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Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:20 pm

I am going through my 1960 - 6 volt wiring to clean all connections and eliminate some voltage drop. I have heard the suggestion of soldering the brass clips and rivet connections in the fuse box. My 60 has the screw terminals. Can anyone give more details on this and is it a worthwhile thing to do?

Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:27 pm

It is a must to solder to all pre-1968 fuse boxes.
You can get the gist of how to do up your fuse box by checking out the "headlight switch rebuild" article in the type2.com library. Which is also a must for anyone running the early bell shaped style of headlight switch.

Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:51 am

Eric&Barb wrote: It is a must to solder to all pre-1968 fuse boxes.

Is this true for the screw-terminal earlies, also, or just the later push-tab style?

Sat Oct 08, 2011 9:04 am

KTPhil wrote: Eric&Barb wrote: It is a must to solder to all pre-1968 fuse boxes.

Is this true for the screw-terminal earlies, also, or just the later push-tab style?

ALL pre-1968 fuse boxes! Made a huge difference in our 1960 walk thru panel camper conversion that has the original screw terminal fuse box.
Like said before the early fuse box is built/riveted just like the early bell shaped headlight switch and requires same soldering fixes.

For the later:

The above shows the two ways one can solder the later ones.

After 1967 VW finally spot welded all the copper/brass pieces in the fuse boxes together, instead of just shoving them loosely into the fuse box.

Sat Oct 08, 2011 9:07 am

Any pics of an early screw terminal fuse box that has had the solder treatment?

Thu Dec 29, 2011 8:16 pm

Finally got around to pulling out an early fuse box that a DPO had soldered up.

Thu Dec 29, 2011 9:16 pm

Thanks. Appreciate it!

Thu Dec 29, 2011 10:17 pm

My Uncle taught me that soldering is used to 'hermetically' seal a mechanical connection. NOT make an electrical connection. 8)

Fri Dec 30, 2011 8:04 am

runamoc wrote: My Uncle taught me that soldering is used to 'hermetically' seal a mechanical connection. NOT make an electrical connection. 8)
then you need to not solder yours. those that the rivet like peening has loosened need to solder to stabilize the loose tabs. or you could hermetically seal the loose peening so connection don't move around.

Fri Dec 30, 2011 8:45 am

bill may wrote: runamoc wrote: My Uncle taught me that soldering is used to 'hermetically' seal a mechanical connection. NOT make an electrical connection. 8)
then you need to not solder yours. those that the rivet like peening has loosened need to solder to stabilize the loose tabs. or you could hermetically seal the loose peening so connection don't move around.

I gently wire brush and clean the loose connections, re-peen or otherwise tighten up the connections best I can, then solder with real rosin core lead solder. Some of the examples here look like they didn't even take the time to clean the connection. Not having a clean connection requires more heat, the solder 'blobs' instead of 'flowing', and makes for a cold solder joint that doesn't improve the electrical properties of the connection. 8)

Sat Sep 29, 2012 5:24 pm

bill may wrote: runamoc wrote: My Uncle taught me that soldering is used to 'hermetically' seal a mechanical connection. NOT make an electrical connection. 8)
then you need to not solder yours. those that the rivet like peening has loosened need to solder to stabilize the loose tabs. or you could hermetically seal the loose peening so connection don't move around.
Sorry, couldnt resist, but tell your uncle to throw out his television since it has no mechanical connections in it and is just soldered.(holes drilled in the circuit board and component leads sticking through it.........absolutely no connection...........untill component is SOLDERED to the printed circuit board.)

Thu Oct 04, 2012 6:31 pm

quartermilecamel wrote: bill may wrote: runamoc wrote: My Uncle taught me that soldering is used to 'hermetically' seal a mechanical connection. NOT make an electrical connection. 8)
then you need to not solder yours. those that the rivet like peening has loosened need to solder to stabilize the loose tabs. or you could hermetically seal the loose peening so connection don't move around.
Sorry, couldnt resist, but tell your uncle to throw out his television since it has no mechanical connections in it and is just soldered.(holes drilled in the circuit board and component leads sticking through it.........absolutely no connection...........untill component is SOLDERED to the printed circuit board.)
The leading cause of death of old TVs is from....loose solder connections. Caused by the shrink/swell of the circuit board from heat generated by the picture tube and it's hi-voltage power supply. Besides, Volkswagen are fused for 8 & 16 amps so the circuit connections need to be alittle more 'robust' than connections of millivolts and microamps. used by TVs.

