Help with moving heel bolt

JRG · Post by **JRG** » Thu May 09, 2024 8:25 pm

Hey all,

I have a newer SE 161 girl, that is having issues with the heel bolts. They seemed to have moved rearward. They are tight, so I’m guessing there is something going on with the ankle mechanism. The weird thing is it’s happened to both heels.

The doll has been stored standing up in a closet, with socks and shoes at all times. She hasn’t been dropped, or even placed down on her heels hard at all. I have a very mechanical aptitude, and don’t mind working on it, but I’d like to see what the skeleton looks like in the ankle region.

The left ankle did become loose in the horizontal plane, but is still very tight in the vertical plane. I don’t think that’s a factor here, as the issue of the moving heel bolts is on both feet.

If anyone has any insight or information to the cause of this, I would greatly appreciate it. I’m planning on fixing the lose left ankle, so getting into the skeleton was already planned. I would love to see some pictures of it first for reference on cuts. I will post a picture of the heel bolts.

Mr Franz · Post by **Mr Franz** » Thu May 09, 2024 8:42 pm

Huh, never seen that before. Almost looks like both bolts are bent backwards or where the nut is welded to the foot plate.

JRG · Post by **JRG** » Fri May 10, 2024 5:26 am

Mr Franz wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2024 8:42 pm Huh, never seen that before. Almost looks like both bolts are bent backwards or where the nut is welded to the foot plate.

I’m thinking something along the same lines. Feeling around in the foot area seems to show a plate rolled back, but as I’m unsure of what the foot skeleton looks like, I have no idea if this was built this way. The bolts have plastic caps on them, so I’m sure they would have broken if an impact would have happened with enough force to bend the metal parts. I will post another picture how she has been stored, which is the same as my other two.

I’ll check the bolts and see if they are bent, but they don’t feel like they are.

Mr Franz · Post by **Mr Franz** » Fri May 10, 2024 6:16 am

It is odd. My WM stands just about 24/7 like that. Never had a problem the nearly 7 years I've had her. I'm not sure how SE does their foot plates either. I was thinking maybe they weld a nut on the back of the plate as some others do and maybe that had cracked or bent somehow.

Looking at the new pics though, I see some strange creasing at the ankles. Wonder if maybe something's come undone causing the foot plate itself to move?

chris0113 · Post by **chris0113** » Fri May 10, 2024 7:15 am

Looks like the rear end of the foot plate has bent backwards. You can see weird ankle creases and the curvature of the feet. I imagine the foot plates are thin metal with nuts welded to them for the standing bolts to attach to.

JRG · Post by **JRG** » Fri May 10, 2024 7:59 am

The weird ankle creases were there from new, in fact I had commented the ankle area was odd looking. I’ve even gone to the extent of putting metal plates in the shoes, so the bolts don’t push through the insole padding. I have three dolls, a Lushdoll, SE, and a WM, and I alternate through the three, where they get stored in the box for a month, and out for two. Since I’ve noticed the weird foot thing last week, Tracy has been stored in the box, as I don’t want to risk any more damage until I sort this out. I’m going to see if I can contact SE and see if they can send me pictures of the ankle area of the skeleton.

I know at one point a thread was initiated regarding putting pictures of different skeletons up for reasons such as this, but a search provided nothing that I could find.

If anyone has any further, please comment, and once I get this sorted out I will certainly post my pictures of the fix.

The right ankle is very floppy, so I was planning on going in to fix that anyway. Looks like the good dr might end up doing some exploratory surgery.