DIY Elinchrom ELB 500 loose screw head repair
p.1 #1DIY Elinchrom ELB 500 loose screw head repair
Hi all:
Posting this as a reference in case it can help anyone else considering self-servicing an Elinchrom ELB 500 head. Included as an added bonus is the same servicing for a Quadra A (Action) head.
Bottom line: very easy to open and access the internals.
Problem: something was loose and rattling around an ELB 500 head. Based on past experience with Quadra heads and shorting one out, it might be a loose screw. Not a good thing when dealing with high current/voltages to have accidental metal on metal contact!!
1) Remove the cold flash tube. Very easy - it pulls straight out. It may also pull out the c-shaped support at the opposite side from the terminals, which is fine. If it doesn't, pull that out as well. Be sure to use something clean between your fingers and the tube because you absolutely do not want to touch the glass tube with bare fingers (due to transfer of oils from skin to glass which can degrade flash tube performance and longevity).
2) Remove the three small screws around the perimeter of the reflector plate with a Torx T8 head. There was some resistance removing these screws, probably because they appeared to be self-tapping directly into the plastic housing material.
3) Pry up the metal reflector plate slightly to get fingernails under it, then pull it straight out.
4) A circuit board is attached to the back of the reflector plate with two screws. Confirm both are present and check tightness. In my case, one screw was missing and the second one was loose. The missing screw was located inside the head and screwed back in. These also have Torx T8 heads.
5) The back half of the head also contains a circuit board. I checked the five screws for tightness, which they all were. I believe these were similar self-tapping into the plastic housing. Head on these screws appeared to be Torx T10, which I didn't have, but 2mm hex worked.
6) Reverse above steps to reassemble.
I repeated the procedure for a second ELB 500 head and while the two screws holding the circuit board onto the back of the reflector plate were not extremely loose like the first head, they also weren't tightened as far as they could go. Screws holding the back circuit board in place were all tight.
Time to fix: 2-3 minutes after the first time around.
As an added bonus, the same type of repair to a Quardra A 'Action' head follows the same basic steps. The only difference was that the three screws holding the reflector plate onto the housing and all internal screws appeared to be Torx T10, however hex 2mm worked. With this head the rattling was due to a flash tube fragment from an incident years ago when that head fell on a hard surface and the flash tube shattered. The fragment must have been lodged in place for a while before coming loose, at which point I put the head in reserve to avoid a potential short circuit situation.
HTH!
Posting this as a reference in case it can help anyone else considering self-servicing an Elinchrom ELB 500 head. Included as an added bonus is the same servicing for a Quadra A (Action) head.
Bottom line: very easy to open and access the internals.
Problem: something was loose and rattling around an ELB 500 head. Based on past experience with Quadra heads and shorting one out, it might be a loose screw. Not a good thing when dealing with high current/voltages to have accidental metal on metal contact!!
1) Remove the cold flash tube. Very easy - it pulls straight out. It may also pull out the c-shaped support at the opposite side from the terminals, which is fine. If it doesn't, pull that out as well. Be sure to use something clean between your fingers and the tube because you absolutely do not want to touch the glass tube with bare fingers (due to transfer of oils from skin to glass which can degrade flash tube performance and longevity).
2) Remove the three small screws around the perimeter of the reflector plate with a Torx T8 head. There was some resistance removing these screws, probably because they appeared to be self-tapping directly into the plastic housing material.
3) Pry up the metal reflector plate slightly to get fingernails under it, then pull it straight out.
4) A circuit board is attached to the back of the reflector plate with two screws. Confirm both are present and check tightness. In my case, one screw was missing and the second one was loose. The missing screw was located inside the head and screwed back in. These also have Torx T8 heads.
5) The back half of the head also contains a circuit board. I checked the five screws for tightness, which they all were. I believe these were similar self-tapping into the plastic housing. Head on these screws appeared to be Torx T10, which I didn't have, but 2mm hex worked.
