Model M PCB Mounting Repair

[Amity97]

Hello all,

I've recently acquired a 1989 Model M by chance. It's in excellent working order, very clean, and only has two broken plastic rivets on the backplate and all keys function normally.

However, it does have one fault. The tabs that the pcb connects to have broken off, so it just floats around inside the case. This makes connecting the keyboard to the cable difficult and I'm worried one of the ribbon cables might break if I don't repair it.

Has anyone else had this problem and fixed it? My understanding is IBM went through multiple different mounting solutions for the pcb over the model m generations but none of them are very reliable.

[lhutton]

Do you still have the plastic pieces from the tabs? Maybe try to epoxy (Loctite plastic epoxy or JBWeld is usually my go to stuff) them back on.

A few M's I've fixed have had the columns that hold the metal backplate up break off and I just used some JBWeld to put the little tabs back on. AFAIK they're still going strong in the their new homes.

Barring that maybe some sort of two sided tape or stick on velcro?

[Quartz64]

You can use a hot glue or double-sided tape.

[Howard81]

Double sided tape for sticking on car number plates works a treat.