Hello all!
I’m not at all tech savvy so bear with me. I recently picked up a proton props ‘84 pack from a fellow collector. It’s amazing, however the smoke effect no longer works.
Obviously I’m not shipping it back to the UK for repairs (if they’d even do repairs lol waiting to hear back from the company as we speak, I’m sure they’ll have some good ideas too), but I’m impatient!
Anyone ever replace one of these units before? Help!!!
The smoke kit will likely be from CS Prop Shop, so try reaching out to them as well.
In what way does it no longer work? Is it that the whole smoke unit won’t activate? Of if it does turn on, it doesn’t emit smoke?
Well I bit the bullet and managed to get my hands on a used Proton Props 84 pack. Unfortunately, this beauty needs some TLC and repairs after the postmen did a number to her! I’ve reached out to proton props, and they’re helping me too, but I wanted to get some other opinions.
I have ZERO technical skills, limited tools, and have already sank a lot into this project. Trying to come up with repairs that I’ll be able to do that won’t break the bank!
As you can clearly see, she didn’t fair well on her voyage!
First repair: the crank knob. I found what I assume is the screw floating in the box:
I assume I just loosen the existing screw that is already in the crank knob, pop it on the volume knob, and tighten everything back up?
Next up, the Ion arm is sheered completely off. I’m hoping theres a way to just remove it and put a new one in its place?
the last thing I found is the pop spring on the neutrona wand. It still pops…but its…really slow about it. Just kinda slowly slides out, and is difficult to get back in.
Any ideas/assistance would be really appreciated guys! IT was a bummer seeing the box the way it came 
hopefully we can freshen this old girl up!
UPDATE:
Wow what you can do with an Allen wrench!
Crank knob is back where it belongs.
I’ve figured out how to remove the ion arm, now I need to find one that matches my pack. In the mean time I’ll just attach the old one together to get me by.
So that leaves the wand and the smoke machine to repair
The ion arm will be a gbfans one.
Pop mechs are fiddly bastards at the best of times, so you’ll need to open the wand up to see what’s going on with that. The six Allen screws on the wand base plate will provide you access.
As some of you may know from my previous post, I got a damaged Proton props 84 pack. When it came the crank knob had fallen off the pack.
I reattached it, but no matter how I position it the crank rubs against the pack and is peeling the paint (fortunately it’s a weathered pack!)
Any suggestions how to make it so it doesn’t rub?
Is it mounted on a potentiometer? If so see if theres enough room to have it a bit higher on the shaft.
It is, and I’ve attempted that, but it seems no matter how tight I make the crank knob screws every time I turn the crank knob it sinks down on the shank
Preface: Rather than creating a new topic for each issue you’re encountering, please keep all the posts relating to your Pack confined to a single thread, please.
Have you considered gluing a small washer onto the Gear Box, centered around the potentiometer? This should hopefully prevent the Crank Knob from becoming flush and damaging the painted surface of the Gear Box - and was something that was done on some of the screen-used props:
Your pot has a split shaft, so, use a flathead screwdriver to carefully part the split ends so that they’ll fill the ■■■■, then carefully angle the ■■■■ as you place it onto the pot shaft so that the screw goes straight into the split, rather than into one of the halves, which will just cause them to squash together. By screwing into the split you’ll part the halves further outward and the ■■■■ should grip.
Split shaft pots should only really be used for un-screwed knobs, a screwed-in ■■■■ requires a solid shaft potentiometer, or the screw being driven (carefully) into the split as above.
