Ben Bridgwater (bbridgwater@myrealbox.com) wrote:
: > 
: > It's a pretty trivial matter to replace a IIe key switch. Also a lot 
: > easier to ship.

: Hmm... I took the screws out of the back of the keyboard but it still 
: didn't seem to want to come apart - it seemed that the metal plate 
: "between the keys" on the front side is somehow permanently attached to 
: the keyboard PCB, and would be in the way of replacing a key switch if I 
: were to desolder it.

: What's the method to replace a key switch? Do you happen to have a spare 
: switch and a "4" key cap (the end of the key switch stem is broken off 
: inside of the key cap, and I can't remove it)?

No need to remove the screws.  Once you have the keyboard out, de-solder
both pins completely.  Careful you don't overheat the PCB and lift the
trace; also be careful to remove ALL solder connecting BOTH pins to the PCB.

Once you have the key desoldered, you need to squeeze the tabs on the
sides of the switch together to disengage the switch from the metal plate
and lift the key straight out.

Sometimes you can release the latch on one side enough to get the latch
out of the hole so that you can release the latch on the other side, but
that gets tricky...lifting the second side can cause the switch to
straighten out in the hole and snap back into position.

Once the old switch is out, putting the new one in is easy:  snap it into
the hole, then solder the two pins.

On earlier ][e's with the keyboard attached to stand-offs attached to the
lower case pan, be careful with the horizontal alignment of the keyboard
as the tilde key sometimes gets caught against the side of the case.  A
stuck key will cause ANY key when pressed to repeat endlessly.  You may
get a screenfull of E's (or whatever you hit last) but it's the tilde that
is most liikely to be the one stuck.  It has to do with the narrow hole it
sits in next to the power light.

--Dave Althoff, ][.
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