depami

Well, it's hard to argue with that. But still, I don't think I'd do it.

85fortheDrive

Our CC doesn't work either - never has. Where is this "brain"? In the front driver's fender area? Might give the easy bake a try.

Alan

Well - when you have a defective brain you do all kinds of things....

Not sure I'd do this as a first step - however if you are sure its the brain that is defective and it doesn't work you don't have so much to loose.

I'd inspect and try to reflow joints individiually with a soldering iron first - the chances of damage are much less that way...

Alan

BTW(1) A microwave would be a spectacularly bad idea here (just in case anyone is considering it).

BTW(2) Best not to tell your wife what you baked in the oven - it never seems to go well...

Ducman82

^^^^ ya, i had to light a lot of candles to get the smell of old hot PCB out of the house. board looked perfect, no "melty".

h011yw00d

Here it is. Come in from the other side though and you can see it better and access it.

85fortheDrive

Thanks. A picture means a 1000 words.
Peace.

Ducman82

easier to get to on the passenger side.

Don Carter

Wow, how did I miss this thread.... I just got my 86.5 back on the road and I'm wanting to get the cruise computer rebuilt, so searching for "cruise rebuild" I found this thread. Since there are two successes, and I have a spare cruise computer, and an old toaster over that needs to be replaced, I think I'll give it a try.

Ducman82,

What times/temps did you use? Cover anything with foil?

Don Carter

Cooked my brain today and it worked for me too! What an awesome discovery. Big thanks to Drew for posting this.

I haven't had a working cruise in my 86.5 since I bought it 17 years ago, so this is big for me. It's not perfect, the Accelerate function doesn't seem to work, but that's minor. It also gets a bit confused as low speeds, but on the highway it seemed to hold speed just fine.

Here's what I did:
- Wrapped the non solder side with foil, but all the plastic pieces still melted some.
- Cooked at about 225 for 4 minutes, then turned the temp up to 400 and took it out 10 minutes later to cool.
- After fully cooled, re-installed and went for a drive

I'm going to cook and test my 2nd brain and if it works, I'll have one to sell.



After cooking

Speedtoys

Any reason a high temp heat gun along the bottom of theboard could not do this, but not roach the component side?

Alan

I think that might be a good idea - but absolute temperature control would be even more difficult - but any overtemp at least only affects the solder side - some of those components do look a bit melted.

Still if it works at least it isn't a paperweight any more... and if its doesn't then its still just a paperweight...

Alan

h011yw00d

When I bake my other brain I'm going to stick to the 385 for 8 minutes. Should cut down on the component-side runniness if I use aluminum foil this time. Glad this is working for you guys.

Don Carter

I think the component side looks worse than it really is. It feels like the melted boxes are just thin plastic covering other componenents. Maybe no damage to what's inside. The fact that the board that's been dead for 17 years now works is enough for me.

The heat gun might work, but I agree with Alan it might be hard to get even heating and control the temperature. It seems like putting the toaster on toast instead of oven, for shorter period of time, might be another good approach. With only the top burner on, it the component side would take less heat.

John Speake

I'm not convinced that this reheat does much for a poor solder joint unless some fresh solder flux is also applied. A "dry" joint with remain the same unless some flux is present .

No one has mentioned the possibility that one source of problems can be the rather poor connector to the unit. I suggest that just unplugging and replugging the box may clean those contacts and so allow a previous "bad" CC to work again. Any CC refurb/resolder should also include a clean of the pins on the CC unit, a careful closing up of the sockets in the cableform plug, and an application of a good switch cleaner/contact lubricant to them.

Don Carter

John,

I definitely respect your opinion on this fix, and only time will tell if we're on to something or not, but I can tell you in my case, the computer had been in and out many times, trying my spare brain and trying some soldering fixes so I don't think it was just cleaning the socket contacts in my case.

When I get around to cooking my 2nd brain, I'll make sure and clean contacts and test before cooking.