I pulled the logicon out of my car a while back to fix some intermittent lighting issues, and install a white faceplate to match my custom gauges. I finally got to pull the thing apart today and started cleaning/investigating but didn't want to reassemble before getting a little input from the electronics gurus.

First-- I cleaned the contact swipes for the two slide switches (fan and temp controls) with some denatured alcohol and gently blew them out with a can of "electronics duster" air.
Is it recomended to put a touch of dielectric grease on these or leave them dry?

Second-- It looks like I may have a few cold solder joints to touch up for the orange LED's. I will hit all the points on the circuit board with a soldering iron just to be safe. But I remember having the situation when the unit was installed in my car that, the LED's would only illuminate when a button was fully depressed, not just "clicked on". Same goes for the slide switches......the little LED's in the slide handles would only illuminate when lightly pressed inward (or lightly tapped). To me, that seems like it could be a dirty contact syndrome.
Is there any need to attempt an internal contact cleaning of the micro switches? And are there any other steps I should take to insure a fail-safe reassembly?



Thanks for your time gents

 

Leave the carbon wipers dry. The LEDs are notorious for being intermittent. The solder joints are pretty small. If you merely heat and re-flow the original solder with an iron you will likely be disappointed with the results....it is best to use a solder sucker (there are various types) to remove as much of the old solder as you can before re-soldering. I use a Radio Shack solder sucker that has a rubber squeeze bulb. It works much like a pencil iron but has a very effective suction for getting the old solder off. Use paste flux also. I re-solder all of the joints simply because it's a bitch to get the logicon out and I only want to have to do it once

 

Dry.....OK cool.

I agree 100% with everything you are saying about the LED's. I'm proficient when it comes to soldering and have all the needed tools/supplies to do the job right. I'll take the time and resolder everything. Thanks for the word, scrip!

Is there any conceivable reason to try to clean the micro switches? Or do they rarely cause problems.
I also only want to do this once.

 

Haven't seen problems with the microswitches much at all. Occasionally I'll see problems with the fan speed slider, sometimes high speed when set almost all the way to the left (just past "off"). Sometimes cleaning will fix it, on some others the carbon will flake off, rendering it a boat anchor.

 

The sliders have always worked well in this unit, combined with the cleaning........I don't foresee any problems there. I'm heading into my shop to resolder and reasemble. Thanks for the advice dude!

Edit* Also realized that the LED's behind the slider handles are removable. Interesting....

 

Yep the design is pretty interesting. I remember one time I ordered a wiper relay from Icemark and I asked him if he had any logicon LEDs. He said he had a few so when I received the relay there were like 2 handfuls of LEDs in the box, free of charge. It's a damn shame he's gone. He was such a helpful dude. Anyway, should you find that you need any, hit me up and I'll snail-mail em to ya.

 

I will certainly remember the offer. Thank you very much! I wonder if there are different colors available for that size LED? Hmmm....

We lost a great member of our community when Mark passed. An ally of his caliber is non-repleacable.
And where do we go for relays now?

 

mouser.com

 

Unfortunatly, I'm not electronics savvy and don't know which relays to order from mouser. They only have about 18,000 to choose from!