Well I've opened her up, and what I've found is much the same as others have experienced.

The pivot shaft had come loose from the main body of the joint.



After removing the joint and carefully inspecting it, I found the cruel, cruel joke of it all.

The joint is not broken. It is functioning exactly as designed. There is nothing but friction and the force of the silicone around it holding the shaft inside the joint body.

As these joints loosen, eventualy all of this design will feel "broken". You will be able to grab the top of the thigh and move it side to side and feel this shaft sliding in and out of the main body. So long as you do not pull the leg hard enough to pull the shaft, which is 1 3/4 inches (about 4.4 cm) long, completely out of the body the joint will continue to support the silicone properly. It will be very loose and clunky, for sure, and you will need to be extra carefull in moving her and posing, but so long as the shaft remains inside the joint surgery will not be necessary.

Now that I have her open, I can either replace the joint with a new one from Abyss, or modify the old one so that the shaft is retained. I'm considering using Rentell's set screw method. But I'm also cosidering a pair of .5 mm thick brass plates on each side of the shaft between the main body of the joint and the pelvic plate.

And should I do the other hip now? And what about trying to loosen the back joint from the side?

While I got the hood up....

Mahtek & Phoebe & Penelope

Crap!..Just what I did not want to hear...Thanks Mahtek, Keep the information coming.

HI Mahtek Sorry you and Penelope are having to go through this, iam sure things will work out for the best. Looking at your photo is it not possible to fit a Cotter pin in the end of the shaft to stop it pulling through the plastic ??? The hip is a high stress area you would think they would use stronger material but then the weight of the doll goes up !!! Take your time and dont rush it

Actualy, Camp, This should be good news for you! If Dottie's hips start doing this, surgery will be an option not a requirement!

When Pennie's hip first popped, I seriously considered not doing anything. I thought that since the joint appeared to move in all the right ways, and the leg did not sag under downforce maybe things would be OK. Now I know that they probably would have been.

The thing with this joint is that when it finaly comes completely loose, it starts doing something that it didn't do before. Something that people don't do unless they're broken. A reasonable person would think "This is bad, and I've got to fix it". Not necessarily the case. So long as that shaft remains in the joint body, the silicone is supported.

This joint is still a lousy design. When it does come loose you get a new way to screw up your doll. Crossing your dolls legs will pop the shaft out in a heartbeat! That's why I'm still considering doing the other hip. I don't want a situation where the joint fails and her leg is just hanging by the silicone!

Mahtek & Phoebe & Penelope

TEE,

Thanks for your thoughts.

Yes, a cotter pin on the opposite side could work. The problem is that you would be working in a blind area. It might be very difficult to install. The pivot mounts on one side of the pelvic plate, the main body on the other. One could not do any pre-assembly.

The hip would be plenty strong enough if they had made something to prevent the pivot from pulling out.

Mahtek & Phoebe & Penelope

Hey mahtek!!! I agree, now is the time to do whatever modifications
you need to do to give yourself "peace-of-mind" and know that Pennie's
leg(s) will never pop out of their sockets again. Your surgery wasn't a
waste of time!!! It's a learning experience for all of us with our dolls to
know what to expect and to decide if we need to do a major repair such
as yours.

While you're in there, please replace that nut with a Ny-Lock. That
will give me piece-of-mind!!!!

Take care & thanks!!! litlluvr & Yoshe.

Litlluvr,

Consider the nylok nut change done! I had the wrenches is the picture, but the truth is that nut was only slightly more than finger tight.

So yes, I probably would have had to go in sooner or later any way.

Mahtek & Phoebe & Penelope

HI Mahtek Been thinking got another way you can do the repair. First make a round plate same size as the plastic insert with the 4 holes in. Next drill the centre of the plate and slot it to the edge, bit like a Pac Man then when you insert the shaft you can lock it in postion with the plate ??? Or if you cant insert the shaft fully OH Errr slot the shaft to a depth and use the plate to retain everything ??? Hope that helps

There goes the "Dottie crosses her legs" shoot...

While I got the hood up....


I like the wry humour and how the hell did you get rid of the black dust ???

Anyways, looks like you sussed the problem, just hope you have long slim hands to get in there to work.

TEE,

Do you read minds? That's pretty much what I had planned to do! The piece of metal that I have to work with may be a bit small to do in one piece, but the effect would be the same.

Rentell,

To remove the black dust (nutty slack, as I recall), I use Methyl Ethyl Ketone with disposable paper rags. It is of the same family of chemicals as acetone, but much more aggressive. You must be carefull not to get it on the PVP bones too much. If MEK isn't available on you side of the pond, use acetone. It works, just not as fast.

Litlluvr,

I just picked up the nylock nuts.

Mahtek & Phoebe & Penelope

oh yes the nutty slack .......... and the lost DaveC



............. and the loctite I hope plus some of those cracking little spring washers.

Bonne chance

Seems like that would be better with a Heim Joint. Smoother motion with no metal-to-metal grinding. They're fairly cheap.

I can't believe they didn't use self-locking nuts or any retaining device on that assembly. Oh, well, gotta' go with what you got.

I would HATE to have to cut into my doll like that. Looks like you know what you're doing though. Very interesting pictures, thanks for posting those.

~DL

Mahtek...

Glad to see that you've sliced down to the heart of the problem. It looks like the joint is not sheared, but, rather only the part that goes into the upper thigh bone (the white colored piece of PVC tubing) came loose. I assume that the shaft from the joint should be solidly fixed into the top of the thigh bone.

Well, it's encouraging that the joint itself did not fail, but only its attachment to the thigh. As a quick fix, it might be possible to just lightly sand the end of the shaft that goes into the PVC tube as well as the INSIDE surface of the tube and then use a quick setting epoxy cement to hold them together. I have worked with various epoxy cements and they are incredibly strong. Once you set the pieces together and the epoxy resin hardens, the joint will actually be stronger than the surround PVC. Of course, once this is done, you will not be able to undo it.


technoguy

I think you're doing a super job with that repair Does this problem acure with all dolls sooner or later or is it just abyss