T61 hinge binding

[jharrison29]

I bought my T61 new about 11 yrs ago. I have NOT used it for about 5 yrs.
Today I pulled it out and opened the lid, it was very stiff.
Checking more carefully, the right hinge appears to be binding. When I move the lid the outside cover (don't know what to call this) pulls away slightly from the lcd screen bezel.
I cannot see any obvious damage and would like to know where or how to start looking for a fix.
thanks

[RealBlackStuff]

You might want to carefully check that the hinge is still connected/screwed properly inside the lid.
Read the HMM before you take the lid apart.
You could also try a minimal squirt of WD40.

[jharrison29]

Read the HMM before you take the lid apart.
You could also try a minimal squirt of WD40.

Excellent. I was thinking of trying a spray lubricant but was not sure. I'll do this first.
THANKS

[samyb]

I’m in a similar situation with a recent purchase. Did they WD40 work for you?

[jharrison29]

No, wd40 didn't work. I bought a hinge off of eBay and replaced it.
I did soak the old hinges in Marvel Mystery Oil for a week but they were still stiff even after I exercised them, they were too stiff to pivot without using pliers to hold the hinge.
I do not use my T61 very much and perhaps this aggravates the issue. Now, when I use it I open the lid slow & carefully.

[kfzhu1229]

I’m in a similar situation with a recent purchase. Did they WD40 work for you?

In my experience (with the Dell hinges that this trick worked in), WD40 can take up to like 3 days to penetrate and work properly.
Orient the hinge so that the "butt" faces up, and then squirt some WD-40 inside the butt of the hinges (See image here for the 15.6" widescreen hinge).
https://1drv.ms/u/s!At7-rt1KJ7WviPc-Lwa ... A?e=sLTX6e
However, if you have the 4:3 hinges, you are out of luck because it is the same kind of hinges used in T4x where it is completely sealed up so they don't wear out nearly as quickly as the Dell Latitude hinges for example, but if it does go wrong you cannot fix it.
I have done this trick on 5 different Dell Latitude laptops and they all worked (And it took a stiff hinge breaking the magnesium lid entirely for me to come up with this solution ).

[jharrison29]

In my experience (with the Dell hinges that this trick worked in), WD40 can take up to like 3 days to penetrate and work properly.

I would think that immersing the hinge in Marvel Mystery Oil for a week (really, they soaked more than a week) is no less effective than WD40 soaking the hinge pin.
For me, the soak did not work (tried WD40 first but not oriented exactly like you mentioned).
My hinge appears similar to the picture you linked to. Maybe my hinge was more corroded than the hinges you had luck with.
The WD40 method certainly seems more convenient than my soaking which took a lot of effort to clean up excessive oil.

[kfzhu1229]

In my experience (with the Dell hinges that this trick worked in), WD40 can take up to like 3 days to penetrate and work properly.

I would think that immersing the hinge in Marvel Mystery Oil for a week (really, they soaked more than a week) is no less effective than WD40 soaking the hinge pin.
For me, the soak did not work (tried WD40 first but not oriented exactly like you mentioned).
My hinge appears similar to the picture you linked to. Maybe my hinge was more corroded than the hinges you had luck with.
The WD40 method certainly seems more convenient than my soaking which took a lot of effort to clean up excessive oil.

Well since you are dealing with the widescreen T61 with a very similar hinge mechanism to my Latitude laptops, hinge getting jammed makes perfect sense, as I have come across some half a dozen of T4x hinges that are constructed similarly to the 4:3 T6x hinges and I never had this issue - only hinges that broke clean off its base.
For the 5 Dell hinges that I lubed, those are definitely NOT corrosion. Those hinges are made of stainless steel and doesn't really corrode all that easily.
Rather, it is dust getting into the hinge, sticking to the oil inside the hinge and then eventually creates slime when you mix it by opening and closing the lid, eventually creating a lot of resistance.
After I put a crap ton of WD40, what came out is oil of black colour. It is oil with dust bunnies dissolved inside it. In fact, I am able to take out some dust bunnies with a screwdriver before I applied WD40.
Therefore unless you orient it so that the oil can drip out with gravity, soaking it doesn't quite work the same. I think you need the oil to penetrate and then drip out to clean it, and soaking it creates trapped air bubbles that doesn't come out easily because of the viscosity of slime oil.
If you still have those hinges lying around, you can probably give my method a try. When it works it really makes the hinge feel brand new again where its resistance will be at the perfect balance between holding the screen properly and not lifting the base cover at the same time.

[jharrison29]

Therefore unless you orient it so that the oil can drip out with gravity, soaking it doesn't quite work the same. I think you need the oil to penetrate and then drip out to clean it, and soaking it creates trapped air bubbles that doesn't come out easily because of the viscosity of slime oil.
If you still have those hinges lying around, you can probably give my method a try. When it works it really makes the hinge feel brand new again where its resistance will be at the perfect balance between holding the screen properly and not lifting the base cover at the same time.

That makes sense, mine were lying on their side to minimize the amount of oil required for soaking. I do still have them somewhere in a zip lock bag that keeps them from slowly dripping oil. I'll have to give that a try.