6) Reverse above steps to reassemble.
I repeated the procedure for a second ELB 500 head and while the two screws holding the circuit board onto the back of the reflector plate were not extremely loose like the first head, they also weren't tightened as far as they could go. Screws holding the back circuit board in place were all tight.
Time to fix: 2-3 minutes after the first time around.
As an added bonus, the same type of repair to a Quardra A 'Action' head follows the same basic steps. The only difference was that the three screws holding the reflector plate onto the housing and all internal screws appeared to be Torx T10, however hex 2mm worked. With this head the rattling was due to a flash tube fragment from an incident years ago when that head fell on a hard surface and the flash tube shattered. The fragment must have been lodged in place for a while before coming loose, at which point I put the head in reserve to avoid a potential short circuit situation.
HTH!
Sep 25, 2026 at 09:56 PM
p.1 #2DIY Elinchrom ELB 500 loose screw head repair
I wonder if a light or medium strength “Loc-Tite” Threadlocker would help these not work loose again, but weak enough to remove for access. Maybe the plastic housing would make that impossible though. I use the stuff for watch repair on certain screws. But that is metal on metal.
Oct 07, 2026 at 01:44 AM
p.1 #3DIY Elinchrom ELB 500 loose screw head repair
Fotog99 wrote:
I wonder if a light or medium strength “Loc-Tite” Threadlocker would help these not work loose again, but weak enough to remove for access. Maybe the plastic housing would make that impossible though. I use the stuff for watch repair on certain screws. But that is metal on metal.
The internal screw that came loose on the ELB 500 head was one of two that held a PCB board to the front half. From what I could tell, it screwed into the metal of the reflector and not into plastic. The screw was a fine pitched thread and not a self-tapping style. Therefore thread locker would be a reasonable option, in my opinion. That said, I didn't use it in part because once tightened, it felt very tight; it's also not difficult to open the head if it loosened again; and I was kind of too lazy to find my tube of thread locker.
I feel like it was an original manufacturing issue. Whoever assembled it didn't tighten those two screws sufficiently in that head, whereas in the other ELB 500 head, those screws were nearly as tight as they could go. Those two heads have always traveled together for as long as I have had the ELB 500 set, bought used a year ago. Usage statistics suggested at the time I received the set that it hadn't been used much and it was physically in near mint condition.
I wonder if a light or medium strength “Loc-Tite” Threadlocker would help these not work loose again, but weak enough to remove for access. Maybe the plastic housing would make that impossible though. I use the stuff for watch repair on certain screws. But that is metal on metal.
The internal screw that came loose on the ELB 500 head was one of two that held a PCB board to the front half. From what I could tell, it screwed into the metal of the reflector and not into plastic. The screw was a fine pitched thread and not a self-tapping style. Therefore thread locker would be a reasonable option, in my opinion. That said, I didn't use it in part because once tightened, it felt very tight; it's also not difficult to open the head if it loosened again; and I was kind of too lazy to find my tube of thread locker.
I feel like it was an original manufacturing issue. Whoever assembled it didn't tighten those two screws sufficiently in that head, whereas in the other ELB 500 head, those screws were nearly as tight as they could go. Those two heads have always traveled together for as long as I have had the ELB 500 set, bought used a year ago. Usage statistics suggested at the time I received the set that it hadn't been used much and it was physically in near mint condition.
Oct 07, 2026 at 08:16 AM
p.1 #4DIY Elinchrom ELB 500 loose screw head repair
You're not a Pro until you've opened up a piece of lighting gear, I've done it a couple of times on Profoto flash heads and packs to fix little things like a loose umbrella tube, noisy fan or loose electrical connection. It's those capacitors that scare me, I remember blowing up my first Speedotron pack while out on location, I ran it on a generator and pushed it a little too hard. Hence, my transition to Profoto.
Oct 10, 2026 at 07:49 AM