[V8] Instrument cluster repaired (long!)

[dsaad at icehouse.net]

Soldering is a tricky art. Much like welding I would guess - although I don't
weld.

Be sure to use electronic grade 60/40 solder with flux core. Solid solder or
plumbing solder or acid core solder will not work.

The trick is first to clean up the surfaces to be soldered with steel wool or in
some way expose clean shinny copper - especially right at the crack area. Any
oxidation or contamination will prevent solder from properly wicking and
sticking to the copper.

Next make sure the iron tip is likewise clean and "tinned". There is special
tinning paste, or I usually just scrape the tip against a sharp edge to clean
off the junk and then apply some solder. The solder shoud be shinny and wick
onto the metal like water on a paper towel.

Depending on what you are soldering, it is sometimes helpfull to "tin" all of
the surfaces - apply a small amount of solder to the surfaces you want to join.

To join the surfaces, apply the iron and the solder at the same time. The melted
solder should flow like water and wick all over the joined area. If the
completed joint is not smooth and shinny, you have a cold connection that either
will fail soon, or is already bad.

Dave


> Quoting pdlord at talent.com.au:
>
> Much of my frustrations came from not being a very good soldering iron
> operator - my new fandangled gas soldering iron was parked and I pulled out
> my
> old AC powered iron I last used when I was a kid. The gas one was either
> too 'cold' or too hot to successfully heat the board, wire and solder so it
> would all stick. I lost count of the bridging wires that simply fell off the
> board, or the insulation I melted. Eventually I was able to control better
> the
> temperature with my old iron and all was sweet.
>
> Put it all together and everything works, except the temp gauge, which is
> probably a sender unit problem.
>
>
>
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