Using old holes for the same-but-new Dynafit bindings

[peds]

Yo, what's happening bredren,

Here's the skinny: I've got a pair of Black Crows Navis with some Dynafit Speed Turn 2.0 on them, and I've got a brand-new pair of Speed Turns in a box in my gear cupboard. Following the longest November on record here in Chamonix (from November 1st to January 16th, roughly), I've fucked the skis up something rotten, and the heel pieces of the bindings have some serious slop. I'm scared to take them on anything serious now, and I've only been using them for mellow dog tours and meadow skipping.

The way I see it, I have three options... I can remove the old bindings and mount the new ones myself, using the same holes; I can drop them into a shop and have the holes fattened and filled with inserts as a techie friend recommended to me, on account of the threads maybe being worn down a little; or I can keep the skis as early-season rock tourers and fork out for some new planks, and put the spare binders I have on them instead. I can't really afford this, to be honest, but come on... new skis are new skis.

I'd like to tap into the wealth of knowledge and opinion present here, if you don't mind, chaps. What would you do in this situation?

Thanks, team.

[CaliBrit]

Slop after 45 days skiing? Wow. You can probably use the same holes. Helicoil them rather than inserts if you are concerned.

[peds]

Slop after 45 days skiing? Wow. You can probably use the same holes. Helicoil them rather than inserts if you are concerned.

They weren't new this year, they've had last winter and a few days over summer/autumn to deal with as well.

edit
I'd not heard of helicoil, I'll look into it. Thanks for the suggestion.

[skimaxpower]

Re use the old holes. The slop is in your bindings, not in the wood core.

Mount with epoxy in the screw holes, tighten by hand, and don't over-tighten.

[Gorilla]

If you are at all worried about the integrity of the mount then the insert or helicoil routes seem sensible. I, personally, would probably just throw the new bindings down the existing holes but I'm not skiing fall/die terrain day in, day out. Or at all, for that matter. From your TRs, it seems like a mount failure could easily be fatal and, were that me, that would be the main decision making criterion here. Re inserts vs helicoils, helicoils put a similarly jumbo sized hole in the ski without the ability to lift the bindings but it doesn't sound like that's really a concern here.

Otherwise, have a look on snowheads.com for people who have bought touring gear and now regret it. There was a lightly used pair of CD 102s going cheap recently and at least one unsuccessful attempt to sell a 184 Atris.

[auvgeek]

Another vote for helicoils. Or buy new skis for your new bindings.

[waxoff]

If you can torque the screws properly in existing holes there should be no reason for worrying. If the slop is in the old bindings just install the new in existing holes. Be careful and make sure the threads engage before applying any force. Slow curing epoxy will give you all the security you need.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

What kind of slop? Side to side or slight up/down movement of the heel piece? You might just need knew thimble bushings:

https://www.wildsnow.com/bindings/dy...ch-skiing-faq/

https://www.wildsnow.com/10742/dynaf...moval-install/

In my experience the thimble bushing can need replacing even if it looks ok. The wear doesn't need to be as obvious as in the wildsnow picture.

[GeezerSteve]

What kind of slop?

This is the threshold issue. Is the slop with the binding or the binding/ski mount?

[Wawawa]

A vote for inserts here.

Nice pair of skis; I assume you'd want to keep them around. And if you blew through a pair of dynafits in a season-and-a-half, you might assume that you'll do the same with the next pair. If you go with inserts, you can swap bindings with impunity until the skis fall apart.

Of course you could reuse the holes as-is this time and go inserts next time if there is a next time, but going inserts now would be more rock-solid.

The thing I wouldn't do is helicoils. They're pretty much a one-time thing. For the same amount of installation work inserts are infinitely reusable.

[gregL]

black diamonds is asking the right question. If it's lateral slop, usually it's the fault of the bushing and you can just replace it. If it's the pins moving vertically, usually you can disassemble the top plate and put some duct tape under the front edge of the pins to stop it. Neither requires removing the base plate screws.

[Jonathan S.]

Setting aside the issue with what might be wrong with the bindings (even though that's probably the most important issue here!):

[...]The thing I wouldn't do is helicoils. They're pretty much a one-time thing. For the same amount of installation work inserts are infinitely reusable.

Perhaps helicoils aren't the best solution for swapping back-and-forth all that time.
But at least anecdotally, the few times I've had to remove and then reinstall bindings in helicoiled holes, I've never had a problem with spinners.

Plus if the OP's situation really calls for reinstalling bindings with the same pattern into previously used holes, helicoils are a nice solution, b/c he can first see if the reinstalled bindings can be adequately torqued, and if not, a shop can then helicoil the spinners.
(One warning on that plan though: even if you have just one spinner, often the shop will have to helicoil all 4 or 5 holes ... since if all the screws are removed to helicoil just one screw, then upon reinstallation yet another screw spins...so if the shop charges per helicoil, be prepared to pay for helicoiling all 4 or 5 holes on that unit.)
Also, unlike inserts, you're keeping all the original screw types/heads.

But good to have all sorts of options!

[3PinGrin]

This is the threshold issue. Is the slop with the binding or the binding/ski mount?

Yep, everything is irrelevant until you make this determination.