Mac 500

[Harvey_51]

Hi all,

 

I took the lenses out of a mac 500 out to clean it the other day, came out fairly easily the screws were a bit tight but apart from that was all ok, however when I went to put it back in the screws would not screw back in properly. They will go in a bit but a 2 or 3 cm is still sticking out. Any one else had this problem before?

 

Thanks

 

Jordan

 

Sorry did not mean to put in next generation. Mods please can you move to Lighting

[johnhuson]

A lot of the Screws/Bolts in MAC 500s are actually taptites which are designed to stop cross threading and ease alignment of the screw during manufacturing. However in my experience if they are forced it actually creates a situation worse than a normal cross threaded screw, which it sounds like may of happened in your situation. For this reason I always replace taptite screws with a suitably sized normal screws whilst servicing. You can identify a taptite by looking down the screw, if the threaded end is more of a triangular shape then it's a taptite.

 

If the thread is screwed up (pun intended) then you will probably have to re-tap the hole, however if significant damage has occurred you may have to drill out and re-tap at a larger size. It could however just be that the threads are trashed on the screws themselves in which case replacement should sort the problem.

[Harvey_51]

Hi,

 

Forgot to mention that I took the screws from another mac 500 and tried to use them instead. This did not work as I still had the same problem the screw could not go in the whole way. so I presume this means its the screw holes rather than the screws?

 

cheers

 

Jordan

[johnlinford]

If the thread is completely useless, you can potentially use a recoil kit to set it back to the right size (drill out larger, tap, insert cunning tap of the right size).

[Harvey_51]

Hi,

 

Just had another look, it is the thread. Looks like I am going to have to use the recoil kit. The only thing I can see that could not work using the recoil kit is that surely that will make the thread hole slightly bigger and that would mean I have to get a slightly bigger screw which is not a problem but wont this mean the screw will be to big for the holes in the lense plate? or is the hole big enough to go up another screw size?

 

Thanks for the replies

 

Jordan

[Rob_Beech]

Is there no room around the hole in the plate to drill a large hole there too?

[Harvey_51]

Hi,

 

The problem has now been solved. I used a recoil set to re do the thread. as for drilling a larger whole in the lense plate, that would work but if I need to change the lense with a hired one I would then have to drill a larger hole in that which I could not do.

 

Thanks for the help

 

Jordan