Well,it's been awhile since i've been on the forum.This '00 Caravan got so frustrating I gave up on it for awhile..mainly because of other frustrations that required my...frustration!

Glad to say i've made some headway so am back on the van for more hair pulling.

Have read up on the cluster solder joint problems,but have not found any reference to the odd thing i've found on my board.That being alot of solder points that are not soldered.My camera cannot get a close enough view of this so if you can bare with me in an explanation I would appreciate it.

These solder points i'm talking about do not involve any components.Rather,they connect (or almost connect) a circuit trace on one side of the board to the other side of the board.there is a short length of wire that feeds thru a hole in the board and is soldered to a trace,but on the other side of the board the end of the wire is just a hair shy of contacting the bulb of solder on the other trace.

They look like they should be soldered together,but there's so many of them like this I can't imagine how the cluster would have ever functioned at all!

This is a bit of a maddening thing because if these traces on both sides of the board weren't supposed to be connected why go to all the trouble to feed a wire thru,solder it on one side,and put solder on the other side,but not solder the wire to it???

 

Welcome Back
Thats why i don't try to solder the boards anymore, I just replace them.

 

In this case it's some easy soldering.Whats interesting is I took the board out of the original cluster,that this one was purchased to replace,and found that these solder points were completed.

These must all be grounds and it probably isn't necessary that they all be soldered together.I'm going to go ahead and finish the soldering and we'll see what happens...

I'm probably the 4th owner of this vehicle and am finding typical odd repairs that were done over the years.Wrong spark plugs that were 1/4" shorter than stock,an alternator that was cinched down with the lower bolt not even thru the bracket,etc..

Hell,the original cluster was not even the proper one.The wiring harness had been cut and was rewired to accept the different connector..

This was a vehicle I should have passed on.I'll do some more shaking down on it,flush the fuel system/check the injectors.If it doesn't pan out i'll just keep it as a slightly mobile storage unit.Maybe put a skirting on it and a nice Spanish tile roof!

 

does your camera have a "macro" setting choice? that would help with taking close up photos.

 

It has macro,but it's only good to three or four inches.The distance between the solder and the wire is so small I would need to get as close as an inch so it could be seen.

I do have some pics though..i'll post what I have to at least give a better idea of what i'm talking about.The solder point in question here is at the center of the picture.

 

You can barely see in pic 2 that the solder had been flowed towards the wire,but does not join it.If I could show you a closer shot you would see that there is not a break and it did not come loose.If a machine soldered those joints it had to have been out of spec.,if a human did that.....and where was Quality Control??

And like I said,the other board this one replaced had most of these joints soldered.

 

and each pic is of the same joint on each side of the board.

 

OK,soldered those connections and didn't make a bit of difference..on to the next!

 

Keep us update would you, please.

 

What i'll probably do is take the engine from this one and put it in a '96 my friend has,which blew a head gasket.His is in better shape and has a rebuilt trans thats been modified with a deeper sump,oil cooler,and in-line/spin on oil filter.

I'll take whatever good parts I can get off this one and haul the heap to the salvage yard.