Stupid me. Ikelite flat port well and truly stuck.

I have an Ikelite housing for the Canon G9. I regularly take off the flat port and give it a good clean.

This time, I seem to have done it too tight and it is now stuck. I have tried brute force, to the extent of bending the tool that Ikelite provide for removing the port. I have also tried cooling the housing down, as I thought this might help. Neither worked.

Before I send it off to an Ikelite service centre, has anyone got any clever suggestions?

Thanks...

Flexible rubber ended oil filter strap wrench. Available at any auto parts store.......

When you re-install the port don't just grease the o-ring but put a dab on the plastic threads too.

Will come part easier next tie you feel the urge to clean it

Good luck!

dhaas

Flexible rubber ended oil filter strap wrench. Available at any auto parts store.......

 

When you re-install the port don't just grease the o-ring but put a dab on the plastic threads too.

 

Will come part easier next tie you feel the urge to clean it

 

Good luck!

 

dhaas

Top stuff. Thanks Dhaas. Now all I have do do is work out how to say 'Flexible rubber ended oil filter strap wrench' in Thai! That should keep me occupied for a while...

I feel your pain.. I had the same problem with my G7 housing the other week. I bent the tool and made my hands bleed. Tried putting it in the freezer, in hot water, everything. Gave up in the end and sold the housing on ebay with the short port firmly attached.

Out of interest, why would you want to put the long port back on? I never used it once I got the short port.

Hi Uwasia,

I had the same problem with my G9 Ike and bent the tool and bent my hands. Ouch! Now I tighten the port a little less that the final quarter turn which the Ike instructions recommend though I do continue to very sparingly grease the O-ring so it slips in the port groove and against the face of the housing without distorting. That would be a very real possibility if the ring were left dry.

I swap ports frequently as I prefer to use the long port when shooting macro with INON UCL glass. Having the full range of the G9's zoom available is, I feel, a benefit to composition. I don't swap w/a and macro glass on the same dive preferring to concentrate on a single photgraphic technique. And I have no idea what I would do with that large chunk of INON w/a glass if it were off camera!

Happened to me too!

The way I've got it off (twice now) works a treat, straighten the rod back up in a vice, thread it back through the port, get someone to hold your housing, and turn the steel rod....with a C spanner or clamp or pipe grips, or just some metal tool that will catch the rod on alternate sides, and then hold your breath and twist...and there she goes!

...I tried freezing spray and hot water and all that the first time, none of it works apart from this one..there is one other that does work, fishing line, very strong fishing line, thread it thru 2 holes and tie it together and wrap a towel in your hands and twist the line round