UKH

Recently my partner took a couple of lead falls onto a silver x4 cam (3 years old and well used) placed correctly in a vertical crack (these might have been the first times the cam was fallen on but not sure). Since then, one of the inner lobes appears to be getting stuck on something as it remains permanently cammed at about 70% of the maximum range. The two outer lobes and other inner lobe still work completely fine.

If possible, I'd like to have someone from BD look at this to see if the issue can be fixed, or at least to try and work out what is wrong with it. Does anyone know if there is a UK contact point for black diamond who I could speak to about this, or will I need to send it to the US?

Furthermore, if anyone else has ever seen this issue before and has any idea what could be causing it let me know.

As far as I know it isn't possible to return cams for a service currently as BD are in the process of opening an European service center. An email to their returns/customer service center might be able to help though.

It's hard to say without seeing the cam. A few things could be happening;

Maintenance job

Grit/gunk in-between the lobes

Trigger wire interference with mechanism (although I think they are Kevlar on this cam, so unlikely)

Bin Job

Deformed lobes

Bent axle 

The smaller X4 cams have essentially a hole in the middle of the lobe which means it's quite possible that the lobe has deformed as they are far less supported than a normal lobe, especially if it was subject to an offset force. May not be, but it's certainly a possibility if it's seen repeated large falls.

Retire it and get a new one.

3 years isn't bad innings for a microcam and if it's sticking, it seems likely either the axel or the lobes are deformed. It's a £60 piece of kit so I can't see any scenario where it's worthwhile paying for 2 times postage + a repair cost (in the, probably unlikely, event that BD can/agree to repair it) to be left always thinking "hmm, it _is_ the one that was repaired... maybe I'll place my other microcam in this placement".

BD are pretty good, you only pay one way postage and the repair/resling service is about £15.

Thinking about it, if the lobes ARE deformed it will be impossible to repair as the axle forms part of the stem termination and they would need to entirely replace the stem, I.e. the only things possible to save would be the trigger system and the springs...

Cheers all. I think the lobe is bent so a repair seems unlikely. If there was an easy way of getting someone at BD to look at it then I would still be interested in doing that, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

Guess I'll just have to allow myself to buy a totem...

Bigstone are the UK distributer for BD:

https://www.bigstone.co.uk/

If you do scrap it, cam I get it to measure and then turn into ear rings?