Pismo Hinges...

[J English Smith]

Some of my Pismos have fairly loose screens now (5-10 degrees of play). Is there a "best practice" to retighten them, or is a little bit of extra looseness due to age inevitable?

[Dennis Nedry]

You really can't tighten them unless the mounting screws are loose. The 4 screws are located inside the back cover and they're T8 I think. There are also screws deep inside the screen, but one or more of them would have to completely fall out for it to get loose inside of there. Pismos have terrible hinges, they may actually be cracked and ready to let go completely. I've gone through several pair and currently have a broken hinge once again that I care not to fix anymore.

[bd1308]

I just re-did the grease in my TiBook G4, and even though its kinda tight still, its no where near tight enough to cause the broken top case syndrome anymore. I used some white lithium grease, and there are ports that suck grease in (i put new grease in) and push grease out of the bottom port while the hinge is turning. the whole thing rides on a thin grease coating around the hinge pieces. The old grease was like goo and the new white lithium really seemed to clean everything up and make it somewhat smooth again.

[Arthegall]

The looseness is almost certainly a broken hinge. There are two of them, and they do break. I've had to replace them on my Wallstreet in the past, and I've got looseness again. Like Nedry, I don't really care to fix it. If the other hinge goes, and I get a completely floppy screen, then I'll fix it. But I'd like this to be a working machine for years to come, and there's only so many times I'm going to redo the hinges.

You basically have two options. You can find another book with good hinges and just swap the screens.
Or, you can just get the hinges and replace them.

Here's a set. $15 on eBay. If I were you, I'd buy them simply to have the spares.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Powerbook-G3-M7 ... _500wt_841

Here's a set for $12.35 shipped.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-PowerBook ... 559wt_1060