Thu Oct 04, 2012 10:38 pm

Yeah, yer right, I cooked a whole omlette on my tv last week cause my oven broke. Tons of heat oozing out of it. Watching television keeps my winter gas bill down too. By the way, unless you have a tv older than the dip soldering assembly line manufacturing technique, I suggest checking into a cold solder joint. Cold solder joints fail not because of heat although that lelps them along, but because of the fact that all the metals werent fused together. We arent talking minimal solder usage here. We are talking a good flow of electrical solder over a nice clean fuse box. Not the "just barely enough" method used in electronics. Go solder 2 pennys side by side flat on a board, not touching but soldered. Id bet you would get continuity between the two....thats called solder bridging, usually unwanted but none the less bridging.

Sun Sep 11, 2016 11:19 am

I'm working through some electrical gremlins this weekend and trying to follow the advice about soldering old connections, but pulled my fuse block and am confused about what to solder? There are no rivets and the connections all look direct - am I missing something?

Sun Sep 11, 2016 11:27 am

Flip it over and look at the fuse side. In this picture you can see where they soldered the two brass ends together...looks like a series of silver dashes across the middle

Sun Sep 11, 2016 12:05 pm

The above image show the TWO WAYS one can solder up the 1961-67 fuse box.

Make sure to clean the fuse box up with tooth brush, soap and soak in vinegar for a couple of hours to get rid of corrosion. Use a hot enough soldering iron to quickly melt the solder or risk melting the plastic.

Sun Sep 11, 2016 1:01 pm

everything needs to be clean and shiny for solder to propperly work. this is critical!!! some of the photos appear to show lack of cleaning prior to solder, the solder stuck on some less than clean spot, but probably is not making good contact. i can see that the solder did not wet the surfaces well at all. solder should never appear balled up , instead it should be flowed out and smooth. balled up means it did not wet well, and that is from contamination, or too low a temperature.

note increaseing temperature is not a substitute for failing to remove all contamination.

also a large solder iron is prefered for this kind of work, not a small electronics iron. you need watts to give you rapid localized heating. too small an iron will take too long to get the part at the area to be soldered hot enough, hence much more heat will travel into the metal clips before the correct temperature is achieved. too much heat can do two very bad things...

1,....ruin the plastic by warping or melting it.

2,....ruin the spring temper of the fuse holders.

keeping the opposite ends of the metal fuse holders away from the solder joint surrounded by a wet towel, or suspending in or resting in a pool of water. this will keep the areas not soldered cool so no spring tension is lost.

also degrease the part well, oils that are stuck between parts like under the rivet head will be liberated when they boil and splater off under the heat of the solder iron, causing loss of solder adhesion as they leave a residue all over your previusly clean surface.

if your not sure about soldering, you might be best to first try a commercial electronics parts cleaner spray, followed by re forming the rivets with a small hammer and suitable punch, that may help a lot.

of course, before starting, take a measure of voltage drops or resistances of each connection, then repeat after the restoration, just to see how your work paid off.

for the most original looking fuse panel, id go with cleaning and re setting the rivets first, as solder is seen easily and looks bad on a correct restoration.. all depends on if your into original or not, and the non solder method may do plenty fine.

i have soldered some in the past, but now on special cars i clean and reset rivets only, both methods have plus and minus.

all the ones i soldered was done 30 years ago or more, since then these cars are more rare and valuable enough to me that i want too go stock as possible on some of them.

good luck

Sun Sep 11, 2016 2:28 pm

Very helpful, thanks!

Sun Sep 11, 2016 2:46 pm

bluebus86 wrote:
for the most original looking fuse panel, id go with cleaning and re setting the rivets first, as solder is seen easily and looks bad on a correct restoration.. all depends on if your into original or not, and the non solder method may do plenty fine.

Fortunately most of the soldering on the riveted fuse boxes is hidden, because it is out of sight between the fuse box and the body. As for the few top side ones it is not too hard to sand off the excess solder, especially if you use a good hot soldering iron you can get most of the solder into the joint and not all about. The riveted fuse boxes seem to be able to hold up to higher temp than the post-1961 boxes and the post-1960 repro boxes are made of plastic that has even less heat resistance.

Sun Sep 11, 2016 11:11 pm

bluebus86 wrote: of course, before starting, take a measure of voltage drops or resistances of each connection, then repeat after the restoration, just to see how your work paid off

All good advice above.
To add to the text above - The resistance should be 0 (Zero) after it's cleaned up.
The last one I did everything measured zero, before soldering.