a type of dustcover hinge used on some Yamaha, Sony and probably other turntables that have a characteristic sort of failure where the "tail" of the spring eventually breaks through the plastic "web" that is supposed to retain it. The result is a complete loss of spring tension so the dustcover can no longer stay up on its own.

I've seen fixes here where what remains of the web is reinforced with a metal plate held in place with epoxy. I've tried that in the past but didn't have long-term success. Eventually the epoxy holding the plate would fail and I'd be back to "square one".

I just picked up a Sony turntable with this type of hinge and, just my luck, both hinges had failed. My previous experience made me reluctant to try the epoxy and plate repair again so I began thinking about a different approach.

Here's what I came up with. Instead of reinforcing the web I completely removed it. Then I took a 1/16" drill bit and bored a hole in both sides of the hinge at the reinforcing gusset where the hinge pin joins the top and bottom halves of the hinge. I then took a 3d finishing nail, snipped off the point and inserted it through the two holes,capturing the tail of the spring underneath the pin.

The whole repair of both hinges took maybe 15 minutes. Remove remains of web, drill holes, insert pins and re-fix the other spring tail in the bottom half of the hinge. If I do say so myself, it works perfectly.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any "before" or "during" photos. If I had this post wouldn't have been nearly so long-winded. I did tale an "after" photo of the repaired hinge. See below.

John
Click to expand...
JUST USED IT Totally fixed the hinges on my Yamaha P520 Restoration Project ...the beauty is the finishing nail I used as a new spring stop is on the backside of the hinge anyway no one will ever see it! This definitely saved me from blowing more than I paid for the TT online just to buy new hinges that were just as likely to end up in the same condition anyway! Thanks so much for posting the fix...tip use a stubby flat screwdriver with a decent sized blade to push the 2nd part of the spring back intot he "hook" on the metal half of the spring ...lay the metal part on your counter/ bench once the longer end has been tucked behing your new pin on the repaired side...just push down on the short spring tail and just let it slide over to the hook!
 
Brooklinjb said:
JUST USED IT Totally fixed the hinges on my Yamaha P520 Restoration Project ...the beauty is the finishing nail I used as a new spring stop is on the backside of the hinge anyway no one will ever see it! This definitely saved me from blowing more than I paid for the TT online just to buy new hinges that were just as likely to end up in the same condition anyway! Thanks so much for posting the fix...tip use a stubby flat screwdriver with a decent sized blade to push the 2nd part of the spring back intot he "hook" on the metal half of the spring ...lay the metal part on your counter/ bench once the longer end has been tucked behing your new pin on the repaired side...just push down on the short spring tail and just let it slide over to the hook!
Click to expand...

:banana::banana::thumbsup:
 
This is why AK is the bomb.

I had been sliding in a piece of cut sheet metal and then epoxying that into place. Worked for the most part but was a mess and took a while. I managed to do two of these using the nail method in three minutes! I just drilled and stuck the nail in, didn't even bother cutting anything. How awesome is that?

Here's my helpful hint to add to the thread -- obviously it's much easier to re-load the tension on the spring if you've undone the other end of the spring from the J-shaped catch on the metal piece. But getting that end back in the catch under tension can be a bear if you don't have the right tool.

And here is the right tool:
IMG_20180407_191857.jpg

This is part of a "Security Bit Set" like this one from Amazon. This makes reinstalling the spring much, much easier.

A huge "thank you" to @boreas for the brilliant fix! :thumbsup:
 
Last edited:
boreas said:
There's a type of dustcover hinge used on some Yamaha, Sony and probably other turntables that have a characteristic sort of failure where the "tail" of the spring eventually breaks through the plastic "web" that is supposed to retain it. The result is a complete loss of spring tension so the dustcover can no longer stay up on its own.

I've seen fixes here where what remains of the web is reinforced with a metal plate held in place with epoxy. I've tried that in the past but didn't have long-term success. Eventually the epoxy holding the plate would fail and I'd be back to "square one".

