Re-heating the cracked joints was fairly easy to do with a low watt
(40?) iron with a clean and tinned narrow pointed tip. A solder
station with clamps and magnifying lens, use of a magnifying lamp,
helped a lot. These tools have paid for themselves many times over and
are quite affordable. A respected list member kindly suggested that
reheated all the joints might be a good idea. I only reheated one
other questionable joint.

Wipers work but are not road tested.

The other unmentioned reason for posting this. When I discovered the
fault, pushing sideways on a wire going to the relay caused the
intermittent feature to work again. Initially I assumed an external
connection to the relay was at fault but that didn't really make sense
as I knew the connections to relays/fuses to be ok and that  A
failed-failing solder joint was something I initially dismissed as I
assumed this typically happened to a relay that was incorrectly
installed (BTDT) or somehow abused.

I haven't studied the later model year diagrams in Bentley, but it
appears the OEM intermittent relay works like a 99 installed into an
earlier model year Vanagon.

Is it possible that the 99 relay wasn't meant to handle the Amp draw
of the Vanagon wiper motor over long term (years) use?

I do understand that a solder joint can fail over time due to normal
wear and tear.

Neil.

On 2/12/14, Neil N <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:

> Relay was properly mounted in the OEM fuse block. I'm about 100%
> certain that cracked solder joints is the issue. Wiggling the "I" pin,
> I see movement at the solder joint.
>
> Image:
> https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-j1jJuSqWATs/UvvkphvEAtI/AAAAAAAAIy0/Fi6W10tdyjQ/s640/99%2520relay%2520failure%253F.jpg
>
> I'm posting as these relays may be getting harder to find and AFAIK,
> the one from van-cafe isn't the same type. I'm hoping that reheating
> these joints will save the relay.

--
Neil n

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