Brush N Grow mechanism, how to

[mlp4me]

Please add your tips and tricks. This is what I've come up with so far as I'm not completely done restoring. Think this will all work???

My restore is Ringlets.
Her mechanism no longer worked pulling the tail back into the body. I cannot guarantee that after you do this that your mechanism will work again. I am simply posting this because my Ringlets has a shorter tail, approx 2" cut from end  and I wanted her to have it longer.
She also has barely any yellow in her mane. A quick bleach/antibacterial soap scrub with a tooth brush took care of the mold inside.

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Get out your tea kettle and exacto knife or small flat head screwdriver. You've got some separating to do!


The body mechanism came off very easily. I pulled it out with my hands. You may have to use hot water to loosen things up. I can't guarantee she'll come apart that easy for you.
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Cut head away from top of mechanism. You may need to add some boiling water to loosen things up a bit. This is where the small flat head screw driver and lots of patience comes in handy.

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Now, to get that tail a bit longer without having to replace it...


Separate mechanism. You may be able to get it to separate by prying around the top piece. The little round knob on the top usually will break off. You may have heard it jingling around in the head before you took her apart.
**save any small v shaped clips and plastic that may loosen when you take the mechanism apart!**

Take care in remembering how the tail goes through the mechanism, as I do not have pictures of this part (you can see where her tail was, there's rust in the spot where the metal was).


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Ringlets needs some length added to her tail. This is being done by attaching some ribbon to her tail and then threading it back through the mechanism.

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 Thread your tail or extra ribbon through the mechanism. I tied a big knot to keep the ribbon in place. You can always add a dab of glue if you're afraid your tail will move around, I would suggest hot glue, but only a bit.
Once everthing is thread in go ahead and loosely fit everything back togther see if things spin.

Again, this is not a guarantee that the mechanism will be completely fixed.

Put the mechanism back together and cross your fingers!

You'll want to put your tail back through the body before you put the mechanism back in.

As a note, Ringlets was already broken and still does not work, but she has a lovely long tail! 
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[EvilMuffins]

This is great! Thank you!

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

I'll have a tutorial up sometime soon on how to retail/repair a brush n grow, but I'm still looking for more broken ones, the one I had that wasn't working was a simple fix.

[Diamond]

You have more patience then I.  Neat to see the inner workings.

[Colorscapesart]

I have an extra mech laying around that I *think* still works.  It's free if anyone needs it.

[mlp4me]

Can't wait for the how to fix it tutorial!

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

lol yeah, I would like a few more broken ones before I go through the how to fix, but in general what I've seen are the fixes are actually really simple, the mechanism itself is very sturdy and I doubt in most cases that it's the mechanism that's broken