I just picked up a Sony turntable with this type of hinge and, just my luck, both hinges had failed. My previous experience made me reluctant to try the epoxy and plate repair again so I began thinking about a different approach.

Here's what I came up with. Instead of reinforcing the web I completely removed it. Then I took a 1/16" drill bit and bored a hole in both sides of the hinge at the reinforcing gusset where the hinge pin joins the top and bottom halves of the hinge. I then took a 3d finishing nail, snipped off the point and inserted it through the two holes,capturing the tail of the spring underneath the pin.

The whole repair of both hinges took maybe 15 minutes. Remove remains of web, drill holes, insert pins and re-fix the other spring tail in the bottom half of the hinge. If I do say so myself, it works perfectly.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any "before" or "during" photos. If I had this post wouldn't have been nearly so long-winded. I did take an "after" photo of the repaired hinge. See below.

John
Click to expand...
I recently acquired a very nice Yamaha P-350, with the only flaw being the broken hinges. I used your idea to make the repair, and it worked perfectly! It was a challenge to capture the spring behind the nail, but the result was worth the effort. Thanks!
 
Glad it worked for you.

The trick with the spring is to release the spring from the top retention tab first. Then insert the nail and put the spring tail back under the tab.
 
Hi all, used the "fix" earlier today and sure enough, it was pretty simple and it got my lid working on a JVC L-A11 turntable! I just used a dremel to expose the spring. :thumbsup:
 
Last edited:
Like many others I've been reading opinions and fixes on this site for some time, as a lurker. I was so impressed with this simple fix that I felt compelled to create a profile and ad another "thank-you" to boreas for posting.

20 minutes for both hinges, and that included the time to get the tools and nails from the garage, do the mod, put everything back in the garage, wipe the kitchen counter and re-install them on my Sony PS-11.

Release the spring from its hook on the metal side of the hinge,
trim away a little of the broken plastic between the two side supports,
drill holes matching the size of your nails into those supports,
insert the nail through the holes with the end of the spring captured below it,
replace the spring on the retaining hook on the metal side,
and you're done.

The spring tension holds the nail in place so no need to peen over the free end.

So many to share this with!
 
boreas said:
There's a type of dustcover hinge used on some Yamaha, Sony and probably other turntables that have a characteristic sort of failure where the "tail" of the spring eventually breaks through the plastic "web" that is supposed to retain it. The result is a complete loss of spring tension so the dustcover can no longer stay up on its own.

I've seen fixes here where what remains of the web is reinforced with a metal plate held in place with epoxy. I've tried that in the past but didn't have long-term success. Eventually the epoxy holding the plate would fail and I'd be back to "square one".

I just picked up a Sony turntable with this type of hinge and, just my luck, both hinges had failed. My previous experience made me reluctant to try the epoxy and plate repair again so I began thinking about a different approach.

Here's what I came up with. Instead of reinforcing the web I completely removed it. Then I took a 1/16" drill bit and bored a hole in both sides of the hinge at the reinforcing gusset where the hinge pin joins the top and bottom halves of the hinge. I then took a 3d finishing nail, snipped off the point and inserted it through the two holes,capturing the tail of the spring underneath the pin.

The whole repair of both hinges took maybe 15 minutes. Remove remains of web, drill holes, insert pins and re-fix the other spring tail in the bottom half of the hinge. If I do say so myself, it works perfectly.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any "before" or "during" photos. If I had this post wouldn't have been nearly so long-winded. I did take an "after" photo of the repaired hinge. See below.

John
Click to expand...
i did it tonight ..works great
 
Like many, I'm on here often but rarely post. This fix worked great on my Yamaha P300 cover. I used a small sewing tool my wife calls a seam ripper to push the spring back into place. Thanks for a great idea!
 
