Puttering: Fixed VIC and Fuse Box Cover
03-01-2017, 11:34 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Bakersfield, CA
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Year: 1993
Model: Cherokee
Engine: Straight 6
Puttering: Fixed VIC and Fuse Box Cover
Had a couple of dumb issues that I decided to address, this morning.
1. My VIC on the overhead console stopped working for a couple of weeks, and after checking the fuse, I kinda' threw my hands up and thought, Well, that's it, I guess. It's shot. This morning, on the way to work, to my surprise, it started working intermittently. It would display compass heading and outdoor temp, and then it would shut off. A few minutes later, it would start up again, so once I got to work, I pulled the console, cracked open the plastic shell that the circuit board was in, and inspected it. It looked okay. No scorched areas, and no bad circuits or resistors, that I could see. I got some alcohol and cotton swabs and cleaned the male ends of the connectors real good, put it all back together, and... It looks like I'm back in business. w00t and yay!
2. Whenever someone opened the passenger door, the fuse panel cover would fall out. That was a no-go, so I inspected it. The tab at the front had gotten weak, but it hadn't broken off, so I got a zip-tie and the soldering iron. First, I carefully heated and slightly melted the area around the base of the tab, then I pushed it forward to its rightful position. Behind it, at the base, I clipped a piece of zip-tie and used it like solder to further strengthen the tab.
I know these two things probably aren't a big deal, and I can hear people rolling their eyes, but these two issues were nagging me, so I fixed them.
Welding plastic with the soldering iron and a zip-tie worked out really good, and I've used this to repair a good many plastic items over the years...
Maybe something here can help someone else...
1. My VIC on the overhead console stopped working for a couple of weeks, and after checking the fuse, I kinda' threw my hands up and thought, Well, that's it, I guess. It's shot. This morning, on the way to work, to my surprise, it started working intermittently. It would display compass heading and outdoor temp, and then it would shut off. A few minutes later, it would start up again, so once I got to work, I pulled the console, cracked open the plastic shell that the circuit board was in, and inspected it. It looked okay. No scorched areas, and no bad circuits or resistors, that I could see. I got some alcohol and cotton swabs and cleaned the male ends of the connectors real good, put it all back together, and... It looks like I'm back in business. w00t and yay!
2. Whenever someone opened the passenger door, the fuse panel cover would fall out. That was a no-go, so I inspected it. The tab at the front had gotten weak, but it hadn't broken off, so I got a zip-tie and the soldering iron. First, I carefully heated and slightly melted the area around the base of the tab, then I pushed it forward to its rightful position. Behind it, at the base, I clipped a piece of zip-tie and used it like solder to further strengthen the tab.
I know these two things probably aren't a big deal, and I can hear people rolling their eyes, but these two issues were nagging me, so I fixed them.
Welding plastic with the soldering iron and a zip-tie worked out really good, and I've used this to repair a good many plastic items over the years...
Maybe something here can help someone else...
