Fixing damaged (?) cam

One of the lobes of my #4 (C4) would not retract when I pulled on the trigger. After scrutinizing the the cam for 5 minutes, my more mechanically-inclined climbing partner came up with (what we think is) the diagnosis : one of he outer lobes is bent/tilted (as shown in the side-view drawing and photo below). So when the cam lobe rotates, the spring that is wound around the axle would be in the way and the lobe would rub against the spring. I can get the lobe to rotate if I pry it outwards before I pull the trigger. So the cam is now only good for anchors ('cuz I don't want to be placing it when I am cruxing ...). Short of taking the cam apart, the only fix I can thin of is to somehow put the lobe in a vice (with sheet metal between the cam and the vice) and somehow flatten it out. Or should I try to (rather get the amazing machinist I work with to help me) take the cam apart? Any pointers on how to do so?

I'd say trash it, anything seriously affecting the structure of the lobes, axle and axle bushings isn't safely repairable IMHO.

How did it happen?

Check out the axles which run through the lobes --- you'll notice that they're not symmetrically positioned within the axle that contains the thumb loop.

I bet if you knock the end of that axle against a wall or floor a couple of times until it's symmetrical, the lobe will look good as well. A couple of my C4s looked like this and a few knocks straightened them out. Of course, YMMV!

Goran Lynch wrote:Check out the axles which run through the lobes --- you'll notice that they're not symmetrically positioned within the axle that contains the thumb loop. I bet if you knock the end of that axle against a wall or floor a couple of times until it's symmetrical, the lobe will look good as well. A couple of my C4s looked like this and a few knocks straightened them out. Of course, YMMV!

That's true sometimes one of the axles gets shoved off center removing all play on one side.
Good call to check that, I've had sticky lobes in the past due to this but the lobes were perpendicular to the axle.

This thread showed me how to fix an old #2 camalot that had drifted and gotten sticky. Hitting the plate on the end of the axle against a piece of wood fixed it up.