Great! I just fixed the hinges on my jvc l-a11. Now I just need a new belt and needle. The belts seems a bit hard to find here in Sweden. I think it should be a 23.6 inch belt. 60cm.
 
boreas said:
There's a type of dustcover hinge used on some Yamaha, Sony and probably other turntables that have a characteristic sort of failure where the "tail" of the spring eventually breaks through the plastic "web" that is supposed to retain it. The result is a complete loss of spring tension so the dustcover can no longer stay up on its own.

I've seen fixes here where what remains of the web is reinforced with a metal plate held in place with epoxy. I've tried that in the past but didn't have long-term success. Eventually the epoxy holding the plate would fail and I'd be back to "square one".

I just picked up a Sony turntable with this type of hinge and, just my luck, both hinges had failed. My previous experience made me reluctant to try the epoxy and plate repair again so I began thinking about a different approach.

Here's what I came up with. Instead of reinforcing the web I completely removed it. Then I took a 1/16" drill bit and bored a hole in both sides of the hinge at the reinforcing gusset where the hinge pin joins the top and bottom halves of the hinge. I then took a 3d finishing nail, snipped off the point and inserted it through the two holes,capturing the tail of the spring underneath the pin.

The whole repair of both hinges took maybe 15 minutes. Remove remains of web, drill holes, insert pins and re-fix the other spring tail in the bottom half of the hinge. If I do say so myself, it works perfectly.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any "before" or "during" photos. If I had this post wouldn't have been nearly so long-winded. I did take an "after" photo of the repaired hinge. See below.

John
Click to expand...
I repaired the hinges on my Realistic Lab 440 with this method and it worked great. I used a drill press, which made it easy to get the holes lined up. I found the easiest way to get the spring back in place was to unhook the short end from the eye, hold the long end down and push in the nail, and then push the short end back in the eye. I used a screwdriver for this, but a tool with a notch in it like the one posted above would have made the process easier.
 
Old thread, but I didn't think it was worth making a new thread. I thought I could use this method to repair my Kenwood KP-7010 hinges, but they actually broke into two pieces. I found a 3D model of replacements and printed some new ones intead.

20251018_123844.jpg

20251018_124327.jpg
 
Last edited:
boreas said:
There's a type of dustcover hinge used on some Yamaha, Sony and probably other turntables that have a characteristic sort of failure where the "tail" of the spring eventually breaks through the plastic "web" that is supposed to retain it. The result is a complete loss of spring tension so the dustcover can no longer stay up on its own.

I've seen fixes here where what remains of the web is reinforced with a metal plate held in place with epoxy. I've tried that in the past but didn't have long-term success. Eventually the epoxy holding the plate would fail and I'd be back to "square one".

I just picked up a Sony turntable with this type of hinge and, just my luck, both hinges had failed. My previous experience made me reluctant to try the epoxy and plate repair again so I began thinking about a different approach.

Here's what I came up with. Instead of reinforcing the web I completely removed it. Then I took a 1/16" drill bit and bored a hole in both sides of the hinge at the reinforcing gusset where the hinge pin joins the top and bottom halves of the hinge. I then took a 3d finishing nail, snipped off the point and inserted it through the two holes,capturing the tail of the spring underneath the pin.

The whole repair of both hinges took maybe 15 minutes. Remove remains of web, drill holes, insert pins and re-fix the other spring tail in the bottom half of the hinge. If I do say so myself, it works perfectly.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any "before" or "during" photos. If I had this post wouldn't have been nearly so long-winded. I did take an "after" photo of the repaired hinge. See below.

John
Click to expand...
I used the same method years ago on a Yamaha P-850 tables dustcover hinge set, it worked perfectly, a permenent repair.
 
Seems to have worked for me too for one of my hinges. I did use some JB Weld (epoxy putty) to stabilize things. Seems to work fine doing that. The other hinge hasn't broken through yet (it is starting) so I decided to try using the JB Weld to weld a sheet metal plate to the plastic plate the holds the spring. Note I sanded the plastic to help the epoxy putty to bind to it. We'll see if that holds, but I appreciate the idea and will use it on my second hinge if I have to.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom