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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: trimaster on Wed, 11 December 2013, 22:06:32
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Hi there, so I managed to get my hands on a Model F, and it's great except for one thing: the spacebar wobbles if pressed down from the right side. I am guessing there is a problem with the stabilizer underneath, and a quick search tells me that I would need to disassemble the entire keyboard to remove the spacebar. So I am looking for a informal diagnosis: what may be wrong with the spacebar, and what can I do to fix it? Thanks!
By the way, the problem I am having can be shown in this video (at around 1:40) by someone else. However, my keyboard only has a wobbly right side.
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If it is wobbly like that, you will have to open up the keyboard up. The spacebar is not like the other keys where you can just pop it out. I'm assuming the stabilizer wire may be messed up. But you won't know until you at least take the case off.
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If this is the 83-key XT or the 84-key AT, then the spacebar has a complicated "undercarriage" assembly attached from the opposite side of the plate. Yes, you will have to take the keyboard apart to fix it.
I have not had an AT apart in quite a while, so please correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure that it has the same tabs. There is probably a plastic hold-down tab on each side that has a slot for the wire to slide in. If your problem is on one side, that tab may be loose, broken, or lost.
It has a slightly flared oval base that force-fits through the plate. If it is broken or missing, you will need to fabricate a replacement, I have bent a small slice of sheet metal into a "Z" shape and epoxied it to the plate. That is what I am typing on now, and it works well on my F-122.
edit - Oops, I was wrong. No hold-down tabs. But the tab replacement still works well with other models.
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My model m's spacebar was also a little wobbly. Might it be because it uses buckling springs
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This thread show what my F AT spacebar looks like.
http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/model-f-improvement-dis-assembly-tips-and-space-bar-mod-t6982.html (http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/model-f-improvement-dis-assembly-tips-and-space-bar-mod-t6982.html)
Specifical this picture
http://s727.photobucket.com/user/switch-kitten/media/ibm%20pc%20xt/DSCN6120.jpg.html (http://s727.photobucket.com/user/switch-kitten/media/ibm%20pc%20xt/DSCN6120.jpg.html)
If you do take it apart relatively inexpensive clamps can help a lot putting it back together.
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one possibility is that the plastic leg on the right side is broken
of course you will still have to take the F XT apart for the fix.
while you're doing that, maybe you should consider a spacebar mod. that will make the spacebar easier to change and take out in future.
wcass and some other people have done successful mods replacing the nasty f xt space bar with a lighter, easily removed m spacebar. Try asking them.