Has anyone here fixed the hotshoe on their vivitar flash?

[msf]

One of my vivitar 285 flashes fell over a while back while on a tripod, and the shoe part broke. Its finally time to get it fixed. I found a bunch of auctions on ebay for metal hot shoes, but they are not responding to me to let me know how hard or easy it is to put on a flash. I am guessing you have to cut off the bottom part of the vivitar flash? I was just wondering if anyone here has done this.

 

[Photochick]

That has happened to me several times. My local repair shop was able to fix it and replace the part. It wasn't expensive and I didn't have to mess with it.

 

[Dwig]

...I am guessing you have to cut off the bottom part of the vivitar flash? I was just wondering if anyone here has done this.

There should be two small screws holding the old broken shoe in place. A proper replacement foot, either original plastic or custom metal, should mount using the same screws. There will be some wires that must be cut or unsoldiered from the old shoe and either carefully taped so they don't short or resoldiered to the new shoe.

Be very careful to discharge the flash and remove the batteries before attempting the repair. Some variants of the 285 present a rather high voltage to the hot shoe and you could get a nasty shock from handling the wires.