GT headphone jack replacement

[sandfisher]

Went to use my GT on the beach the other night and noticed I got no sound through the headphones. Had to hunt with the speaker. What a pain over the sound of the waves. Anyway, checked the headphones later and they work in my stereo at home. Took apart the unit and tried it out by wiggling the plug in the jack and was able to get intermittent sound. Does anyone know where to get a replacement jack and/test the old one? And is it a simple job of soldering a new one in?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Double check with another set of headphones as most have a switch for stereo/mono and these will only work one way on the Sovereigns and if the wire breaks it may work on the stereo but not on the Sovereign so I would check it out before you try to replace the jack.

 

[kered]

As rick says, its not the first time the switch on my sunrays has moved while in the boot or putting on, i also have a set that have a wire broken in the plug, works on fisher etc but not on the minelab unless i bridge the plug, very few detectors are actually full stereo(nautilus comes to mind), rather they are almost all mono but use different parts of the plug to connect(either the small circle in the middle or the longest one, the point is usually common) this is how some makers get away without a switch by using a removable lead with mono plug on one end and a stereo on the other.
If its not the phones it could be muck or sand in the actuall jack, try blowing air or maybe switch/contact cleaner to clean the contacts.

 

[Critterhunter]

Yea, I'd clean the jack first with some WD40 or contact cleaner. There are two moving parts (contacts) in a headphone jack to disconnect the built in speaker and enable the headphones. If dirt is between those or they are no longer making good contact then it will cause this. Radio Shack sells replacement jacks of various sizes. If you know how to solder it's a quick/easy fix. Otherwise take it up to a RC hobby store of some type and they will solder stuff for you cheap, as a lot of car/plane RC guys don't know how to solder.