Repairing Sinclair ROM Skirts

Just about every ROM I ever got my hands on had its rubber skirt out of place. If you've ever tried putting this right, you'll have noticed it's no easy job! After much squeezing, bending and proding, here's a technique I came up with which seems to work every time, without the need for any "tools" at all.

The Skirt

There isn't much to the skirt itself at all. Basically, there's a rim which belongs on the inside of the casing, and six tabs which should be straight and flat against the PCB's surface.

ROM skirt tabs

The Technique

If the tabs are pushed into the casing, you're better off taking the whole thing out before carying on. You can try hooking them out with something, but those tiny rubber tabs stay very firmly put when they're not straight and there's a good chance you'll rip the skirt, or even damage the cartridge itself.

Slip the skirt over the PCB as far as it'll go without pushing it into the casing. Take the skirt at one end between thumb and index finger so that the two tabs nearest the end are bent up inside it (see stage 1 below). At this stage it's easy enough to get the rim at that end into the casing properly, leaving the tabs as shown in stage 2.

ROM skirt insertion

Now you can either try the same with the middle tabs, or get the other end in place. I find doing the middle tabs the easiest - otherwise the end you just put in tends to spring right out again. It may take a few tries, but eventually you should have the rim completely in place, with all tabs as shown in stage 2. As before, if you manage to bend the tabs inside the casing, you're better off starting again!

If you got this far, you're basically home and dry. Originally I used a small plastic ruler to push the tabs down into the correct position (stage 3). However, if you simply squeeze the skirt just over the tabs, they flip nicely into place on their own.

You may need to rub the skirt lightly beween you fingers to remove any folds and get it nice and straight. Sometimes it helps to pull gently on the skirt to get everything in place.

And there you have it - with a little practice you'll have perfect ROM skirts every time!