Batboard

Frankly, I've now come to the conclusion that nobody, and I mean NOBODY, should be allowed to open up any
Motorola Saber, Astro Saber, or other radio that can take frame damage if you overtighten a screw or nut,
UNLESS he has a torque reading screwdriver with the proper spanner bit, and the torque spec, and lives by it!

I recently acquired a nice, clean VHF Astro Saber III and went to install a DES module in it, and in the process
I discovered that at some point in time, someone (maybe more than one person) overtorqued the nuts and
one of the studs is loose. Worse than that, the frame is cracked at that point.

And guess what? The frame is NLA from Motorola!


Does anyone have an UNDAMAGED Astro Saber frame they want to sell to me?


If you don't have a torque reading screwdriver, GET ONE. And know the torque specs of the fasteners
you're dealing with.

This will avoid the need to replace costly and UNAVAILABLE frames.


It's not that tough...or expensive. The cost of the screwdriver is less than the cost of the
first frame you don't have to replace.


Elroy

You can crack the frame corners and pop the studs loose by dropping one, too. Been there, done that.

motorola_otaku wrote:You can crack the frame corners and pop the studs loose by dropping one, too. Been there, done that.

Elroy, this is old news for you! glad to see you back! Jim

I see this very same problem time and time again...even with Genesis radios and many others, including those pesky Maxtrac cover screws....they are amost always using an impact wrench to tighten those...why?

They surely have no retention ability, so why lock them into place while destroying the covers in the process!

Sabers are always coming in with missing spanner nuts AND collars...all due to overtorquing...SIX INCH POUNDS MAX!

Pretty much the same as SMA connectors....even though those have wrench flats, they do have a torque limit, and it's not much.....you'll snap center pins and ruin the dielectric locking them down...BTDT as well.

If you have 'gorilla grip'....use your fingers only..hold the driver in your fingers and rotate to stop, don't palm the thing and muscle the nuts/connectors down.

Pull the studs, crack the frames....ruin the gaskets...changes the seating location of the buttons as well on many radios, not just the ones mentioned.

As long as we're making a list:

People who use pliers to tighten the Mini-UHF antenna connector on the back of Spectras (most likely because of difficult finger access). Motorola actually makes a tool for this, which (in addition to saving fingers) has a torque limiting function.

Have a part number? I would love to get one. I'll probably see you this afternoon in Newton.

No part number on the little tool, and I did not save the little plastic bag it came in.

I'm reasonably sure it was included in a pack of mini-UHF connectors I opened up maybe two years ago.

HLN6695A

They ship with every XTL radio.
Funny MOL lists it at about 30 dollars.
Must be a typo .I would expect maybe a dollar

That could well be where I got it.