Hey, retro, please bear in mind I have had good ideas before ( getting married ) and they never quite worked as planned ( getting divorced, and done that twice ) so if it works, we can take the credit .... and maybe save some of our fellow members a few quid/dollars.


As my old foreman said " It is only a bodge if it do not work, If it do, it is called using your initiative "


If it goes t*ts up, you have wasted a few hours, a bit of solder and some wire and the rest of the forum still benefits.

 

kp98xj8


Don't know why, but there was no THANK YOU option on your post #20, so THANKS.


Did not know the price of used switches, but that would still not stop me from having a go ( like yourself ) at a repair if it was not time critical.


It is people like yourself, retro and countless others on this forum that are willing to take the time and effort to experiment and come up with cheaper solutions that benefit the whole of the forum.


And if we fail, to also benefit the forum by not being too proud to post the fact the idea did not work, and so save others countless wasted hours.

 

Hey, thanks Andrew. Nice alternative suggestion from you too sir. When Retro dazzled us with his storyboard of great pics, I was struck because it was in my wheel house, having futzed with the switchpack once and took it about as far as I could to try and fix it.

I have mixed feelings on how he proceeds. I'd be thrilled if bodges a fix, but also happy if he goes the saner route and steals one off Ebay.

 

IF we were sane.... we would not be buggering about with old Jags. lol

 

"IF we were sane.... we would not be buggering about with old Jags. lol"

repeat after me: There is a place in heaven for saviors of . . . .

 

In all my dealings in life, I strive to let common sense have as little effect as possible. So far, so good!

Yeah well, sad to say, you lose!

Ok, time to put this thread in its final resting place.
I'll try to make it short, but Lord knows I'm wordy.

Soldering, while obviously the most correct repair, didn't work at all. Probably operator/equipment deficiency.

The conductive paint from a defogger repair kit was likewise a bust. While I could get conductivity through the paint, I couldn't seem to get it to "connect" to the module wiring.

I was finally able to run some tiny jumper wires, using some old telephone wire that Ma Bell left under the house plus the electrically conductive tab adhesive from the above mentioned defogger repair kit.

That seemed to work OK, got good meter readings and it all fit nicely under the grey rubber membrane. Passibly decent looking job, I was kinda proud.



Unfortunately, when I tried them out, no joy.
Also, no results that any rational conclusions could be drawn from. For instance:
Plug one of the modules into car #1, it would do this.
Perform a hard reset and it would change to doing that.
Plug it into car #2 and it would do something totally different.
And on and on ad nauseum.

So I broke down and ordered a switch from an eBay seller. I was fully expecting it to be defective too, but it surprised me. Got it yesterday and for the first time since I've owned it, everything on the car works as it should.

I'll be doing the final install today, all the door panels and stuff. Probably take a celebratory drive if the weather holds.

So anyway, as I pointed out in post #1, that's how to disassemble and reassemble a driver's door switchpack.
As I also pointed out at that time, once inside you're on your own.
If you can do any good, you're a better man than me, Gunga Din!

 

Hey, retro, glad that you got the windows in the no1 VDP working, but did you also try the new switch pack in no2 VDP to see if those windows/locks work ?

 

No, I haven't tried it on the #2 car, and I may decide not to.

The #1 car had a few weird malfunctions seeming to originate with the switch module above the radio.
For instance, when you selected either of the seat heaters, the switches lit up for both seats.

I've swapped in the module from the #2 car, and everything is now indicating as it should.
(May not be working as it should, but at least indicating correctly!)

That being said, I'd hate to plug my new switchpack into the #2 car and put bad juju on it!

I'll meditate on it.

 

Well shoot. Impressive job with the 'ol iron there my man. Ya knooow.... (uh, oh, here it comes....)

Bake it.

Remove light bulbs, and I'd wrap the yellow plastic connector and blue switch in center in foil. 385 degrees for 10 minutes. Ball up 3-4 aluminum foil ***** the same size (walnut size) and use them as thermal standoffs. Elevate the switch on a baking sheet by placing them under the corners. You're just building a platform to keep the switchpack off the baking sheet. Make it as level as you can. Preheat oven or toaster oven (on bake), pop it in carefully, and let it bake for 10 mins. Carefully remove it and let it cool on the standoffs completely - about 30 mins or so.

