Repairing a broken latching lever on a Navman My Escape style mounting fixture.
I had my Navman mount break when I went to attach the GPS unit the other day. On the front of the mount is a latching lever that grips the GPS unit and holds it in place. Well it wasn't working and wouldn't latch onto the GPS properly. This is how I repaired it and thought it might be handy if anyone else has the same problem.
I pulled the mounting fixture off the bracket, removed the ball swivel attachment on the back of the fixture and removed the four tiny phillips head screws that hold it together.
This pic shows the latch, and the two screws accessed from the same side. The other two screws are accessed from the opposite side of the mount, and are fitted down inside the screw holes for the ball swivel attachment (sneaky buggers).
Once the mount fixture is open you will see the latching mechanism with a metal clamping bracket (which holds it in place), held by two more small screws. Remove this being very careful not to lose the spring that is tensioned between the latching lever and the mounting fixture shell. Actually you'll need a pair of tweezers to carefully remove the spring. Once the plate and spring are out you should be able to remove the broken lever and pivots.
When you have removed the latching lever you will see the marks on either side where the small plastic pips have snapped off. Now you need to make a metal pin to replace the pivots from a piece of stainless or brass wire of a similar size to the pivots, but no more than 1.5mm or you won't have enough material around the pin to hold it. The pin needs to be of a length that will fit comfortably between the end stops shown in the pics as well.
Now drill a hole through the latch, from one side, right through to the other side, using those marks a guides. You'll need a 1mm to 1.5mm drill bit depending on the size of the wire you have. It's a bit tricky drilling the holes, so be very careful and use a pin vice to hold the drill bit and drill them by hand if you aren't confident. The hardest bit is trying to keep the drill on a straight course because you are drilling down the edge of one section of the plastic. I found it easier to start on one side, drill partway through, then start drilling from the opposite side of the lever till both holes meet.
Once you've drilled the hole, fit your pin and get it centralised across the latch, then drop a very small amount of superglue around the pin, but not where it extends past the plastic. Mine got a bit too much and I had to file some of the excess back, once it had set, so it wouldn't catch in the mechanism when it pivoted. You could probably even give the glue a miss, if your holes have left enough plastic to support the pin sufficiently well, because the end stops will stop it falling out. I glued mine mainly to give it a bit of extra strength.
Reassemble the mechanism and make sure the latching lever can pivot freely before you fit the two halves of the mounting shell back together. The screws holding the metal plate are tightened just enough to hold them firmly in and to allow free movement of the latch (some low strength loc-tite could be used here). If the mechanism seems a bit rough and sticks when it pivots, you may need to smooth off any excess glue that maybe jamming it against the mounting shell, using a tiny file or even a nailfile.
