I might try & see if I can squeeze this in B4 we leave on Thursday afternoon. On the other hand, I'm going to be as busy as heck until Thursday morning so it might not be possible!
Regardless, I may just drag down the ole solder iron & solder with me just in case we get a chance to do this. Heck, I'd rather do it at home than 950 miles south but knowing how crappy these joints are & the fact that the SRT is now pushing 67K I figure it's only a matter of time!

 

I have my tools, solder gun and solder in the car - along with everything else for the trip!

 

Think we should do the same at any "major" meets that we have. Will help keep all of us on the road.

 

Well, my stuff is packed - so we are ready. You show me how to get it outta there, ok?

Deb walker and Stargazer have shown interest and I know I wanna get mine out and see how it looks.

Sounds like KUrts has has iron along as well.

 

Yes I'm still repairing these!

I'll inspect, redo bad solder joints, perform the Me So Horny mod (horn works w/o key) and replace the Air Pump relay (and the Fuel Pump relay if needed). I will then test your RCM in one of my cars. Then I will mail back the RCM to you via USPS Priority Mail (2-3 day). In most cases I get the RCM back in the mail the day after I receive it so yer looking at about a week total. If you want the package insured please include an additional $8. FYI, In the couple/few years that I have been doing this only one was lost in the mail.
Please email your address to me also.


Will post this in the first post so folks can find it.

 

I did but it's a shame that it decided to rain non-stop Saturday evening; no one was interested in standing outside & yanking their RCM's including yours truly!

 

Yup, same here. The weather didn't stop ALL the fun, but it did kinda take the wind outta my sails. I was not interested in opening any potential can of worms on a rainy night. I'l yank mine out tonight or tomorrow night and take a look.

Oh...
And would it kill them to put up a few lights in that lot? I about killed myself walking down the steps from the upper lot. (It's awful getting old, once upon a time, I could walk around out there and be fine - but no more. The eyes are the first to go.)

 

[quote=pizzaguyOh...
And would it kill them to put up a few lights in that lot? I about killed myself walking down the steps from the upper lot. (It's awful getting old, once upon a time, I could walk around out there and be fine - but no more. The eyes are the first to go.)[/quote]
Don't worry young man ............... it gets worse.

 

Just keep calling me "young man" and I'll be fine!

 

I had a chance today to pull the RCM's out of both cars & can happily report that both looked fine.
Not that it stopped me from resoldering the points anyway.
Now this makes me wonder if this issue is apparent only on certain groups of RCM's. Perhaps there are some bad lots out there?

 

Sounds like we are victims of the effort to remove lead from solder as part of the RoHS initiative. Unfortunately, without lead, soldered joints just don't hold up as well.

Thanks for this post. I'll pass it on to my local Dodge mechanic and good friend Kevin (as well as keep it bookmarked).

 

tighed1:

I just took my RCM out. The solder on the green board is fine - not even gonna re-heat any of the connections.

HOWEVER does it bother you to see how they made connection from the connector pins to the traces on the WHITE circuit board? Just looks a little silly to me - not soldered, but "stamped" connections. Reminds me of Motorola's attempt at that in the 1980's vintage "Micor Systems 90" line of accessories. So far, MB has had more luck with this than Motorola did, that's for sure.


Also, while my assembly is very clean inside (and after only 18,000 miles it should be) why did they not use individually sealed relays? The snap-together housing does provide pretty good protection, but any contaminates that get in there are trapped by the housing - and are now potentially in contact with the relay contactor surfaces.


(I don't have anything else to obsess on tonight).

 

How many watt soldering iron are you using? My 15watt is not doing the job.

 

A 100/140 W soldering iron is good to use.

 

Just a couple of cave man questions. Wont the siren go off if I disconnect the battery? Also, Im ok with a soldering gun but just wanted to make sure that if I heat these pins up good and hot, that they wont melt somewhere else in the "green board?" area. Lastly, Ive some very small wire, like in a phone cord, would that be ok for the horn mod?

 

Answers above!

 

i pulled mine and checked it and the solder looked great.

 

Those that are checking be sure to use a magnifying glass or something so you can see REALLY close when checking.

Here is a picture of my roadster's RCM.



Now here it is again magnified.



Here it is repaired.

 

tighed1 your info on the relay board is great, Thanks This board also contains a relay for the secondary air injection system correct? I'll have to take mine out this winter and check for the loose solder as I keep getting that MIL code for that system. The pump runs and I've changed the check valve and it ( the Mil ) comes and goes so when I can have it down for awhile I'll remove the relay assembly.

 

That is correct. I get the 505 code on both cars. When checking the RCM for the No Start issue I noticed that the contacts on the relay that controls the air injection pump were BADLY burnt. I have yet to clean the contact to see if it solves the problem, nor have I inspected the RCM from my roadster to see if it's contacts are burnt.
Could have something to do with it. Or not.