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improving electrical connections

B

BrApple

No Life But CEG
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Dec 23, 2001
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Gales Ferry, CT
ok for some time now I have been fighting with an electrical issues. at seemingly random times or hitting bumps my instrument cluster would cut out and stop working. Normally a restart of the car would make it work.

well the latest development with this is that it seems to be related to the interior fuse panel and/or wiring. if I pop open the fuse panel or at other time grab and move the wires when teh cluster cuts out it will come back on.

so it seems that there is a intermittant connection. I pulled the fuse panel last night and look at it and the wiring and didn't not anything unusual.

so is there anything that I can do to help ensure good contact between the fuse panel and the two harness connectors to the fuse panel?
 
Look inside the cable side and see if any pins got pushed back or any bent pins on the connector side. Otherwise just grab a multimeter and find the intermittency.
 
iBrent said:
Look inside the cable side and see if any pins got pushed back or any bent pins on the connector side. Otherwise just grab a multimeter and find the intermittency.
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yeah that is what I was looking for but didn't note anything after a quick look. I haven't ever really had those connectors out so I wouldn't think any could be bent.

how ever could the added electronic running off the ignition cause a problem? the ignition relay does get pretty hot.
 
BrApple said:
yeah that is what I was looking for but didn't note anything after a quick look. I haven't ever really had those connectors out so I wouldn't think any could be bent.

how ever could the added electronic running off the ignition cause a problem? the ignition relay does get pretty hot.
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Its very possible. I'm an engineer for a interconnect manufacturer and this problem is very real. Depending what the base metal of the contact is whether it be beryllium copper or phosporus bronze, the contact gaps can increase over time due to heat or continuous cycling of hot and cold, especially with PhBr.

Your problem could also lie within the closed loop wire contact. The wires do have some sort of strain relief to take the majority of the abuse when the wire is moved and to keep the integrity of the wire crimp, but its possible the wire has pulled away from the wire crimp. Insulation crimps can also relax over time as well due to heat and continuous heat cycling.
 
FunInNorthDakota said:
I had the same problem. What I did to solve it was took the fuse panel out, scuffed the pins and recoated them with solder. Problem solved.
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oh, I like that idea. clean the contacts for a better contact and then make them larger so then contact the harness better ....

knock on wood it hasn't happened in the last few day s...
 
not even making them larger. Just putting a fresh coat of solder over it so it makes better contact than the pitted/corroded solder that you have after a decade or more of use. Also, heating it to solder in the first place reflows what solder is left on your pins, so that improves conductivity.
 
Awesome!!! This may be the trick for me.

(Insufficient current to relay for heater blower.)

FIND said:
I had the same problem. What I did to solve it was took the fuse panel out, scuffed the pins and recoated them with solder. Problem solved.
Click to expand...
 
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