Replace Broken Headphones Connector

These JBL headphones developed an issue where one of the sides did not work so they were given to me to see if I can fix them.

They have this angled connector and immediately upon first glance, I noticed that the connector seemed broken where it was bent.

To confirm this, I plugged them into my phone and by wiggling the connector I was able to make them work when pressed so I knew that the connector will have to be replaced.

Since the headphones also have a microphone attachment, they come with a 4-pole connector that will be a bit tricky to be soldered but with some patience, it should be possible.

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Tools and materials used in the video:

• 4 Pole 3.5mm Headphone jack
• 3 Pole 3.5mm headphone jack
• Precision Soldering Iron
• Soldering flux
• Soldering helping hand
• Fumes extractor
• Multimeter
• Wire snips
• X-Acto knife

Since I did not know what color wiring the headphones used, I first started by gently peeling the silicon rubber from the connector in an attempt to discover where each wire goes to.

The connector was made from two types of plastic, one softer on the outside and one quite strong on the inside that was keeping the wires in place.

This hard plastic was difficult to be removed without damage to the wires, so I took a new approach.

Since the connector was still mostly in place, I cut the wire just before it enters it and I stripped the copper so I can test it with my multimeter.

One by one, I tested the wires and I made note of them so that later on, I can attach them in the same way to the new connector.

Two of the wires were confusing me as they were connected together but at the end that turned out to be true as it appeared that the speakers and the microphone shared a common ground connection.

With the wiring now known, I started the replacement by first stripping out the wire coming in from the headphones and then adding the connector cap. This is really important as it needs to be on the wire before it is soldered.

Then, I added some solder and flux to all of the wires and connector pads, making sure not to apply too much heat to the connector as it was really tiny and delicate.

With solder on both, I then started connecting the wires to the appropriate pad with the help of precision tweezers.

In the end, I used my multimeter to confirm that I did not have any short circuits in between the pins.

To finish off the replacement, I wanted to add some sort of strain relief to the cable so that when pulled, the wires should stay in place and the force should be transferred through the connector case.

This is often done with a knot but here, there was simply not enough place for that so I used a piece of wire and I tightly wrapped it twice over the wire. This wire gripped the headphones wire tightly and for some good measures, I also added a drop of CA glue to secure the strain relief to the headphones cable.

When the glue dried, I gently closed the connector cap and with that, the headphones were now repaired and back in operation.

Because these were not cheap headphones, by investing some time and a new connector, they can be used again for a long time.

If this Instructable was interesting to you, then, feel free to check my other Instructables and also check out my YouTube channel where I have more repair videos.