Poor Electrical Junction in VHF90

[Bushbaby]

Hi All,
Yep...still working on it as time permits.
I'm stuck at a particular junction which does appear to have far too many connections that all need to be soldered.

Apologies regarding the clarity of the picture attached but I do hope that you can see what I mean. I really dont know how to approach this as there are at least 5 connections at this point.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Rob
   

[pwdrive]

Hi Rob, certainly looks congested, remove all original solder and crap if poss. locate the new component wires (ready tinned) in the tag and use an iron that is plenty hot, you should be able to do the connection quickly. Using an under powered iron will make it a lot harder to get a good and neat job.

Lawrence.

[AlanBeckett]

Use your new Weller with a nice big short bit - 7 should be enough.
If you've got any of the very long thin ones bury them in the garden.

Alan

[Bushbaby]

Hi Gents,
Yep, the joint was stuffed with solder. I cant believe (perhaps I should!) that it was made like this. The Weller was a joy to use and I can understand why everyone likes them.

I'll take another pic of the tag - it will certainly fit all of the components concerned now the crud is out.

Regards

Rob

[pwdrive]

Nice one, sometimes some of the old flux types used in old sets plays havoc with the new stuff as well.

Lawrence.

[Bushbaby]

see what I mean!

Thanks

Rob

   

[Joe]

Nice to see I'm not the only one to not use those bright yellow axial capacitors.

- Joe

[Skywave]

I have frequently met constructional practices in such kit which leave a great deal to be desired: one must remember that such items were built very much with manufacturing costs in mind: "Why use a 6-way tag-strip when we can use a 4-way and just about cram everything in?" My approach, if space permits, is simply and carefully to remove every component - making copious notes as necessary - and fit a longer tag-strip. Now not wishing to decry one of my favourite marques of radios - Eddystone - but I have had to do that on several of their sets during routine maintenance.
To quote a supervisor of mine back in the days when I was a computer field service engineer: "If it makes the job easier next time, but it makes the present job take a bit longer - do it!"

Al.

[Bushbaby]

I'm reconnecting the components to the joint but this has raised the same concern that I had before but perhaps didnt express very well (if at all) in initial post. How do I ensure good electrical isolation of components in such a cramped environment?


Thanks

Rob

[pwdrive]

Hi Rob, from your last picture it looks as though the tag has cleaned up ok, my own approach would be to trim any component and wire connections so that there is about .2" of bare leads/wires showing, check that they have all been tinned, push them through the tag so they protrude through the other side by about .1" then bend them over at 90 degrees, a small dab of solder on the iron, apply the iron to the side of the tag that the wires have been bent over and feed in the solder 'till you have a flowed joint then keeping the iron in the same place quickly feed a bit of solder from the other side of the tag. The trick is not to apply to much solder, iron hot and be as quick and precise as you can. Check that no solder or wires have bridged to an adjacent tag, try and keep component bodies from chassis contact.
Hope this is of some use.

(Edit) Check when finished for any loose solder blobs floating around (they always find HT!) and that no solder on the tag has run down to the chassis ( sometimes this can happen if you feed in too much solder)

Lawrence.