Yesterday in the middle of SW Ep 1, the sound begins to warble. A quick check reveals that pieces of the rubber pressure roller had actually broken off the roller assembly (the roller that presses the film against the sound drum). Leaving a gap and a very knarly looking metal substrata that evidently the rubber is formed around.
Amazingly enough I found four of these parts in a rather spare parts box, which leads me to believe that they must fail quite often.

First I tried to simply replace the part, but unscrewing the plate on the end of the assembly only revealed that the entire assembly has to be removed to get at this roller. Worse, once I discovered this unhappy fact, I tried to replace the plate with its 3 small screws only to find that I can't because the screw into a washer behing the assembly that now is impossibe to align with the assemble in place.

My down and dirty fix was to remove the other pieces of remaing rubber, expose the metal roller beneath and then wrap an appropriated thickness of electrical tape around the metal. Of course, there is no way to get a wrap that will not have a bump in it where the tape ends, so I wedged a piece of cardboard between the roller and the houseing and that lifted the pressure roller up enough so that it didn't hit the drum but still allowed enough pressure on the film to turn the drum. It sounded fine for the rest of the night.

Is there any way to remove and replace that roller WITHOUT taking out the entire assembly AND, if what I am seeing is correct, the solar cell assembly looks like it has to be removed also. This would require a complete realignment of the cell. If that's what needs to be done, the a curse on all their houses!

Is anyone familiar with this setup to suggest an easier way to replace a simple roller?

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Let gravity work in your favor. Hold the roller assy. vertically so the ring with the threaded holes rests on the casting. Now take your tiny screws (one at a time) and try to find the threaded hole by gently rotating the ring. Once you get the first ones, the remaining two should go quite quickly.

Steve

Here's my trick:

Go to Radio Shack and get a packet of small machine screws that match the ones that hold the roller together. You'll find that they come in many different lengths in one package.

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If the flanges on the roller are sufficient to provide the required tension on the film without the G-1987 idler roller, would simply not a short (cut to size) aluminium tube do the trick (since it never touches the film anyways)?

Sure it's minor and it takes a certain number of runs to be noticeable, but it IS damage and that is unacceptable. (You are certainly right Rick, I feel this is a very stupid design with little respect for the film which irks me every time it comes up. I wish Strong would redesign it.)

And Brad, you are preaching to the choir....the first time you pointed out the fact that the roller does indeed press against the emulsion, especially when it is still hot, convinced me. As I said, I have felt rollers in one booth, but even that doesn't seem to be a much better solution as they still forcing the film between them and the sounddrums. If I understand your fix correctly, you want to eliminate the roller completely and just use the tubing as a spacer to keep the spring loaded flanges properly spaced apart, right?

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1st, there are a couple of nifty tools that have been around for decades and can be purchased at Sears. One is for straight slotted screws and the other is for Phillips...they are screw holders/starters specifically made for this purpose.

After watching this thing frustrate me and two other good and honorable men, and after plying the neat tricks suggested on this board, only to be mocked....MOCKED I tell you, by the perversion of this inanimate object, did I begin to wonder if the simpler solution would be to silicone cement the thing in place. Not only would it satisfy the reason for this thing's pitiful existance, but it would also satisfy an organic life-form's instinctive desire to triumph over the evil that is this cover cap with its three vile little screws.