Pin repair on circuit board

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Dizzydean

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I have a couple of pins loose and one that pulled out on my cluster circuit board on the 67 dart. Is there a way to reattach/stiffen them or are new boards the way to go. They are so over priced id rather fix them since nothings wrong other than.
 
Remove the loose pin, you should have a hole in the board. Lightly sand away the coating on the back of the board at the missing pin. Run a piece of 12 or 14 gauge copper wire through the hole from the back and solder it to the back of the board. Clip off the excess at the back and reseal the exposed solder and whatever you call the thin metal that connects the pins with fingernail polish. Clip off the excess wire on the front of the board so that it matches the length of the remaining pins. I did 4 of them this way in about 15 minutes; wish I had some pics. Just make sure that the copper wire you're going to use fits in the holes of the plug, I'm not sure if they're different from year to year.
 
Yes , they are easily repaired by resoldering them back on. Sometimes the board is in rough shape from age, or bad past repair attempts.To work around that, some members have simply spliced a molex connector onto the board. If you do a search on here for circuit board repair, or cluster repair, you should find the way some members have repaired theirs. Remember it would be wise to touch up the other pins while you have it out to limit future failures. Good luck .
 
If you want to use the old pin this works.


Put the copper wire (12 ga. or whatever fits snugly) into the open end of pin first, then tin it/solder it so it becomes one with the pin. Trim the excess wire sticking out the bottom of the pin so there is a small amount sticking out. Clean the contact you will solder on the board and push the end of the pin with the wire sticking out into the board. Solder it back onto the board. Done.
 
If you examine the typical male and female spade connectors you'll notice tiny indentions, stampings, boogers, or whatever you wish to call them. These keep the 2 from coming apart as easily. The heavy male spades on a limiter have none. Those special springy female contacts in the circuit board serve as shock absorbers. They protect the board as much as keeping the limiter from walking out.
I cannot testify that soldering those is a bad move since I've not done it or even considered it.
 
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