How to solder jumper wire on blue foil (instrument cluster)

[dobryan]

I have a broken connection to one of the dash lights due to the blue foil circuit being broken. I need to solder some jumper wires across the broken areas but cannot get anything to adhere well. I tried a search and did not find a good tutorial on how to do this.

Can anyone tell me how they did it or point me to a topic I missed?

Thanks!
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[ragnarhairybreeks]

I had success... clean the copper, have foil supported, use hot iron, fine point, and be quick.

fine stranded, tinned wire worked well.

alistair
_________________
'86 7 passenger syncro, converted to westy pop top, project still in progress
'82 westy, diesel converted to gas in '94, now gone...
https://shufti.blog/
Old address still works...
http://shufti.wordpress.com

[WAgrower]

it can be done but is somewhat tricky unless your good with an iron.

First use an adjustable iron or a 25-30w one. Then tin both the wire and the trace on the circuit board. You may need to take a razor blade to scrape back some of the blue coating on the trace to tin it well. the longer the joint the better it will hold. at least .25-.5" then quickly solder together.

If you don't feel comfortable doing this you can pick up small alligator clips from RS and use them to make the connection. If you go this route, cut about 1" of the trace back so it's hanging free, scrape the blue back and make the connection with the alligator clip. Then use heatshrink or liquid e-tape to make the connection secure.

EL panels use a nifty grommet style connector but I'm not finding them in a google search. I know they exist and would work perfectly for this.

Best of luck!

[kamzcab86]

Mine had a jumper wire installed by the 2nd owner, but it wasn't soldered and everything works dandy:

But, the bulb contact points on the foil were/are still good on mine.
_________________
~Kamz
1986 Cabriolet: www.Cabby-Info.com
1990 Vanagon Westfalia: Old Blue's Blog
2016 Golf GTI S
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - 孔子

[dobryan]

[simd0ggie]

Don't burn your flex circuit!

You need this stuff. Conductive Silver Epoxy

http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/8331.html
_________________
-Matt
'85 Westfalia w/EJ25, '14 Tiguan R-Line 4 Motion

"There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.”

[JunkYarDog]

sounds like a good place to try one of those "Cold Heat" soldering guns... I know they produce heat but its limited to the contact area and you could preposition the work with flux core solder ready to heat.
_________________
I have never owned a VW I didn't like, but there have been a few Fords and Chevy's.
85' GL Sunroof
68' Beetle sedan
72' Chevy C10 (LWB Step)
(67' Volvo 122S pending)

[dobryan]

[simd0ggie]

There are others out there, but I used this stuff at work a few months ago and it is awesome.
_________________
-Matt
'85 Westfalia w/EJ25, '14 Tiguan R-Line 4 Motion

"There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.”

[Paulbeard]

[scottz]

[Paulbeard]

So here's my situation.

I tried to swap in the SuperBrightLEDS that are not guaranteed to fit ( ) and this is the result, in addition to none of them working:

Swell.

Here's what you get —

— an LED replacement that doesn't touch the contact pad dead center when locked in and if you do back it off to make contact, it's not q-u-i-i-i-t-e locked in.

Two of them are marked with a white dot on one connector that I assume means + so I metered out the two pads for polarity: the larger (furthest from the driver) ties back to #3 contact on the multipoint connector which Bentley says is ground. One of them has no marker.

I am considering my options on this. I have an RMA to send these back but that's at my expense and I still don't have good lights. The OG one that is now fried wasn't working anyway so maybe the foil was compromised anyway. I assumed a bad bulb was the reason.

I could do a jumper like Kam's PO did above. Am also considering some of that liquid tape (a fine Plasti-Dip product) to avoid soldering this fairy-wing-delicate material. And then figuring out some way to ensure they don't come loose and I find out some night when I have no dash lights.

