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It's very common for the connector pins to break off the circuit boards that are used with Oldsmobiles' gauges. The pins are hollow having thin walls, and staked at the circuit board to be retained. A little excessive side force will snap them off.
I'm sharing the repair procedure I use--not very profound but simple, effective, and robust. I recently purchased an NOS circuit board that had two broken pins, one from the circuit trace side and another from the back side.
I'll be soldering the pins in place so I wanted to clean the copper traces. One benign method is to use something like this coffee pot cleaner.
The replacement pin has to sit squarely on the board. The lower location here had remnants of the original pin base and the staking. I used a drill bit to remove some old pin that was extending above the surface.
A forum member generously supplied me with some used pins. I filed the bases so they would sit squarely on the board. The left pin is going to a location where there is no remnants of the original pin while the right goes where the original pin staking is still in place.
I inserted a length of #22 bus wire (pre-tinned solid copper wire) in each pin. It protrudes through the top and base.
The pins appear to be silver plated and hence solders readily. Use flux core solder meant for electrical work (not acid core solder!). Also use an appropriate soldering iron (not a huge Weller soldering gun).
Insert the wire through the hole in the circuit board and fold the wire over. The tape holds the pin square for the next soldering operation. Solder the wire to the old staking if in place or the circuit board trace. I also added a little fillet of solder from pin to trace for added stability. Try to limit your heating as we don't know how well the copper traces are bonded to these old technology boards (do not use that big gun here!). A good solder joint will appear shiny (not crystalline).
Soldering to the old staking.
Trim the excess wire with small sharp diagonal cutters, optionally clean off flux remnants, and you're done. I was thinking of adding to wires to all the pins to prevent future damage.
I have used a brass brad nail cut to size on the back side inserted into the pin. Gives a lot of stability. I have also used 2mm screws which are a littl;e harder to start to thread.
February 15th, 2022, 04:20 PM
