Nikon SB-28 Flash (speedlight) Foot Shoe repair

Got a deal on a Nikon SB-28 speedlight. I bought some photography junk, and this was in the bag. The flash works fine, but the foot was broken. The original user glued it back together. I didn't trust my new flash to another person's sketchy glue job. I decided to replace the Nikon sb-28 foot. 

The foot cost about $3.00 from nikon plus another few dollars for shipping. I see replacement parts on ebay all the time. But I really like to order from Nikon: it is usually cheaper, and I know I am getting Nikon quality parts. (I also asked about an LCD for a Coolpix point and shoot, and they quoted me $45, and ebay has the same part for $25 - go figure).

When calling, be ready to tell them what color the metal ground connectors are on the side of your foot. Apparently there are two different kinds of feet for different SB-28 designs. I wrote down the serial number from my flash, and called during lunch at work. The serial number wouldn't do it, I had to know the color of the metal on sides of the foot (silver vs. bronze?). For information on the phone numbers and address, check the comments in my SB-600 post. I called the same place.

The shoe arrived yesterday, and today I swapped out the old for the new. If you have a small phillips screwdriver you can probably do it in 15 minutes. Here it is:

(Click to read the steps and see the pictures after the jump).





1. Remove the four screws that hold the foot assembly to the flash body.

2. Take care when pulling off the bottom assembly. You don't want to break the ribbon that sends signals from the shoe assembly to the flash unit.

3. Four screws attach the small green PCB to the foot. These four screws also hold the foot together. Remove these screws, and the PCB should come out easily. From here you should also be able to pull off the foot, and then screw off the locking ring.

Remove these four screws holding in the green circuit board.

4. Make note of how the locking pin rests in the locking ring. It has to go back in just a certain way.

5. Now you can replace the foot and reassemble. My flash works fine. It is great to have another flash to work with my Radiopopper JrX units.

Problems I had:

I was worried about putting too much pressure on the screws that held in the green PCB. I didn't want to break the circuit board. When I reassembled the whole thing, there was a little too much play in the foot (it wobbled a bit when in the shoe). I opened it back up, and tightened those screws down quite firmly. No problems after that.

I took apart the foot assembly about 3 weeks before I ordered the part.  I placed the eight screws in a plastic baggie. Because the original user had tried to fix the foot with glue. I wanted to make sure I could take it apart for repair before I ordered the part. Make sure you remember which screws go where - I had a hard time remembering. The long ones hold in the PCB and keep the foot together. The short ones attach the foot assembly to the flash body.

Here are some extra pictures that might be helpful to anyone fixing their foot.