I have several loose, and one broken pin that get plugged into on the dash panel. Has anyone had these repaired? It seems like it would have to be a very close solder. Any info would be helpful
Thanks
my Uncle has had some luck reparing these. Very carefully.
There easy to repair by soldering. I use a brass bore brush designed for cleaning a .22 calibre gun barrel to clean the pins and circut board attachment area, the end of a paper match to dab a little solder flux to the area to be soldered, and a low wattage soldering iron (I believe the one I use for detail soldering is about 30 watts IIRC), and you can fix them stronger than new.
Just make sure that everything is shiny clean (by using the brass bore brush) and that just a touch of flux is applied to the area needing soldered (to much, and the solder can flow to adjacent pins/circut traces - which then is a real pain to remove), and use a small soldering tip so that it doesn't hold to much solder. You can also use 12 gauge solid wire to make replacements for missing or broken pins. Use a dab of dielectric grease (available at radio shack or any electronic supply store) on all the connections, and the repaired parts are actually much better than new.
I recommend doing this (even if you aren't having a problem) on all the crimped or pressed fit electrical connections such as the back of the ignition switch, turn signal switch, high/low beam switch, fuse block connections and all other crimped or interference fit connections, if you have them out, or are replacing them. This provides a flawlessly stable electrical system with no "gremlins" that so many seem to suffer with.
I have seen some use regular nuts & bolts in place of the terminals (ie. if they are missing/broken off)
Use the same diameter as the old terminals.....works just the same
Quote from: is_it_EVER_done? on June 24, 2006, 02:45:51 AM
There easy to repair by soldering. I use a brass bore brush designed for cleaning a .22 calibre gun barrel to clean the pins and circut board attachment area, the end of a paper match to dab a little solder flux to the area to be soldered, and a low wattage soldering iron (I believe the one I use for detail soldering is about 30 watts IIRC), and you can fix them stronger than new.
Just make sure that everything is shiny clean (by using the brass bore brush) and that just a touch of flux is applied to the area needing soldered (to much, and the solder can flow to adjacent pins/circut traces - which then is a real pain to remove), and use a small soldering tip so that it doesn't hold to much solder. You can also use 12 gauge solid wire to make replacements for missing or broken pins. Use a dab of dielectric grease (available at radio shack or any electronic supply store) on all the connections, and the repaired parts are actually much better than new.
I recommend doing this (even if you aren't having a problem) on all the crimped or pressed fit electrical connections such as the back of the ignition switch, turn signal switch, high/low beam switch, fuse block connections and all other crimped or interference fit connections, if you have them out, or are replacing them. This provides a flawlessly stable electrical system with no "gremlins" that so many seem to suffer with.
I have done the same:
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,15330.0.html
Thanks for the info, I took mine to a TV repairman and it looked great, now I have only one gauge working and that is the AMP gauge. I may try the small bolt idea, sure hope it works,I would like to know how warm she is running.
If you had your pins repaired and you have no working gauges (the amp gauge has its own wiring that is independent of the rest of the cluster), I would guess that you have a bad voltage limiter (the small rectangular box that is plugged in, and attached to the back of the cluster), or you have a bad connection in the line that supplies power to the cluster. - For all the gauges themselves to be bad is highly unlikely as they are amazingly tough.
Do the instrument lights work?
If you ground the wire that connects to the oil pressure sending unit on the motor, does the gauge move? Same with the temperature sending unit/gauge?
Before you start tearing everything apart and replacing parts with bolts (the electrical version of bailing wire), you should figure out exactly what the problem is, otherwise you are going to end up with a totally junked out instrument cluster, and be faced with the same problems with your expensive "replacement" cluster.
I will try your recommendations by grounding the temp and oil gauges and will let you know what I find. Also my gauge lights do work but one wants to flash when the engine is running.
Thanks again