Jedi Loose Antenna Jack

[maxkelley_kc2spy]

Hi all, I have a VHF MT2000 which has a loose antenna jack... It's not to the point where it's affecting performance yet, but why not nip the problem in the bud? I opened it up and took a look around, and I didn't see an obvious way of tightening it to the chassis... is there a way?

Enlighten me, fellow Batlabbers!

[akardam]

We used to use a bit of superglue and a vise to re-seat the antenna jack in the rear chassis. Usually it was good for a quick fix. Other than that, especiall if the radio is used for anything even approaching mission critical, do yourself a favor and just get a new rear chassis. I believe list is somewhere around $40-50 or so.

[maxkelley_kc2spy]

Oh, so it's not actually threaded in there or anything like that? Just sort of... crimped in there?
Weird... I'll probably just stick with it and be careful with it for a while. My hamming is *definitely* mission-critical, but it can wait

Thanks!

[MTS2000des]

loctite also works, but as Akardam says, a replacement rear chassis is the best fix. FYI if you have an older RF board, you'll have to notch out the hole at the top. On the older RF boards, a pin sticks up through the RF board from the chassis to center the board. The pin had a tendency to break off if the radio was dropped a certain way that placed stress on the metal chassis, and thus the little pin would be floating around the radio innards potentially shorting out something. (Cannot count the number of older Jedi's I've found this inside of).

The newer chassis has a notch that the newer RF boards fit in that centers the board without a pin sticking up. The older boards have to be modified to fit correctly. You can do it with a small pair of wire snips, but have to be extra careful not to hose your RF board. IIRC Motorola made a special tool for notching older Jedi RF boards, and even sent them out free to any shop that asked for them. I think I still have mine somewhere.

[Spiffy50]

While not the best solution, I've found that giving it a good whack with a hammer will re-seat it and would be good for a number of months. Of course, you can only do this a few times before the knurling on the piece that's loose becomes ineffective. I'd recommend getting the rear assembly plate.

Part number is 1505892U06. On MOL, the Canadian price is $50.72.

In all honesty, you might be better off picking up a used B3 on eBay for cheap.

Don't forget also to get part number 7505922Z01 (a whole 33 cents). This is the thermal tape that goes between the PA and the chassis to dissipate heat.

[WB6DGN]

I've still got some NOS rear chassis and thermal pads for the Jedi series still in original packing. If you need one, email me direct. Reasonable.
Tom DGN