Thinkpads Forum

Has anyone had good luck with any specific replacement hinges?

I got tired of the huge dead zone and ordered some eBay ones from China, but the fit was pretty poor (had to use a dremel to make some parts fit) and after maybe a month, there's already a loose zone developing.

Hoping some people have had luck with a specific eBay seller where the hinges stay as rock solid as those on my ~9 year old T42.

(to add insult to injury on the eBay hinges, I cracked the top of the LCD while taking off the bezel...)

I recently replaced hinges on my T61 14'' 4:3. I got the parts on eBay from thinkpad_2007. They are original and fit perfectly.

T61 hinges have always been a sore point from day one.
They seem to develop some slack quite early in their life, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it, other than replace them again, and again, and...
Guess it's just a poor design.
If your set did not fit, they might have been from the other model 14.1" (there's 4:3 standard 14.1", and there's widescreen 14.1").
The hinges are lookalikes, but they are really different.
And there are also 2 manufactures (Kato and Reell) for each type.
Unfortunately I don't know if one brand is better than the other.

RealBlackStuff wrote:T61 hinges have always been a sore point from day one.

Could not agree more. This was the second time my right hinge broke - this time I replaced both and did it myself. I personally think the hinges are just too tight for the weight of the screen and the stress eventually breaks the right, weaker hinge.

Just as an aside, there are some very poorly made replacement hinges available from far east. I actually got one such pair, it was very poorly cast, thread drilled in was the wrong size, etc. I did not even try to put them in, got a refund from the seller and took my chances with the above-named seller. I suppose the OP may have gotten a similar set.

My current set was listed as 42W3653, which according the the manual is Kato. The hinges I had in looked identical, down to the stamped markings on the parts.

At any rate, it appears to be a design issue, thus the manufacturer may not really make a difference.

I might give thinkpad_2007 a try.

Yeah, the ones I got were poorly cast, so I had to trim off some outer metal and make the inner circle actually a circle. Such a shame with the T61 as my T42 from like 2004 still holds its screen perfectly and there's 0 dead zone. IBM should have offered a redesigned replacement. Oh well.

no affl, but you could give this person a shout out to see if they have any. They were a forum member here but no longer are. I've bought items from them and will again if I ever need to. Top notch seller IMO

http://www.tigershop.biz/parts%20-%20copy.htm#Hinges

Geez, that's easily the crappiest parts-selling website I have ever seen!