Interestingly, if I meter for continuity across all three of those sockets, pad to pad, it's all there. So that foil still works, even with the substrate bubbled and damaged.
_________________
Currently -> Frida: 87 Tizian Red (mostly) Vanagon GL Westfalia w/ 2.0L ABA conversion
Formerly -> Steward of a 73 Super Beetle (Beater) and 67 Beetle 1300 (Little Max) both names by POs

[ZsZ]

I had success soldering it without melting the plastic. Used an adjustable soldering station on the lowest setting and fine solder wire.
Carefully cut the upper foil that covers the track with an xacto knife, scrape the remains of the foil from the track and you have clean copper to solder
_________________
Zoltan
1.9 MTdi 2wd Multivan (ex Caravelle)
Van since 2006, engine since 2008

[Paulbeard]

Well, despite what looks like terminal damage, that foil is still carrying current. The problem with these LEDs (which I would advise against buying unless you are prepared to live with them) is that the tabs and locking mechanism are misaligned, so you don't get a really solid lock, and the tabs don't contact the foil reliably unless you bend them down to it.

Not one of my favorite projects. But a lot of metering and liberal use of bad language got it done. And now I realize I needed four LEDs if I wanted to illuminate the clock as well (there is one back behind the cluster I didn't know about) but since the clock is never right, I don't care so much. The adjuster was broken by some gorilla (same one who put a hole in the crankcase, maybe) and I have never been bothered about it.
_________________
Currently -> Frida: 87 Tizian Red (mostly) Vanagon GL Westfalia w/ 2.0L ABA conversion
Formerly -> Steward of a 73 Super Beetle (Beater) and 67 Beetle 1300 (Little Max) both names by POs

[The Carrot]

Sorry that you are having trouble with those bulbs.....

I recently replaced all the bulbs in my dash and instrument panel; all ordered from superbright LED. They went in smoothly and are a huge improvement.

Your images show a bulb in the instrument cluster with a black base and that made me think that you might have the wrong bulb. The bulbs that I used are
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/instrumen.../223/1044/

It is confusing because if you were to use the websites “vehicle bulb finder” the bulbs are not correct. I worked off the spreadsheet referenced in this thread, created by Samba member Kamzcab

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=645439
_________________
1990 Orly Blue Carat

[Paulbeard]

[baltik]

After installing a cel light, I noticed that my tach wasn’t working, after a more careful examination, this looks to be the culprit, I am getting continuity to pin 8 right before the tear so this appears to be providing the ignition+ signal to the tack. What would be the best way to go about repairing this, i basically need to bridge 3mm on the blue foil? Could I drop a few drops of solder to bridge the gap? Conductive pen?

[ZsZ]

[Vanagon Nut]

Not ideal from a future servicing point of view but run a wire with it's own disconnect from correct wire at T14 connector to tach connection? (bypass entire blue ribbon path) Or, solder a wire to the correct copper trace on blue ribbon where T14 connects? A small OD wire at that trace might still allow the T14 connector to fit properly?

I soldered wires to the T14 traces on a blue ribbon. I used 400 or finer emery paper wrapped around a clothes peg to clean the copper trace. Looking at my pics again, maybe solder would interfere with T14 contact but then I used 18 AWG here and could've done a better job:

_________________
1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[Timwhy]

My Tach side bulb foil has fallen apart and I could not repair it. So this was my fix;

I purchased a T1-3/4 Wedge Base Socket - Wired 74 Socket from super bright Led"s and it screws into the housing perfectly.

I had too modify the bulb housing to allow the longer Led to clear to be able to screw it in.
Also these bulbs do not snap into the pigtail very well so I applied a dab or two of super glue.

I tapped into the Blue/Grey and brown wires of the rear defrost plug to get power too the bulb.

Gives you an idea of the brightness between the bulbs, the Red has twice as much lumens as the blue.
_________________
'15 Audi A3 Quattro
'09 VW Tiguan (dead)
'87 VW Westy
'91 Tin Top
'90 Cabby
What the Westy wants the Westy GETS


http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_author=Timwhy&show_results=summary

http://www.youtube.com/user/TIMWHY2?feature=mhee