Steve Johnson (sjohnson@pcocd2.intel.com) wrote:

>So puusital@mv.us.adobe.com says:
>> Lucky me, I may have experienced this problem yesterday in my '87, or it 
>> may just have been water in my gas (what it felt like to me), or - of 
>> course - it may have been something else entirely.
>> 
>
>The symptoms you describe are exactly what happens when experiencing the
>intermittent stalling.  Mine has corrected itself before without having
>.....

>
>John Huguenard posted a bit about an article from Electronics Now (which I
>haven't been able to get my hands on yet) where the writer Don Lancaster
>discusses trouble-shooting F.I. systems.  Apparently, he tracked down the
>possible real cause of the hesitancy which is a weak solder connection on
>a big resistor.  Don't know the details yet, and would like some hard 
>"hands-on" evidence that this fixes it.  I also kinda hate to dig into
>the brain box for fear of damaging something in the process.

In the article, Lancaster doesn't really describe the nuts and bolts of 
opening the box and locating the part.  In fact he doesn't identify it other
than "a large resistor with steel leads".  So unfortunately, we really don't
have a clear method to do this.  I can tell you that I have opened the box
on my 1981.  It didn't seem that hard to do, but of course YMMV:

        (Inside were two printed circuit boards joined more or 
        less back to back by a flexible connector.  I opened this 
        assembly by removing two screw, and then the two boards were 
        laying side by side, and I could see all the components.)

I was looking for loose solder joints etc, but everything looked OK.  I
reassembled it and it worked the same as before, which turned out to be
perfect, after I fixed a short in an input cable.

John