OK gang. Here are my debriefing notes from the operation. The numbers correspond to the photos, but you will have to wait till Marc has got them off to the 2400 web site to see it all together. Thanks for everyones help. 01 - Here is the tell tale tear in the cord jacket at the strain relief (circled). The wire is coaxial with a braided conductor surrounding a core of another insulated conductor. In my case the exposed wires had already begun to break. This has advanced in the 10 months I have had my 2400 despite being careful with it. 02 - First step is cutting open the box. You want to cut it at the visible joint that runs around the mid line of the sides, intersecting the strainreleif and the power socket. The joint is a tounge and groove that appears to be solvent welded, but I'm not sure. The plastic is up to 3/16 to an 1/8" thick here so it will take a while to get through it. I began with a drywall knife because the blades are sharp and it is easy to replace with fresh blades. Be careful - the tip of the blade will break off in the cut readily with any bending force on it. Even with a knife (vs a saw) some material will be lost from the joint - this means everyting won't come back together tight later. Watch your fingers, don't put too much force on it. The best plan would be to use some sort of clamping work bench to hold it so you don't put your fingers at risk. 03 - Here it is with the case opened. The ciruct board is on the other side still in the case. The strainrelief is just fit into a square opeining in the case. Lift it out and remove the guts from the case. 04 - Here it is out of the case and flipped over (and those are all the helpful directions from the list on the right!). You can see the two leads going into the circut board. The white one is the core conductor, the black one is the braided one which the manufacturer has divided and insulated with heatshrink (arrow green). There is a larger diam. heatshrink at the place where the braid is gathered into a wire (arrow red). I point this out because you will have to do something similar later to cover this transition. There is also a foil shield between the center and braided conductors. 05 - I have cut the wire and removed the strainrelief. I cut it close as possible to the strainrelief on the interior side to have the most wire to work with just in case. In the photo I have also removed a portion of the heatshrink insulation from the divided braided wire (arrow). 06 - Time to clean the jacket out of the strainrelief. I used a sharp drill bit, a little smaller than the diam of the cable. The long nose was just to grip the bit while I twisted the strainrelief. When it is clear you should be able to see the bit inside the little grooves (arrows). I also tried picking at it with a pin first, but this seemed to work better. Make sure the old jacket is cleaned out - it is quite a bit softer than the strainrelief and it should come out. 07 - Looks so easy - the cable is not so happy about going back through the strainrelief. Twisting helped a bit at first, but as friction builds it would not go any further. I had an extension of the center conductor to pull on. Buckle down and grap that sucker with the needle nose and pull it home - any damage the pliers do to the end of the wire can be cut off. Once it comes through it will slide along the cord without too much strain - snug, but it will move where you want it to. This seems about right - it is supposed to relieve strain, not introduce it, right! 08 - Here I removed the outer jacket (arrow) from the cord in prep to make the splice in the conductors. 09 - Now you have to turn the braided conductor into something you can splice. I used a push pin to "comb" out the braid. Start very near the end and work back towards the jacket. The foil shield is in there too - you can trim it off where the braiding will end. Get your white wire to one side and comb the strands to either side. 10 - Its separated and I am twisting all the strands into a "wire" that I can splice. 11 - Here I am splicing the formerly braided wires together (arrow red). I twisted them and tinned them lightly with solder to hold them together. Some planning at this point is worthwhile because you have to fit all this back into the tight space that lies right behind the strain relief (where you see the blue componant at the slot). I considered doing an "inline" splice but then it seemed like this twisted end splice (forgive me I don't know the real terms) would allow the wires to double back and fit into the tight space. Also note the knot I have made in the cable by the strainrelief (green arrow). It was reccommended on the directions from the list since the bonding of the cable to the strainrelief is no more. Keep the knot loose at this point - you will want to move it close to the splice so that there is less wire stuffed in the box. (BTW - the grey work surface: I am soldering on top of a concrete siding shingle - does'nt burn.) 12 - Time for the white conductor to be spliced. As far as the planning ahead: You can start to see how this whole thing will fold up on itself when it gets stuffed inside. The arrows show how the tips will be brought down. First I wrapped tape over the formerly braided wire making sure to cover the transition I mentioned above. The white wire passed through this bundle. (Sorry I did not photo the wrapping process.) Then I wrapped the white splice and folded it down flat ontop of the other. Moved the knot down close and inserted the splices into the small space. 13 - Back together with a wrap of tape and off to confirm its working. (yes thats a spare 2400 screw cover "dot" on my case - where else would you keep it!) -- Gregory La Vardera Gregory La Vardera Architect www.lamidesign.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] 856 662 4909 ---------- Duo/2400 List, The friendliest place on the Net! A listserv for users and fans of Mac subportables. FAQ at <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/DuoListFAQ.shtml> Be sure to visit Mac2400! <http://www.sineware.com/mac2400> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Need help from a real person? Try. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------- Dr. Bott | 10/100 Ethernet for your 2400 is finally here! MPC-100 | <http://www.drbott.com/prod/mpc100.html> NineWire | If they are cool enough to host this list... Digital Solutions | ...you should check them out! http://www.NineWire.com/ Midwest Mac Parts ][ <http://www.midwestmac.com> After-market parts for Macs. ][ 888-356-1104 ][ MacResQ Specials: LaCie SCSI CDR From $99! 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