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From: Fleysher.wbst@Xerox.COM (Dan Fleysher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Advice on Key re-assembly
Message-ID: <870112-124426-4845@Xerox>
Date: Mon, 12-Jan-87 15:42:42 EST
Article-I.D.: Xerox.870112-124426-4845
Posted: Mon Jan 12 15:42:42 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Jan-87 00:49:57 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: Fleysher.wbst@Xerox.COM
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 34

Thanks for your input, those of you who responded.  My "O" key now works
fine - I squirted contact cleaner directly on the contacts.  If any of
you have old Atari 800's (circa 1979?) and need the following info for
reassembling a key, read on; else delete.


I pried off the key cap, to expose the contacts, but the square plunger
that holds the key cap and spring popped out like a jack in the box - it
wasn't supposed to!  The plunger is hollow and fits over the contacts
which stick up from below.  The contacts normally press together - a
little horizontal plastic bar inside the plunger holds them apart until
the key (and plunger) are depressed.

If I had merely pushed the plunger back into place the little bar would
have mashed the contacts.

If a plunger pops out on you, you need a tool to hold the contacts apart
so that the plunger bar can be safely pushed back down between the
contacts.  To make such a tool, I squeezed a plastic drinking straw into
an oval cross section and cut off the sides of the oval for a length of
2 inches.  That resulted in a pair of 2 inch parallel plastic tabs
attached to the rest of the straw.  I inserted the tabs thru the plunger
(on either side of the bar), and down between the contacts to hold them
apart while the plunger was re-inserted.  Thank goodness it worked.

Sorry if this isn't clear.  A picture would probably be worth a thousand
words...

	Dan

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