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Hi guys,

I have a 190xprob, and recently one of the legs have become a bit loose (the pivoting point), and decided to try tightening it up myself since all is needed is an allen key. So I did this, and made it worse, the leg is completely limp now, it cannot hold itself up. The nut spins, but does not appear to do anything.

Has anyone got any experiences tightening up a 190xprob leg? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Jer

Could you please post a few photos of the problem joint?

gstark wrote:Could you please post a few photos of the problem joint?

Hi Gary, this is the top of the leg


This is the under side.


Thanks,

Jer

B01NG wrote:The nut spins, but does not appear to do anything.

that does not sound good, you may have 'threaded' hole? the fitting is only aluminium which is pretty soft, looking at mine they have not put an insert or 'helicoil' so it must be a steel screw on aluminium.

First step and lets work from there;
can you take the screw out?

biggerry wrote:

B01NG wrote:The nut spins, but does not appear to do anything.

that does not sound good, you may have 'threaded' hole? the fitting is only aluminium which is pretty soft, looking at mine they have not put an insert or 'helicoil' so it must be a steel screw on aluminium.

First step and lets work from there;
can you take the screw out?

Hi biggerry,

No I cannot take the screw out. It just basically spins around.

What Gerry has suggested sounds reasonable to me. This looks like a set screw that would apply some sort of pressure onto the hinge in order to tighten it up. If the threads have been torn, then I suspect you'll be in need of professional help.

or at least, the tripod will be in need of that help.

For a temporary solution, try punching the screw out and put a smaller screw through the hole with a washer and nut on the other side.

B01NG wrote:No I cannot take the screw out. It just basically spins around.

sounds like it may have been over torqued and the thread damaged (tripod part not the screw)

Phillips quick and dodgy solution may work, I am not sure though, from what I can see from the IPC (Illustrated Parts Catalogue - see below), the 3 cap head screws hold to the two halves of the fitting together, inside that there are two split bushes (for teh sake of a better term) which appear to tighten around each leg axle stub (two per leg) - tightening all three screws would appear to tighten the bushes and hence restrict the movement of the leg, however if your leg is freely moving whilst the others are not and the cap screws are (or were) tight then you may some other issue?

In terms of the 'threaded' screw position if it was me, I would see 3 options;

1) buy new fitting from manfrotto - see IPC
2) tap and thread damaged hole to next oversize screw size, there is a fair amount of meat in the fitting so thats a possibility - alternatively install helicoil (http://www.helicoil.in/), but if you have no idea what I am on about probably don't bother.
3) remove screw and install loose nut, washer and bolt as per phillips suggestion, you would have to check and ensure that the split bushes are actually working as they should though.

to remove the screw, try applying pressure on the screw from the bottom and gently un-doing it to try and get it to 'catch' the thread again.

if you can get it out maybe, anotehr dodgy solution would be to fill the hole with Aluminium Metal-set then redrill/tap, buts thats dodgy

hth

Is it still in warranty? probably your best bet and initial course of action would be contacting pro help, but who?

Manfrotto IPC for 190XPROB
http://mediacdn.shopatron.com/media/mfg/2747/media_document/live_2/190XPROB_20090310.pdf?1272346402

note: there are 4 IPC's for the 190XPROB, they actually appear to be slightly different - make sure you match the IPC to your serial number tripod.

Thanks for the help guys, I think I'll try my luck with the warranty and see how that goes. If not, I think I might just try re-tapping. =)