My fun day with wiring.

[IronMonkeyL255]

As I have mentioned before, I have a very crappily installed (but pretty decent) security system in my car. My LT has been having some intermittent problems with starting (turn key to start and hear the solenoid, but no starting.....) that I believe was a problem with this system.

Today, I went to go run some errands and my car wouldn't start. It turned over, but wouldn't start. At this point, I've had it. I began taking apart the darn thing. I only hope I can get it sorted through in time to head down the the Atlanta Subaru Challenge.

I think the person who installed it (owner before Opie, I believe) must have been drunk when he installed it, because the wire routing was ABSOLUTELY horrid. So I finally get to the point where I have the brain out of the car, and I have to unhook it from the various starting wires (system has a starter cut-off). These were some of the absolute WORST solder joints I have ever seen. I was surprised none of them had failed yet, as ALL of the joints were cold joints.

I hooked up my soldering iron to attempt to de-solder these abominations. That was when I got my first burn. Then I found out that my iron wasn't a high enough wattage to desolder the joints. I decided to leave it be and just cut the wires off and tape up the exposed portions of wire.

Then I got to the main wire. This had been cut and run completely through the brain (the rest were just spliced on....). I had to cut the joints out (because of the soldering iron). This meant that I had to solder in a new piece of wire because the existing piece wasn't long enough. That was when I found out that my iron wasn't even hot enough to make a new joint.

I ran out to Sears and got me a 140 watt soldering gun (the iron was about 40 watts....). This did the trick. This was also how I got my second (and more severe) burn.

I finally got everything buttoned up and turned the key. It cranked, but didn't start.



I rolled the car over next to my brother's to get a jump.






I had a dead battery.











I felt like a moron.




But I finally got rid of that damn security system. Now I can get a better one and get it professionally installed.

I also got a new toy and got to practice my soldering.

[ultrasonic]

I ran out to Sears and got me a 140 watt soldering gun (the iron was about 40 watts....).

40w is plenty for small electronics soldering. 140w is too much for most applications, and could easily damage sensitive electronics. I suspect that the tip on your 40w iron needs to be cleaned and tinned.

[IronMonkeyL255]

The problem seemed to be that because it was a larger gauge wire (I think it was 2 12 gauge wires twisted together.....), it wasn't heating it up enough.

I tried using it on a smaller gauge wire and it worked fine.


Maybe I just suck with electrical work, though.