Fred's 964

Michaelcoe1, if you need help, e-mail me and I'll talk you through it. Check the connections at the edge of the circuit board where the pins for the harness connectors are soldered. Use a magnifying glass.

swmic

Michaelcoe1,

You may not be able to see the break in the solder joint. Just try to re-flow the solder around the large connector pins like "Fred's 964" said. Its not that hard to do. If you haven't done it before, you may want to practice on an old computer board or something similar. Its worked for a lot of us. It's been 2.5 years since I did mine with no problems.

Good luck,

Shawn

rhyd911

I've just performed this fix on my temperamental roof. So far so good.

I couldn't spot any obvious breaks in the solder either so I just re-flowed all connecting pins (and the relay joints for good measure).

Oh, and for all you RHD owners, the part is in the same place (ie passenger footwell) and very simple to get at and remove. All in all took less than an hour.

$0.00 fixes. Gotta love em.

ljugete

Good going M8!

Slow Guy

Glad it simple to get at on RHD cars, it's a real pain for me on my LHD car.

Update:
This past w/e my (right - pass side) cab top motor would not release, the left worked fine. I took the cross cover over the motors off and after a few other checks I swapped the power cables between the left and right motors then the right motor worked but the left one didn't.

This told me the most likely culprit is the top control unit that was butchered before I got it and I butchered it 3 more times after. So, I broke down and ordered a new Cab Top Controller, I just don't want to continue fighting this problem anymore.

I'll update after I get it installed.

Lorenfb

"Over the years there has been a push for environmentally friendly printed wiring boards (PWBs) and electronic components. As a result, tin is used more and more,--and it doesn't have the resiliance that lead provides."

Actually, it's really the result of the cantilever mounting of the unit and its overall poor mechanical
design and marginal manufacturing techniques.

Read here for more info: www.systemsc.com/problems.htm under "Vibration".

Slow Guy

After the cab top controller came in from Sunset and contorting myself to get under the dash to install it my top release motors (both left and right) work fine now. The only issue I have now is the top warning light in the inst. panel stays on with the top down. I suspect the microswitch needs to be adjusted/replaced but it's nothing I'm going to worry about right now.

burrow01

Hi,

I'm trying to replace the hood controller for my '94 RHD Cabriolet with one I bought on EBay - eitheir this will cure the random failures on my hood, or give me a chance to re-solder the existing unit

Unfortunately I cannot seem to locate the Control Unit in the passenger footwell - been under their with a headtorch etc, but cannot see anything that looks like the controller - does anyone have a photograph of the unit in situ?

Cheers

Pete

chris walrod

To bring back an oldy but a goody, fixed an intermittant cab today. Here is an example of what to look for in a cold solder joint. All of the large pin, high(er) current connections were this way.

For future reference, use a 9mm socket to remove the piggy-backed VDO box (speedo driver?) and a 10mm for the two plastic nuts that fasten the cab control box to the firewall. I used a mirror-on-a-stick to see what I was doing, made life on my back much easier

AOW162435

Great thread. Does "cold" refer to the failure of the joint, or the actual soldering method?

Andreas

Texas993

Been there, done that! I hate tight spaces!

chris walrod

It may have been a good solder joint originally, but at this point it was degraded. Notice the only joints effected are the ones that have a higher current demand on them.

Like Loren mentioned, it doesnt help the way its mounted with the resulting strain on these post connectors.

ralphedo

This is a great bit of instruction. I had trouble - Pulled my module and look what I found. I had 6 bad solder joints. For those that need to see what a really bad one looks like . . .here you go.

[IMG]/Users/ralphedo/Desktop/DSCF4017.JPG[/IMG]

Chuck W.

Shawn... Many Many Many thanks. I leave my top down all the time. I can't recall the last time it was up. However, in December I put down a new floor in the garage so I was going to put the top up, cover the car and put a trap over that. When I attempted to latch the top it wouldn't work. I checked the usual fixes and nothing worked.

After a five minute search, I found this posting. So, today while it was raining, I tackled the job. It was a bear getting the unit out. I didn't see any cracks in the solder points but touched each one up anyway. After reinstalling it .. WOW.... it worked

As I and so many others have said.... I love this place.

Fred's 964

Burrow01, it should be behind the silver VDO box. (actually above it as gravity determines)
Fred