Repair modular power supplies

Step 5 Rethreading the strain relief

If you were patient and careful, you might have been successful in separating the relief from the cord. If so, find which conductor broke first by pulling on the wire alone. The broken side will pull out or at least stretch the insulation. cut the remnant of the cord end as shown and use the longer unbroken conductor as a "fish" to thread it through, after twisting the braid and perhaps tinning the end. Be sure to cut with the angle shown to make this process easier.

Do not lube the cable in any way if you can avoid it, as the friction between the relief and cord is somewhat desireable. The structure of the relief makes it act like chinese finger-cuffs, so apply the force as shown to ease moving it down the wire. Again, this will seem tedious, but will be worth the results. Once you get both sides of the wire through, this becomes much easier.

Pull through enough to be able to meet the soldering locations on the board, and then some. You will want to tie a simple but tight knot on the inside and leave a little slack in the case for any slight migration that may occur later. Tie the knot as close as possible to the relief, or slide the relief up to it afterwards, but before reassembly.

If you had cut the relief open and didn't repair it again, or didn't plan to, threading it through is a lot easier, just be sure that the wire is snugly nestled in the form, and not twisted inside it. Once you have properly set the slack you need, use zipties to close the relief, pulled tight with needle-nose to assure a tight fit. You will still need the knot on the inside to keep the wire from slipping and eventually pulling out.