Date:         Thu, 30 Dec 2010 14:03:54 -0500
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Good news for 1.9l T-A ECU owners
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I've recently looked at my first Triumph-Adler 1.9l ECU, out of
Sally, an '85 with about 300,000 miles -- and the first Vanagon ECU
I've ever looked at that didn't have solder problems.  Well, I tell a
lie.  Every single one of the pins to the big harness connector had
moderate to very severe fatigue failure - but that was it.  The rest
of the ECU was clean as a whistle, the solder looked beautiful under
my 35x stereo microscope, including the drive transistor and voltage
regulator pins.  And compared to the Bosch design, there weren't any
big heavy components stuck a quarter inch off the board (I'm looking
at you, mister big fat resistor) and furthermore a) no conformal
coating and b) the pins were all nice and clean and if they *had*
needed soldering it wouldn't have been a struggle; neither of which
were true in the Bosch unit in my '84.

So to you fortunate souls my earnest advice is to pull the ECU,
resolder those 42 or so big fat easy connector pins and then put it
back together with a good expectation that it will be good to you for
a long time to come.  For the Bosch people, you might want to start
keeping an eye out for a T-A...

I wish I could say the same for the T-A 2.1l ECUs.  The solder is a
lot prettier than the Bosch ones, but the fatigue cracking is just as
bad.  I wonder if the arguably more rigid mounting to the chassis had
to do with that -- I bet it did.  I think I'll do something about that on mine.

Happy New Year!
David