Ski Boot Cuff Emergency Pivot Repair Kit

Boot cuff pivot repair kit, installed.

There are myriad ways of creating a ski boot cuff rivet using common hardware store products such as T-nuts, elevator bolts, etcettera. This simple getup is intended to be temporary, versatile (work for various thickness) and cheap. It’ll get you out of the woods, and could also be used for other repairs. Use is simple: If you bust a rivet, pull the liner out of your boot and remove the trashed fastener, insert the cap screw through a washer on the inside of the boot, head of the screw on the inside. Install washer and nut on the outside. You’ll need multi-tool pliers to turn the nut, while holding the hex wrench on the inside. When creating the kit at home, crank nut down on the bolt a few times to break it in. Store everything in a ziplock with small baggie of desiccant. Be sure to use a lock nut, as a regular nut will loosen and fall off in short order.

Ski touring boot cuff pivot rivet repair kit.

Parts List (22 grams total):
3/8″ grade 8 SAE washers, 2
(Check fit of external washer, ideally it should fit inside the depression where stock rivet nests.)
5/16″ x 3/4″ button head cap screw
5/16″ aircraft type lock nut
3/16″ hex wrench, cut down

Washers, nuts, bolt and hex wrench. I ground about a millimeter off the top of the cap screw. It does protrude into the boot interior a few millimeters, but not so much it’ll be a problem completing a day or exiting stage left. Again, not a permanent fix.

I tested this on a few destructed boots we’ve got laying around here at WildSnow HQ. Due to the boot liner padding I couldn’t feel the slightly protruding interior screw head. If it did bother you, in a pinch you could carve a divot in your liner and perhaps build up some tape on the inside of the boot to even things out. Innovate.