While chasing an occasional momentary engine dropout that happens when the rear wheels hit a bigger-than-usual tar strip or some such, today I opened up the ECU. It's a Triumph-Adler. What I found under 40x magnification was that every single large component on the board (other than chips, but including a SIP resistor pack) was showing signs of fracture of the solder joints. Before reflowing the joints I took a few pictures which you can see here: <http://picasaweb.google.com/dbeierl/SolderFatigue#>. You'll get the best view if you load the picture and then click the full-screen button at top left. Note that in addition to fractures directly at the lead, there are also some part way out the radius of the copper foil pads. -- David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/ '89 Po' White Star "Scamp" |
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