How to fix Apple's power adapter
7/9/2005Do you have an Apple laptop power adapter with a broken plug? I keep breaking them no matter how careful I am. I even went so far as to put a protective tube over it, and even that didn't work! This is a design flaw, imho, and a friend's PC has a similar cable plug that is virtually indestructible in comparison. But, fortunately, I did find a way to fix it, and the replacement plug seems to be a little sturdier, too. I picked this up at the AppleNova forums, I think. Hopefully this plug will last a lot longer. Follow this advice at your own risk.
The tricky part of this repair is that it is a wire within a wire. There is a Posive and a Negative wire, but rather than two strands, there is an outer ring and an inner core. The outer ring is in a braided pattern, the wire is very fragile, and it needs to be unbraided so you can splice it. I've done this procedure on three different power adapters. They all seem to work okay. The replacement cable costs $12.95 from Lind Electonics. You need to make sure you get the correct cable. (I'm not sure what the difference is.) They have one cable for PowerBooks and iBooks, and another cable for clamshell iBooks and G3 Powerbooks. Search for CBLPW-10012 and CBLPW-10000B
This is a picture of the problem. The plug breaks at the neck where the wire enters the plug. The inner core stays strong, but the fragile outer ring frays. Some people have reported sparking, and I saw it for myself recently. The black plug is from the yo-yo adapter which was my first attempted repair. Apple changed the reinforcement area from a flexible neck to a more stiff neck over the years. That has turned out to be a mistake. My older power adapters lasted longer than my newer ones.
What you need to make this repair is the Lind Electronics cable, electrical tape, and a pair of wire cutters.
Cut off the plug end you don't need on the Lind Electronics wire.
Cut off the broken plug from the Apple power adapter.
When you cut off the outer cable casing, this is what it will look like. You may need to do this a few times to get it right. You want to break as few of the braided wire threads as possible. This got progressively harder to do as I went from my older adapter to newer adapters. For the third one, I ended up using a Swiss Army Knife to shave off the casing.
Be sure to cut a reasonably long splice, like 1 1/2 or 2 inches. THIS IS IMPORTANT!
Carefully separate the outer wire off the inner wire.
You will need to strip the casing off the inner wire, but BE SURE TO LEAVE HALF OF ITS LENGTH ON! This way, when you tape it, the inner wire and outer wire will be well separated from each other.
Once you have all four wires exposed, then you can splice them together. Be sure to splice the inner wire with the inner wire, and the outer wire with the outer wire.
I used a scrap piece of the outer casing to act as as a wire nut. Twist the two wires together, slip the outer casing over it, and tape it tightly.
**This was a bad idea, just tape it directly instead. And tape it tightly.**
This was taped too loosely and needed to be redone,
Your effort will look something like this. A new plug for your Apple power adapter.
If I have any problems, I will update this article. (I have had no problems in two years, and have not broken any plugs at the neck either.) Follow this advice at your own risk.
