I’ve been entrusted with the task of repairing two iPod Nanos with issues, one of them has a problematic click-wheel and the other one the power button is broken which means you can’t turn it on anymore. Both repairs were successful, and as usual here are some pictures on how they were repaired.
As with the iPad repair I did a while ago, our first step in the process is to visit our best friend when it comes to Apple products repairs, none other than ifixit.com. Where we can find the teardowns on both the 5th and 6th generation iPod Nano. With these handy we will now how to crack open our idevices.
iPod Nano 5th Gen. Click-wheel of doom
For this repair, you can follow a guide the guys from iFixit already did for you. If you have a click-wheel that is.
Problem that I faced was, I couldn’t find any chick-wheels to buy, the closest part was the circuit board inside of the click-wheel which raised the complexity of this repair from easy to hard mode.
You will have to be very careful to replace that circuit board, many things can go wrong, things can break if you apply more force than required. So have patience!
For this guide you’ll need your usual iDevices repair tools:
- #00 Phillips Screewdriver
- Plastic opening tools
- Heat Gun
Steps
Follow the guide to have access to the click wheel, for this step you will use all of the tools mentioned above. This is the easy step
The wheel will look like this:
Remove the metal plate, its being held by plastic tabs, here you must apply moderate force, if you break it, the click-wheel is ruined. You’ll end up with this if you did it right:
Notice the replacement ready to go in. Peel the existing circuit board from the black plastic front, carefully nothing which button is which (in relation with the flex cable)
Remove the sticky glue protector and paste it on the black plastic piece with the right orientation
Assemble everything backwards, you are done.
WARNING
Nobody tells you this, but be careful with the black plastic piece on top of the apple chip, that thing has a spring in the center, that spring along with a metal tab in the back of the click wheel doubles as an SPEAKER, clever Apple and their space management. If you loose it, no more jams for you.
Here is a closer look of the spring. I got to warn you, I lost it 3 times, as soon as you touch it it will disappear right before your eyes.
Part 2 will be up soon
If you have any comment or questions, please leave them below