Things You'll Need:
- Replacement Plug
- Pliers
- Continuity Tester
- Pliers
- Screwdriver
- Soldering Iron And Solder (available At Hardware Stores)
- Wire Cutters/strippers
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Step 1
Use wire cutters/strippers to snip the old headphone plug off the cord. Purchase an exact replacement headphone plug at an electronics store.
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Step 2
Twist off the shell of the replacement plug and slide it and any insulating sleeve onto the headphone cord.
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Step 3
Using the wire cutters/strippers, remove 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) of the outer insulation from the headphone cord. You should find three wires: two insulated wires and one uninsulated wire, which is the ground.
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Step 4
Strip 1/2 inch (12 mm) of insulation from each of the insulated wires (see A).
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Step 5
Solder or screw the uninsulated ground wire to the plug terminal that is farthest from the plug tip (see B).
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Step 6
Solder the insulated wires to the other plug terminals. If you don't know which terminal on the plug is the right channel and which is the left, you can use a continuity tester (available at electronics or hardware stores) to find out, testing it first on the tip of the headphone jack, which is always the left channel.
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Step 7
Squeeze the plug clips together with a pair of pliers to secure the cord.
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Step 8
Slide the shell over the plug and screw the plug in place.
Comments
zonambulous said
on 6/20/2009 The coloring is a an insulator for the wires, as mentioned by the tips and warnings above. This insulation can be easily removed by holding a hot soldering iron to it for a few seconds (scraping it off will most likely damage the thin wires and will not effectively remove the insulation.) You'll see discoloration and if you add solder as you do this you'll tin the wire itself. Most solder sold at radio shack has flux already added to it, this will clean the impurities off the wire and make it a whole lot easier to solder. Which makes it way easier to solder from the wire to the pins or loops of the plug you're trying to replace.
If you're reconnecting cut wires you'll need some heat shrink tubing to insulate the exposed soldered wires. electrical tape or duct tape will not do, as it easily comes off. The shrink tube will actually hold the two ends together very tightly and wil...
xenidus said
on 5/13/2009 I've ran into the flimsy fiber stuff (along side the metal wire). It isn't good for solder, so the last pair I repaired, I separated the fibers from the wire, which took forever, then cut away about a half inch of the fiber so just the metal wire was in the area of repair. After this, I just twisted the bare metal wire together so it was held together on its own and then soldered away the twisted part. Worked after that just fine... but I think the metal coloring (red and green) might cause the solder to not be as effective. I'm not a pro with this, it's just sort of an observation.
typer said
on 4/1/2009 I bought one of the replacement audio jacks at Radio shack, you just screw the wires onto the contacts, no soldering involved, they sound better than ever, it is very easy to do.
typer said
on 3/28/2009 i bought TWO phillips over the ear type headphones, expecting one pair to rip off it's jack terminals in a matter of months and they BOTH did in a matter of months, starting to really annoy me.
typer said
on 3/28/2009 why do they make the wires so microscopic, who can solder these newer headphone wires? It's impossible. The solution would be for someone to just manufacture fixable headphones, with a little thicker wires that don't come loose, what a concept.