Bob,

are you really subversively bringing up the solder vs. crimp debate?

:)

alistair

On 2013-02-10, at 11:06 AM, Robert Stevens wrote:

> This related thread brings up a couple recent road trip fixes that became necessary.
> 
> My van's first radiator fan resistor lasted 20 years. This last one lasted 3 years.
> I had gotten 2 from Van-Cafe while in MT on a trip where the original finally gave up.
> Glad I had the spare stored in the van .... very easy fix.
> 
> My point: the quality of the electrical connections, after all these years, likely was the heat-
> producing culprit that was the demise of this second resistor. I'm thinking that I ought to
> solder the new/last one in, rather than using the original connectors, spade, and replace
> the wiring as well. That thing carries so much voltage that any "resistance" is like going
> to focus heat build up on the resistor, which, from looking at the last one I just replaced,
> finally blew a wire on the coil and a lot of that green coating off.
> 
> Also, while replacing the resistor, I had to remove the driver side headlight, and a friend
> noticed that light was less bright than the psgr one, the other night. Likely just poor electrical connections
> after putting that unit back on. Before leaving on this last trip about a month ago, I had
> checked the headlights and they were working normally, so it is likely this has to do with
> my recent handling of it. The headlight connector, that seems to paritally melt about every
> 3-4 years due to resistance/grounding issues in this system, was in good condition when
> I took the light assembly off last week.
> 
> I have replaced the oritinal grounds with shorter runs to the "firewall" just behind the lights,
> but have not replaced the original wiring, and I DO have relays in this system.
> 
> Guess I'm not really asking a question here, but the "other" discussion remined me of
> my recent experiences with these vanagon systems. I have another resistor on the way
> as a spare.