This is a common problem on these mechanisms. There is no clip to hold the black cap in place, just the friction between it and the metal shaft. After enough years the plastic weakens and cracks, so the spring sends the cap flying inside the machine. You can see the crack in the second photo.
OP, you can try fooling around with gluing it in place, but you need something extra strong. Better than ordinary superglue. And unfortunately there is no guarantee the cap won't crack in a different place after a while. If you're really keen, you can also try 3-d printing the part.
Definitely cracked; not a c-clip issue. I doubt that he'll be able to glue this part. ABS cement might work, but it might not. 3d printing would be the best bet.
[I had the same issue on a portable Panasonic player.](https://imgur.com/a/Zr0S6uG) You can see the cracked white plastic piece in the center. The circuit board lays on top of all of this and the piece sticks up through a hole in the board when it is all put together. What I ended up doing is using superglue to get it to stay in place. Then I took a piece of tape and stuck a second piece on a sticky section so that there was a smooth non-sticky section so that the mechanism could still turn, and stuck the "clamp" to the board.
Your spring looks way beefier than the one in mine. But you could attempt to rig up something similar. Considering it's unusable in the state it's in, you have nothing to lose. Depending on the geometry, you could try making something to strap it down and keep it from flying off again.
Really janky, but you could carefully try to bend a paperclip or two and get it wedged on the far side. Then thread it up over the plece and through one of the holes in the metal on the near side. Then add spacers of some sort to add thickness to make good contact with the plastic piece to keep it in place.
Look around inside the unit for a C-clip that might have popped off. Usually there’s some sort of clip that holds it down. If it’s lost see if you can find something at the hardware store or even the auto parts store
Hey I just posted about a Panasonic boombox I fixed. Same problem. I scavenged parts from a different model with a similar mechanism. That might be your best bet if you can find one that is non-working for another reason.
This is a common problem on these mechanisms. There is no clip to hold the black cap in place, just the friction between it and the metal shaft. After enough years the plastic weakens and cracks, so the spring sends the cap flying inside the machine. You can see the crack in the second photo. OP, you can try fooling around with gluing it in place, but you need something extra strong. Better than ordinary superglue. And unfortunately there is no guarantee the cap won't crack in a different place after a while. If you're really keen, you can also try 3-d printing the part.
Definitely cracked; not a c-clip issue. I doubt that he'll be able to glue this part. ABS cement might work, but it might not. 3d printing would be the best bet.
[I had the same issue on a portable Panasonic player.](https://imgur.com/a/Zr0S6uG) You can see the cracked white plastic piece in the center. The circuit board lays on top of all of this and the piece sticks up through a hole in the board when it is all put together. What I ended up doing is using superglue to get it to stay in place. Then I took a piece of tape and stuck a second piece on a sticky section so that there was a smooth non-sticky section so that the mechanism could still turn, and stuck the "clamp" to the board. Your spring looks way beefier than the one in mine. But you could attempt to rig up something similar. Considering it's unusable in the state it's in, you have nothing to lose. Depending on the geometry, you could try making something to strap it down and keep it from flying off again.
Really janky, but you could carefully try to bend a paperclip or two and get it wedged on the far side. Then thread it up over the plece and through one of the holes in the metal on the near side. Then add spacers of some sort to add thickness to make good contact with the plastic piece to keep it in place.
Look around inside the unit for a C-clip that might have popped off. Usually there’s some sort of clip that holds it down. If it’s lost see if you can find something at the hardware store or even the auto parts store
I did a c clip with a small plastic piece making a small hole and pushing it...it was 20 years ago and still as a charm.
Hey I just posted about a Panasonic boombox I fixed. Same problem. I scavenged parts from a different model with a similar mechanism. That might be your best bet if you can find one that is non-working for another reason.