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Decided to check to see if any members can offer advice, or suggestions in soldering electrical components. About to toss a couple of hard to come-by instrument gauges for my 65 F100 but decided to disassemble beforehand. I found, in each gauge, there is break in a hair thin wire and if it's possible to reattach, or replace this wire I may be able to salvage them. I am all thumbs when it comes to soldering, not to mention it's in a very confined location, so I do not believe using a soldering gun is an option. Is there a type of electrical cement, or some thing similar, I could use to reattach, replace the wire?
Can't think of anything that would really work for that, but it's always possible.
You might check out some restoration places -- there are a fair number that seem to do gauge repair. I just did a quick google and the top one was Bo's SPeedometer repair.
I know nothing about the place, but what caught my eye was that they seemed to be work with classics, hot rods, vintage, you name it. There are the vintage resto places, but they might not work on anything as mundane as a 65
As I said, I don't know beans about them, but there appeared to be plenty more options. Maybe somebody in the section for your truck would have a better idea.
As for DIY, without seeing it, it's just hard to say. I probably couldn't, but you could well be handier than I am -- many are.
Possibly youtube has a video or two on the topic -- it's worth a look. People post all kinds of repairs there.
I will check out sources mentioned, believe the likelihood of 'do it myself' repair is remote, the 'hair thin' wire is exactly that, not sure how well it would hold up to heat. Agree, I do not believe 65 gauges are worth what it would take to send out for repair? Since the gauges were destine for the recycle bin might as well experiment. As suggested, intend searching U tube and contact couple electronic equipment stores and see if they can offer any recommendations, perhaps a low resistance electrical cement 'dab and stick'?
I have no idea if it would work or not but this might be worth a shot: go to an auto parts store and get a repair kit for rear window defroster grids. It's nothing more than finely powdered silver in a thick lacquer carrier. You could also try printed circuit board trace repair liquid - same as above but uses powdered copper. It's probably cheaper but also probably harder to find.
Greatly appreciate the suggestion!! While cyber shopping found the kits run less than $15, and include 'glue specifically formulated to conduct electricity'.
Believe the issue will come down to finding a suitable substitute for the 'hair thin' wire? Removed the coating on a piece of thin wire I have, took a single strand and found it is still a bit thicker. I will have to shop for a cheap head strap type magnifying glass, holding the hand held while trying to maneuver the wire in place using tweezers can get tricky?
In a gauge it sounds like magnet wire. I've played around a bit with speakers and will agree it's hard to solder. I used a 40w variable soldering station, I did a lot of electronics and low volt electrical years back so had the toys to play with it properly.
That wire could be a resistance wire. Don't know what you've got but normally a really small wire will be calibrated for some sort of resistance.
Yes, I believe U are correct, even if I can solder a wire in place calibrating the gauge then becomes an issue. I can see where the wire broke away from the resistor, now only a matter of connecting two hairs? There are adjusting arms on the low and high side for the needle internally.
As yet, not giving up, some thing to do on a cold rainy day; meantime, will be looking for similar type of wire, it is not copper, appears similar to what 'ford six' mentioned in speakers, or small motors? Probly try the electrical contact cement, if it does not work then move to the soldering iron.
Nothing really magic about magnet wire (google it). It's jut really thin wire covered with varnish or similar as an insulator.
From what I remember, you need to strip the varnish with a chemical to do any effective soldering. It probably comes off if you heat it enough, but that might not work very well.
Bonus -- they call it magnet wire because they use it to make electromagnets for speakers, motors, etc. With the small gauge and thin insulation, you can get densely wound coils.
Quite certain, 1 of the gauges is beyond repair. Brain storming again, rather than recycle the damaged gauge, remove approx. 3" from the resistance coil then use this 'beyond' repair gauge to test if I can slice this 3" wire using 'dab n stick' type of electrical cement? Ordered combination of a cheap micro set of tweezers, head band type magnifying glass, and the window grid repair kit.
11-12-2016, 01:59 PM
