Trackball roller replacement material

[christie]

Hi all,

Spent some time going through the forum posts today here and elsewhere, as well as slogging through the McMaster catalog...

Has anyone found a good source for roller replacement for 1xx PowerBooks and the Portable?

I haven't turned anything up yet. Seems to be more of a portable issue - the PowerBooks material seems like it's silicone based with a pretty long life, there the issue seems to be about scarring from overzealous cleaning some time in its past. The portables on the other hand seem to be a urethane or natural rubber which deforms over time...

I know I can harvest rollers from already dead or FUBAR PowerBooks but I only have one of those, and a few sets of rollers I'd like to replace...

 

[Rajel]

Hm, wondering as well. My 160 has issues with the up/down roller occasionally. It used to be worse, but has actualy gotten a little better with use after being cleaned (it was filthy).
Right after cleaning it had trouble going up, but that's subsided a little.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Have you checked on availability of ball bearings in the various sizes? They might need to be etched to work with plastic rollers, but if you let the rollers get and stay dirty, they may work in their highly polished state. Think of them as weight gaining devices.

 

[christie]

Well that would be turning the problem inside out, wouldn't it?

I just did a roller transplant from my parts 180 to a portable. Pretty straightforward process as long as you disassemble the trackball pcb from the housing. This lets you slide the rollers off by lightly drawing the axles backwards, compressing the spring rather than trying to stretch the axles forward, risking bending them, popping and losing the springs, etc. Reattach the same way. Once the rollers are off you can just soak them in a dish of water - nothing stronger is really needed if you just let them soak. This poses minimal chemical risk to the probably silicone material of the PowerBook roller.

It's hard to say exactly, since the portable roller clearly deforms with time, possibly including shrinking, but the PowerBook roller fits really well, has approximately, if not the same inner and outer diameters, and is probably a bit longer than the portable roller. It still fits fine within the channel of the plastic housing however.

One more little gotcha, the pcb is held to the housing by what appear to be self tapping screws, so when reassembling, it's wise to back drive them until you hear the threads click into alignment and then lightly screw them in. This lets you reuse the threads in the plastic and not tear them up.

What a joy using the portable with clean, trued, round rollers. No more constant flicking and reflicking to overcome the out-of-round originals. You're aware of the big gross aggravation when the pointer is stuck, but you don't really realize the almost unconscious irritation of the old rollers until it's gone.

Now, to find some more wrecked donor PowerBooks with intact rollers...