[Vwdiesel] Instrument cluster fail

[James Hansen]

Too bad.  Shipping gets pretty rigorous these days.  I had led replacement
tail light bulbs smashed inside bubble envelope, foam popcorn, and a box.  A
feat in itself.
I've had to do just that Shalyn, spend some quality time with a hot sharp
soldering iron putting boards back together.
It isn't that bad really, you have to find some nice small gauge solid
insulated wire, strip ends, good solder paste, good desoldering tool for
when you blow it.. I found some barbecue paint helps keep solder away from
stuff if you are too close to components or other connections...shellac
works too I'm told. You need three buckets of patience and a bright light
too.
I vote for the overblown steampunk, but I want pictures.
Couldn't you just find a junker and swap out the board? Oh, but then you
still have a non-functional speedo.... then you could learn how to fix the
speedo too...maybe... uphill... both ways...
I could score you a 1920's brass 12" steam gauge calibrated 0-150 psig and a
length of pipe to get it through the hood.
This thread will be useless without pictures....
-james

-----Original Message-----
From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com] On
Behalf Of Shalyn Shourds
Sent: November-15-13 10:25 AM
To: Vwdiesel
Subject: [Vwdiesel] Instrument cluster fail

The odometer on my '85 Jetta died forever ago and I recently got motivated
to fix it.  So, I removed the cluster as gingerly as I could being paranoid
of the flexible circuit board, packed it up, and shipped it to a speedometer
repair place.  Just got a call that when they opened the box, both the
connector ends are broken off the circuit board.  Apparently, I
underestimated the rigors of shipping and overestimated my packaging.

So....any thoughts?  I don't see myself finding one of those at the dealer
or even a junkyard.  I dread the thought of a week straight over a solder
iron splicing wire in, but I guess I'll do it if it's even possible.  

I guess the other option is to wire in gauges, but that would end up looking
like overblown steampunk at best, junior high science project at worse. 
Neither is a goal.  

Ugh.

-Shalyn

_______________________________________________
Vwdiesel mailing list
Vwdiesel at vwfans.com
http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/vwdiesel