tightening up my Wave?

[mdozier]

Hello. New here; been snooping a while. I hope this is the correct place for this; based on the knowledge here I thought this might be the best place for a response other than "send it back".  I intend to venture into modding anyway.

My newest Wave doesn't have much resistance at what i would call the detent point of the handles in the plier position.  What I mean is: when opening to the plier position my older Wave hits a point where the handle rotates into a resistance and then when continuing into the final position "snaps" into place with a resistive type locking which must also be overcome to rotate the handles back to close the tool up.  I know this opening loosens over time and use but this is a new mt.  The only problem I can see is when opening the pliers fully the handles no longer stop at this "detent" point.  With very little resistance they simply continue rotating open which seems  awkward while using the pliers one handed.

My thought is this is the mechanical design of the rotating ball or joint within the hinge and once worn it can not be tightened.  But, before I explode my brand new Wave to experiment I thought I'd seek advice.

I'd much prefer to do this myself rather than send it back.  I do have other LM's including my other Wave to fall back on if I screw it up in the process.

Any help/info is much appreciated. 
Thanks in advance.
Matt in Nashville

[enki_ck]

First, Welcome to the forum

Now, are the two springs inside the handle engaging (the ones that push out that small tab that prevents the knife from opening when the pliers are open)? Is this happening on both handles or just the one?

[Metropolicity]

It's not that, the way the pliers stay open is a friction based cam ramp. You need to smack the handle right at the tip to move the position down so the cam has something to bite into.

Put it a vice and make sure the tool has something on the bottom to rest on and you need to hit it a few times with a ballpeen hammer.

This will reset a new place for the ramp to "click" into.

Hit here:



See how it engages that spot?

[mdozier]

Thank you both very much.  The cam explains the feel when opening/closing. This is exactly what I hoped to learn.  I'll give it a try later tonight when I can get to the bench.

Thanks so much!

m

[Metropolicity]

Glad that made sense, so hard to explain something like this without using the proper terms. Good luck!

[stealth007s]

Glad that made sense, so hard to explain something like this without using the proper terms. Good luck!

Always a pro!¡!

[Yak-er]

I have a relatively new Wave (less than 2 weeks). I have used it lightly, only torqued down on the pliers a couple of times and not super hard. But I have noticed the pliers no longer "snap" into place. They open nice and smooth and I don't notice any play. They also don't fold when opening the pliers. It looks like the area mentioned above (by the toothpick) is slightly convex. Do I need perform this repair?

[neillcurrie]

Necropost:

Well, I had a first generation Wave that exhibited the loose opening and closing of the handles. I sent mine back to Leatherman, where they performed the *repair* that's detailed above: impacting the handles in a little more so that it rides more firmly on the ramp.
When I got the tool back I was shocked. Not only were the handles even looser on the plier ramps (now flopping open/closed), but also the indents caused by the Leatherman Tech person were very unsightly.
I called Leatherman, and they quickly replaced the whole Wave with a new one, so no real harm done, but a word of warning about this "repair".