Hi again evereddie,

Unfortunately something must have happened to the photos as I cannot see any?

Not sure of the "dots," but know of the "hook." On my backplate there is one halfway between the center and right edge; if there was one on the left side, it must have been broken and lost. I don't think they are critical though. If so, I can always glue a "retainer" as act as the hook to the back plate to help hold the spring. I am not sure of the L-shaped pieces though, maybe they are missing as well?

I tried yesterday to put things together, and unfortunately was not successful, breaking a piece off the dust cover on the right side near the end, and in the process breaking the hold-down as well. This time I am going to glue the square nuts into the hold downs with epoxy. I see no reason for them to be separate, and by epoxying them in, the pieces will be much stronger. Since the piece of the hinge that broke on the cover does not really see any stresses, just part of the hinge to hold the top on the backplate, gluing that should not be too difficult (finger crossed).

One thing for sure, to me anyway, is that this is a two-person job. To difficult to hold everything together, load up the spring and screw in the hold-downs at the same time. I will get help next time around after I've repaired the broken pieces.

Thanks again for your support my friend... I can be pretty persistent, so I expect to get there eventually ;-)

I added the photos to my file under my user name link. Take a look and see if any of them help.

The right side hinge is the weakest of all three. This is the one that breaks if the screws have been overtightened. These are not for adjustment of the dust cover. I know from unfortunate experience.

Since I was lucky enough to find a replacement, the broken dust cover became my training assistant. I practiced the replacement several times until it was as easy as Martin stated.

Good luck with your repairs. Let me know if you think I have any information you need.

Thanks evereddie!

As they say a picture is worth a thousand words... so thanks for pointing me to them.

I glued everything up yesterday, and later today, with assistance, I will make my second attempt at putting things together.

I saw the picture of the friction parts, and I do not have those. If needed I could always add something to accomplish the same thing. They look like just a piece of piece of angled aluminum that adds a little "tightness" to the hinge. Maybe could do with one side (hook or loop) of a stick-on velcro strip as well using the length of the strip to adjusting drag? But I have some angle as well.

I will let you know how my second attempt works out... fingers crossed...

Again, thanks for all your help!!!

Hello, hoping someone can troubleshoot what I'm doing wrong...I've got this back together following Martin's instructions as pasted above, but the cover is stuck in the open position.  I took it apart and repeated the process...still stuck in open position.  Please help, friends??