Here is what I did....
I unscrewed the head from the neck, then using pliers I took hold of the copper tab on the top of the neck cable and pulled towards the head and up to break the cable free of the glue that holds it in place so the neck cable was now free. I did this for all 4 cables. Then I pulled each cable carefully free of the neck vertebrae. I then carefully removed each piece of the broken vertebrae being sure not to mix them up - I placed mine onto a bit of paper that I had labeled with top bottom left and right. Once the bits were removed I checked the edges that join together to be sure that there would be a clean join when I glued them back together. Luckily for me the bits fit nicely together with no holes at the join (so no little bit chipped off). Once I was happy that the vertebrae was going to be able to be glued back together neatly I carefully put the pieces back into position on the neck column. being careful to make sure the wiring for the neck runs through the correct spots on the neck vertebrae. Once the vertebrae was roughly back in position - it will be hard to get it into it's spot against the white neck column as the vertebrae sit very close together so it is a tight fit also the vertebrae move along the column so they tend to slide into the space and you will have to squeeze them back to make room for your broken vertebrae - I then used a couple of very small elastic bands - I had some that my son had been using for his bracers on his teeth (we had spares and they were just the right size for this job) -I hooked them around the spoke of the vertebrae closest to the brake and then hooked the other end around the spoke of the other piece of the broken vertebrae which pulled the broken edges back together and held them in place. I repeated this for the other side. I found when I put the elastic bands on it forced the vertebrae properly into place on the neck column between the other vertebrae. Just something to note too the white neck column is square so it has corners and you need to be sure when you put the vertebrae back that you line it up properly with the neck column. Ok so the next step is to apply glue. I used super glue as it dries fast and holds really well. I have some that came in a little bottle with a brush a bit like a nail polish bottle
This made it easy to get the glue to go where I wanted it to. It is a bit fiddly trying to get glue into the join when there are so many wires in the way. The brush helped. I put glue along the joins and over the elastic bands too. I did my best to try to get glue into the joint but you do need to be mindful when you are applying the glue as you don't want to glue the vertebrae onto the white neck column. the vertebrae need to be able to move along and around the column or the neck will not be able to move properly when pleo tries to turn his head. Next step is to let the glue dry. I gave mine a full 24 hours to set. the glue says it will hold after 10 secs and will be set after 30mins but from experience I have found the longer you leave it to sit the stronger the bond gets so I left it for 24 hours. Next you need to thread the neck cables back through the holes on the neck vertebrae and then using pliers hold the copper tab of the cable and pull it toward the head and carefully slot it back into place on the last rung of the neck. Once all 4 cable are firmly back in place you can turn you pleo on to check everything is working properly. There is a nice skit in the downloads section of the forum you can use that is specifically designed to test the neck and tail movements for just this purpose. So I recommend that you download this and put it on an SD card, put it into your pleo and turn him on. If the neck goes through the full range of movements on the skin and all seems to be working ok then you can turn him off and apply glue to the ends of the neck cables to permanently secure them back in place. you will need to let the glue dry. Again I let it set for a full 24 hours before replacing the skin over the neck and then gluing the skin back together.
If the neck doesn't have the full range of movement then you may have either a broken cable as well or a cable that has pulled loose in it's housing for that you will need to open up the body cavity to either replace the neck cable or re sit it back into it's cog. There is a really good video guide that IMR did which will help with this if you need it and I also did a photo video when fixing Sparky's neck cables which you might find helpful too. let me know if you would like the link for that and I will post it here for you.
Another thing to consider is how many pieces are the vertebrae in? it looks like the broken ones are in two pieces but if they are in more than two bits you will find it easier to secure them into place on the neck column if you glue them back together so that you only have two pieces before you put them back onto the neck.
Also it is not possible to remove the whole (non broken) vertebrae off the neck column. they are secured in place at the end of the column with a large black plastic stopper which I was not able to remove.....I did not want to break the stopper as I would have had to replace it again after I was finished fixing the neck so although it is fiddly you just have to persevere with squeezing the broken vertebrae back into place between all the full ones. Also you can't just glue the vertebrae back together and then try to put it back onto the column after it is whole.
Hopefully this helps. Feel free to PM me if you have questions or just post here and I'll do my best to help you out
Kat
Author
Topic: broken vertebrate in Hester's neck HELP (Read 6376 times)