So, I got my wire and ceramic wicks from KidneyPuncher.com today. First i must make it clear: THIS IS NOT A MOD. This is an experiment and I will be using this unit as a back-up only. I decided to try to rebuild my 7.4v KISS that died ( or more correctly, I killed it). For this experiment, I used NiChrome 80 wire 32awg. For the length of wire that I used the final cart resistance is 3.8Ohm. The wicks come in 1.5"'lengths so I cut what I needed (7mm) using a razor blade and a tap from my pliers.
First step is to remove the center contact. I used my thumbnail, but a small eyeglass screwdriver works too. Be careful not to puncture the white insulator.
Next remove the white insulator with a toothpick or eyeglass screwdriver. Again very careful with the insulator. After the insulator is removed the ceramic cup will come out.
Next I took the small piece of wick and wrapped the wire around leaving a long enough tail to work with. This was my first try and I was able to get 5 wraps around the wick without the individual wraps touching each other. You should end up with long enough legs on the coil to thread into the housing and white insulator. I tried to have a sharp bend in the wire where it comes off the coil.
Next, place the coil back into the ceramic cup being careful to have one wire going into each of the two outside holes leaving the center hole open. Then place the white insulator over ONE wire and the other on the outside. Gently press the insulator in place until it is seated. Now you need to cut the legs flush with the white insulator. If there is some wire protruding that you can't quite cut you can tuck it behind the insulator. Be careful not to tuck excess in to wrong side of insulator.
This is the finished product. It can and should be verified with a multimeter. Mine was 3.8Ohm. Verify there is no direct short. The wick starts out dark add I did not clean the cup first.
This thing fires very fast. And definitely does NOT taste as good as it did when new. But again, this is now a spare instead of garbage.
This was surprisingly easy but tedious and time consuming. I have much respect to anyone cranking these things out for a living
.