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Devin · Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Posts: 4

I have a Century and one of the spring clips that hold the back on has broken off. The clip is fine, what broke was the two rivets (brass?) that hold it to the body. The rounded over heads of the rivets broke off.

The rivets look flimsy and I'm wondering if the other clip might break off also. Has anyone else had this happen?

I was thinking of trying to find a couple small stainless steel screws/nuts and attach it with them.

Henry · Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 4:21 pm Post subject:

I had this problem also on my Century, but not as bad as that. One of the rivets had lost its head (!); I was able to melt a neat blob of solder to the (evidently brass) barely visible rivet shank as a substitute head. I'm not sure it's functioning all that effectively, although it's holding o.k. A really effective fix would be to extract the shank (ha! bet that's lots of fun!) and then drill and tap for a small machine screw. Someday I may get around to that.

Devin · Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Posts: 4

I didn't think about solder.

I did find some #1-72 threads per inch machine screws with nuts that fit perfectly in the existing holes. Used a dremel to cut of the excess length of the screw. I probably should get some loctite on the threads to make sure they won't come loose, but so far it on there solid.

Devin · Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Posts: 4

Forgot to mention, before you try to extract the shank, both rivets are brazed onto a backing plate. So you would have to cut off the good head so the whole thing can come out.

If you do decide to try it, it's not that hard to get it out and back in.

Henry · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:49 pm Post subject:

Good tip, thanks. A question: did you have to remove the bellows? I don't see how to access the backing plate otherwise.