dislocating knee joint problem

I'm having a pretty bad problem with one of the Isao body's knees. Whenever I try to bend the right knee, it becomes dislocated basically - it doesn't move within its slot like it's supposed to, but instead pops out. When I reach 180, it snaps back in rather violently (or if I bend it all the way to 90, same thing happens). Makes a very loud popping sound when it pops back in.

Kind of a difficult problem to photograph but I tried . . .

The good knee, for some reference


when I start to bend the bad knee it becomes unseated in the joint immediately - note the large gap between the thigh and knee


more obvious shot of what's happening


He was like this when he came, but I didn't really notice since I wasn't posing the body and there is also a minor problem with Isao's pants getting snagged in the knee joint (on both sides), so I thought perhaps it was that. There's definitely something wrong, though, and it's going to cause bad wear and tear on the joint if I can't fix it. My best guess is that the elastic might be twisted? I've never strung/unstrung a doll so I don't know if that might be it, and since I don't even have a stringing tool, I can't very well take him apart just to test my theory.

Has anyone had a similar problem, or have a guess at what might be wrong and how to fix it?

*EDIT* Well apparently the server is down ^^;;; Uh and I think the problem is the stringing is too loose on that side - seeing someone's Jun pic with too-loose knees gave me the idea, thought that at first but figured it couldn't be since he can stand. Guess I'm going to have to unstring the whole thing to fix that knee, huh . . .

 

I decided to go for it and take him apart - I put that leg back together first, and it's still having problems, it's not the string tension. I had an awful time getting it through the leg hole in the torso though because of flash and when I took the foot off, a circle of flash even fell out. I didn't notice anything odd about the leg parts on that side, but there MUST be something wrong with it so I guess I'll have to take that leg apart again and try to get a better look.

I'm thinking it may not be something I can fix though . . . there was basically no way to remove the flash in the leg hole that I could figure, without getting in there with some serious tools and I didn't want to risk it. I don't know what there is I can do if that's the case . . . I guess I might have to try and contact Volks? Poor boy . . .

 

I had a real close look. The new knees have a slot inside the thigh and a raised ledge on the shin piece that lock together; I laid the two shins next to each other and I believe that the ledges on the right shin are probably the wrong shape, it's subtle but it looks like enough of a problem occured in molding of the ball-shaped part that it could cause the issue. I can't frankly find anything else that might have done it; there is no flash on the shin or thigh pieces. In fact, there IS flash in the slot of the left knee, and it moves just fine!

It's possible that I could fix the problem by filing the ledges, but I'm not sure if it would really fix it (it could make the knee so it is unable to lock). I've emailed Volks, I admit I didn't tell them I unstrung and restrung the doll ^^; I hope that they can help. (Now I think I should have emailed them first and not tried to restring, but nothing I can do about that now.)

I took a lot of pictures of the unstringing and restringing, I will post them here when I get a chance, since there don't seem to be tutotials for the new bodies.