'89 200TQ dashboard revisited

[four.rings@mcione.com]

Hello, Club!

The intermittent dashboard on my 200 has been driving me nuts for four
years. Finally I sed enough is enough and completely resoldered the main
PC board. This is a shotgun "approach", but instead of scrutinising
every solder joint for cracks I found out over the years of
troubleshooting various electronic equipment that touching up all of
them with a soldering pencil is a far more reliable way, and a faster
one too.

Net result: no_more_friggin' hieroglyphic pictogrammes in place of
diagnostic symbols in the main computer window. A number of listers had
the same problem with their 200's and I don't recall anyone finding a
remedy. So here it is: just solder every joint on the board. Make sure
you have a good thermostatically controlled soldering pencil. Please,
don't use those $4.99 Radio Shock specials! I use a programmable Weller
with a 3/32 chisel-shaped Ni-plated tip.

A side benefit of digging into the dashboard PCB -- I have finally
figured out how to make the clock run in the 24h mode. For all fellow
foreign-born Americans, who can't stand this AM/PM nonsense:

1. Completely remove the clock module.
2. Do not take it apart, leave the white plastic bezel and 3 tiny screws
in place!
3. If you face the display, in the right top corner you'll see two round
Au-plated spots, approx. 3-4mm in DIA.
4. The top one is bisected into two halves and has "12h" printed next to
it.
5. The bottom one is almost bisected the same way, but there's a tiny
bridge of Au left, connecting the two halves. Cut this bridge with an
Xacto knife.
6. Viola! No more 6:00 display, which creates a subconscious urge to hit
the shower and rush to work, although it is already dark outside.
Instead you have a familiar and pleasant 18:00 readout which means it's
Martini time :)
 
BTW, after having been late for work for the third time I sed to myself
"no more trying to get used to this stupidity" and converted each and
every clock in my house into the 24h format. 
What happens is that I set the alarm clock at 7:00 but forget to look if
the silly teeny-tiny red PM LED comes on and the SOB fails to ring in
the morning. It does ring at 7:00 however (19:00 for the rest of the
world), when I am already back home.

-- 
Igor Kessel
'89 200TQ -- 18psi (TAP)
'98 A4TQ -- nothing to declare
Philadelphia, PA
USA