Solder re-flow in the PCB is what you're doing. If you google "video card baking" you'll see the procedure better outlined. I've done it with video cards before... cards that are dead or on their last legs. I still run one a year later. If your other switchpack (not pictured) hasn't been buggered up yet, I'd do that one.

So here's the big disclaimer. I have no idea of knowing if the switchpack PCB is manufactured similarly as PC components. There can't be night and day difference I wouldn't think. I have no way of knowing if the yellow and blue plastic will melt - doubtful. Absolutely remove the light bulbs. It might smell a little - leave your oven open afterwards to air it out. Hot plastic will emit gases when heated, emitted into the tool in which you cook your food. I've suffered no ill effects from this, (...he said, while scratching his left gill with his antenna...)


Seriously though, it might work. If you still have the gumption to try, and if you haven't buttoned up the door panel yet, now would be the time. I'd try it if it were mine just to say I'd taken it *as far* as I possibly could. I will try it myself, if and when the one I'm using now finally packs it in. Your switchpacks are no good for anything now anyway.

 

Never heard of that solution before. It sounds a very clever and quick way to revive a circuit board.


Now all I need is a knackered circuit board, and the other half to go shopping for a couple of hours ( that should not be too long to wait ) so I can get me hands on the oven, and give it a try.

 

I'm really surprised ... it's a popular and well known fix here in the colonies.
We call it the Julia Child school of motorcar and PC repair, plus we have cookies
(Little known fact - Steve Jobs was the love child of Julia Child and Nicola Tesla.)

 

Ha! Good one!

I don't blame you one bit if you're skeptical. And if you try it and it ruins it, then you lose a backup that still has some value I guess. But if it works, then you have a solid backup with an unknown life expectancy.

Just thought I'd share *the last resort* method as I knew about it, since you seem like the type who doesn't mind taking chances. Especially ones with little to no consequences.

On the other hand, here's something to try instead: the Cuisinart!

 

No, I'm not skeptical at all ... just having a little fun with Andrew.
Actually, it sounds pretty freakin' cool, and well worth trying.
As you pointed out, the bogus switches aren't doing me any good. They're too doggone small to use for doorstops!

 

Little to no consequences ???


What happens if the managing director ( Domestic ) returns from shopping early ?


Knowing her, it would not be half a hour on the naughty step... it would more than likely involve surgery to remove something from my head or ****, probably both. LOL

 

Head on a swivel man. Gotta stay a step ahead of the warden.

 

Funny y'all should mention that.
When I was telling the other half about the baking procedure, she reminded me about the last "oven episode".

I bought a 1944 Russian Mosin Nagant M44 carbine. It had been arsenal refinished, so was liberally slathered in cosmoline for long term storage.

I'd previously had good luck leaching all that crap out of the wooden stocks by setting them on the dashboard of a closed-up vehicle in the sun. Go wipe them off every half hour or so, and eventually you had good results.

Whatever the reason, on this particular rifle I decided to use the oven method someone had recommended. Set the oven on a nice warm temp (170° if I remember correctly, might have been lower), put some aluminum foil down to catch the runoff, and get 'er done.

What could possibly go wrong .....?

What I failed to do was preheat the (electric) oven.
Not really thinkin' about it, I failed to realize that the oven doesn't care if you set 1t for 150º or 500º. Just because you select a low temp, the oven doesn't "ease" up to it.
It goes wide freakin' open "set the controls for the heart of the sun" mode 'til it reaches the temp setting, then it mellows out!

I turned the oven on, then went out to get something out of my pickup. Came in a couple minutes later to find a nice little bonfire going. That big ol' oven element had scorched two nice grooves into the stock, and the smaller handguard was a crispy critter.

So now I have an M44 that will never look anything like original.

 

That's why me and her indoors have this simple but effective arrangement....


She do not play with my Jag or tools, I do not play with her cooker or Hoover.