Level 3 PCB Repair

[88GreenVN]

A little level 3 solder repair - and it works!

I picked up this VN Level 3 cluster from U-Pull-it before they closed for $6.00. Some one had been cruel to this cluster and busted up the pcb tracks in 8 spots. Out with the soldering iron and had a go. I scratched the blue off with a sharp knife blade. Made it all coppery and shiney. Then lightly waved the solder iron over it and dobbed some solder on to it. Seems to have worked well. For the outside edge that was broken clean through I used a small lenght of wire to bridge the gap. Cover all with electrical tape and see how we go for a week or 2. The trip to work today I had all functions working - fuel, temp, tacho (converted to V8) TDE and instant fuel.

It looks fixed to me.

[Fonzie]

Mad skills! I can't believe that worked, I would've expected the heat from the solder and soldeirng iron to absolutely rape the PCB. I've heard of people using conductive paint to fix PCB's too... And I was in a Jaycar with Philthy in melb eastern suburbs the other day and he found some "Wire Glue" - basically conductive glue.

[88GreenVN]

LOL - yep I expected it to fry up nice.

The trick I think is not to touch the copper tracks much at all and melt a tiny drop of solder onto it. I was stoked when it fired up today.

[88GreenVN]

OK took it for a long run after work and all looks good. So this is the first PCB with major damage (7 spots) that I have managed to fix. The first one failed badly

[88GreenVN]

This is one more repair job using silver foil and super glue. The cluster tested fine i nthe car today for 30 kms.

The backing plastic was snapped through on the 2 tracks.

1. I cleaned all the green coating off the copper track to make it shine - about 4 mm long (go easy here)

2. Cut thin strips of foil and put a very small amount of super glue at each end - but still on the green coating so the end of the foil sat half in the glue each end.

3. Then used a pinty tooth pick to press the foil into correct place over the copper track and run the glue around the sides of the foil - but not over the join area.

4. cover with sticky tape to protect the join. (I've not shown sticky tape in the photo)

[wortus]

I'd use some silicone to cover the joints, it will dry and won't fall off at some stage like electrical tape. There are several electrical grade silicones around.