Introduction: Headphone Jack Repair With Neutrik NTP3RC

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About: I like to tinker - more or less repair things.


This instructable will show you how to repair a shorted headphone jack and replace the jack with a Neutrik NTP3RC.


What you will need:

1 Neutrik NTP3RC.  Can be had on Amazon between $3 and $7.  Black plastic model is cheaper
Soldering Iron
Solder
helping hands
razor blade

Step 1: Determine Source of Short

This particular pair of in-ear headphones had a short in the right ear. Given the initial cost and decent sound quality, it was definitely cheaper to repair the jack than to purchase a new pair.

You will need to determine the source of the short before cutting off  the headphone jack.  The short in this pair was very close to the jack itself. 

In other cases, the short could be further up the wire closer to the earphone.  You want to make sure that you find the short, and cut above that. You don't want to go through all the trouble just to have the short follow your work.

Begin carefully snipping away at the strain relief.  I also removed the outer cover to the jack.

Step 2: Prepare Your Wires


Now for the hard part.  The wires in the cable are very very tiny and very easy to cut with a razor blade. I would not suggest using any wire strippers for this.

One safe way to remove the outer [plastic] insulation is to place the razor blade on top of the insulation and gently roll the wire underneath.  You will cut around the rubber insulation so that you can simply pull it off and get to your wires.  If you place too much pressure, you will cut through the wires inside.

Now you will need to feed the wire through the barrel of the NTP3RC BEFORE you start soldering.  This barrel will screw down over the other components of jack.  The rubber end faces the headphones and the silver piece faces the exposed wires.  The image is incorrect, however I added a note informing you of the correct orientation.

Separate the wires. For my headphones, the coloring is:

Green = left
Red = right
Copper = ground

Twist the two ground wires together.  Don't worry about the string
Twist the red and twist the green.

Step 3: Solder Wires to New Jack


Your helping hands will come in very handy during this step.

Identify the poles on the jack. The ground will face up/north.  In the attached image, the jack is resting on the ground, so the left and right are opposite.

Middle = ground (facing upward)
left = left
right = right

The left and right poles have a hole in them, so you can thread the wires through and solder them
The ground does not have a hole, so you will need to apply some solder, place the ground wire on top and then apply some heat. 
The ground connection is the most difficult.

Trim any excess wire.

Step 4: Assemble Jack


Assembly is fairly simple, though the plastic strain relief took a little thought to figure out.

Once you have the strain relief in place, take the two silver pieces and place them over the jack.  The wire will extend from the threaded ends.

The packaging has a diagram of how to assemble, but the Neutrik website also has a PDF which shows this step in a little more detail.

The silver portion of the barrel will then thread over those two silver pieces.