Here is a picture:

 

That looks similar to the way the newer Talking Boris heads work. The motor intermittently spins its crank (only in one direction) when it gets a sound input, which pulls that little string attached to the jaw and moves it.
That gray wire I'm not sure about. I'd just look to see if you can tell where it came un-attached from.

Good luck!

 

Thanks Dave for the reply! I was afraid to glue string to motor and really mess it up. I still can't tell where the gray wire was attached. Nothing llooks obvious. If anyone has a schematic or can take a picture of the inside skull - I would appreciate it. Thanks again, Andy

 

I decided to use him as a band singer this year and ironically I had the exact same experience. If I went up to him and manually closed his jaw it would move again until he opened his mouth all the way and it would stay there. He's sitting in here right now till I can hopefully get someone to look at him. (Yeah..Right) If you have any ideas on what's going on I'd love to hear it.

 

Andy I'm wondering if you got him fixed? I can't seem to get his head off after undoing all the screws and wondering if there is something I'm missing. If I could get it off I'd post a pic of the wire you seem to be having trouble with. As I said mine works but freezes when his jaw opens completely with the first real loud note. I was using him Halloween night with an aux cord, ipod and additional external speaker.

 

Hey Andy,

I have a Gemmy talking grim reaper with microphone. I had the same problem, but my skull did not have a pulley on the motor. I tied the string on the motor and then super glued it in place...so far so good. The motor only spins one way when you talk into the mic, then the spring on the jaw pulls the jaw back into place. My gray wire goes to the Mic port and then to the center of the circuit board in the top of his head with a bunch of hot glue holding the whole mess in place.

 

Hi Cloe and Snayskii,
I removed the back of his head after removing 3 screws ( I didn't take the head off the body). I haven't done anything yet waiting to see what others may say. I am afraid to glue white string back onto motor because the motor spins very fast - I can tell because I touch the motor pulley lightly when he is talking. I don't have a mic port, so the gray wire still baffles me!

Thanks again for responses, hopefully we can get a pic, schematic, or wiring diagram.

 

I'm looking for some schematics on this as well. I have a transistor that broke off the board in his head and I can't figure out how it was oriented. Can anyone post a pic of their board, please?

 

Hello,

I took a couple of pictures, hope it helps.

 

I hope this is picture #2.