Printed Circuit Board Repair

[troutbum_mt]

Well, I had an interesting problem with the printed circuit board. The copper film had torn where one of the instrument panel lights screws in the back (no wonder why the new bulb wasn't working...). I tried gluing it back so it would make contact, etc and nothing worked. In comes the girlfriend with a fix that cost under $5 versus $80 for a new board.

There is this stuff you can buy at craft stores called "Liquid Leaf" that is a soluble copper mixture. After overlapping the break and applying a few coats of that Liquid Leaf I had it patched and WORKING. Gotta love it when the girl helps fix your stuff

Hopefully if anyone else has this problem, it will work for them too. I never would have imagined it would work but it does. Hell, I never even heard of this stuff before today......

 

[lectric80]

Thanks for that information. My dash lights in the Astro have been giving me fits because of wear on the contacts, now I know a way I can attempt to repair them. And if it fails I know who to blame. Of course if it fails I will just continue to use the tri-LED setup I put in.

 

[Blue85]

I gave up on the contacts between the bulb sockets and flex circuit years ago. I soldered wires between all of the sockets, putting all of the contacts in parallel - some are always working so the lights always work. Plus the cluster still unplugs and pulls out, if need be, and the bulbs can still be changed from the front or the back. It must be 5-6 years now with no flickering dash lights.

 

[troutbum_mt]

Thanks for that information. My dash lights in the Astro have been giving me fits because of wear on the contacts, now I know a way I can attempt to repair them. And if it fails I know who to blame. Of course if it fails I will just continue to use the tri-LED setup I put in.

Feel free to blame my girlfriend She was very proud of herself yesterday but it did totally splice the break in the copper film for me. I still have one panel light that isn't working and haven't figured that one out yet but going from 2 to all but one has me happy. All in all, well worth the $4.99 until I get around to buying a new replacement when I get to the dash.

 

[4X4HIGH]

I've always used clear fingernail polish. Had an old timer give me that secret years ago.

 

[greg mgm]

Troutbum- Never heard of liquid leaf, but that's a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

 

[throttleissues]

Warren, your GF is the mad note. You better take her with you when you're wheeling to work out the intellectual problems.And thanks for the fix, as I had this problem on another truck, but it's gone now(the truck that is).

 

[troutbum_mt]

Troutbum- Never heard of liquid leaf, but that's a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

My pleasure. I figured it was time to contribute something to the knowledge base instead of just always using it. This liquid leaf stuff is pretty cool stuff for this kind of repair since it contains soluble copper. I never would have thought about clear fingernail polish either. Hopefully both prove useful to people in similar situations.

 

[troutbum_mt]

Warren, your GF is the mad note. You better take her with you when you're wheeling to work out the intellectual problems.And thanks for the fix, as I had this problem on another truck, but it's gone now(the truck that is).

Hey now, don't go giving her a swelled head. Next thing I will know is she will be telling me how to fix things but talking about the wrong end of the truck