...that can ruin your whole day.

While replumbing the tanks in my Super Stinker, I wanted to relocate my main power switch to the opposite fuselage side.

This switch is one of the more popular, "heavy duty" models with a charge recepticle incorporated into the unit.

A flying friend saw mine last weekend at the field and commented that he had lost an airplane because of a faulty switch just like mine. Evidently, one if the wires had a bad solder and popped off the tiny board, causing loss of current and the inevitable crackup.

Since I had the switch in my hand, I decided to take a quick look to insure my switch was ok. Afterall, I had already flown the device with no issues.

I popped the black plastic back off and carefully removed the switch from the housing. I immediately noticed that the foil that is adhered to the epoxy board was peeled up on the one edge and that the black wire had a rather oversized blob of solder.

Using a jewelers loupe, I examined the wire and the board and discovered a flaw. Evidently, the wire had been soldered, removed and re-soldered at the factory. Problem being, when the 1st solder was removed, it peeled a small portion of the foil off with it. In order to bridge this "gap" an inordinate amount of resolder was needed to make the contact. However, solder does NOT adhere to epoxy board and since only a very slight edge of foil actually was making the contact, as soon as I slightly touched it with a pik-probe, it popped right off the board, large solder blob and all. The board was bare, exposing that 2mm gap in the foil.

I decided to remove all the wiring, clean the board, reflux and resolder the wiring harnesses to insure reliable service.

I unsoldered all 6 contact points using a braided wick, cleaned it up with tuner cleaner(contact cleaner for you kids that never saw a manual tuner in your life) and fluxed the contacts for the redo.

I used a jumper to bridge the 2mm gap in the foil, resoldered all the leads and reinstalled the switch into my fuselage.

Man, it sends chills down my spine to think of what the vibration from the 41cc gasser could have done to that crappy solder job from the manufacturer!

It pays to pay attention to the little things that can ruin your whole day, (and investment).

PM