Driver to drive?

Jeff Liebermann · Apr 28, 2012

On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:44:09 -0700, "Paul Hovnanian P.E."
<paul@hovnanian.com> wrote:

I'm attempting to diagnose some strange electronics behavior. And it seems
to be coming down to this question:

What types of components have failure modes that are temperature independent
and are self healing over a time period of days?

Cazapitors:
<http://www.wima.com/EN/selfhealing.htm>
<http://www.electrocube.com/support/metalized_caps.asp>
That also applies to electrolytics and metalized film caps. If the
hole is small enough, it will self-heal. Google for "self healing
capacitors".

I guess resistors might also qualify. They drift when they get hot,
but recover their original value when they cool down.

Same with most semiconductors. The only one's that won't return to
their original condition when cooled are those that suffer from
thermal runaway. Some geometries also suffer from latchup, where they
form and SCR. Those will recover, but only after you remove power.

If it's none of these, then I suggest you have your device exorcized.
Once the demons are gone, the device should operate more normally.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

Jeff Urban · Apr 28, 2012

<u>Almost</u> always you find that there is a variable of which you
weren't aware. Strangely sometimes in equipment with absolutely rock
solid power supply regulation line voltage can affect it. Shouldn' but
does. Operating conditons when it comes to thermal aren't always
apparent. Air currents could be different. A piece of dust could blow
off or fall out of a fan or heatsink. Then there are those %&##^&#
software problems now.

However in rare cases it is actually a component failure. What
transistor was in old Pioneer recievers that was always an
intermittent problem ? 2SA828 or something like that ? I forgot now
but it was so common people replaced them even if they had nothing to
do with the current problem. And it was intermittent.

More common is an open terminal on a bipolar. Normally any of the
terminals going open will result in no conduction, but in my
experience when I could determine which it was usually the emitter or
base. Open collectors have been extremely rare in what I have touched.
What's more usually with an open base or emitter it is hard to tell in
circuit which. Taking it out of circuit by desoldering has just
changed everything due to the thermal shock. Sometimes even wiggling
the leads does it, in that case, it's usually a defective case.

Tubes can be even more finicky. One of the biggest problems in tubes
was gas, and believe me they had adequate vacuum pumps, what the
problem is, is that they must be heated to get the gas that is
disolved in the metal elements of the tube out completely before it's
sealed up. The dark spot is a getter and any gases that boil out
during use are supposed to be absorbed my that metal, I don't remember
what it is offhand. But those gases floating around the envelope
aren't always in the same spot appaerently or something. I know it
doesn't sound right according to the physical laws of gases, but if
the quantity is very very small who knows. A few molecules between
elements with a high potential between them is not the same as a
vacuum.

Transistors though, when they short and then unshort, they are the
biggest problem. Across the whole junction, SOMETHING blew that short
out. What's more there is no way in hell it didn't take part of the
junction with it. The problem here is it would take alot of work with
an electron microscope to even see something like that. Also, when
that happens of course the ratings of the device are compromised and
the thing is going to fail again. However if it keeps on cycling there
is obviously little or no damage each time.

Perhaps it is sometimes just a slight innacuracy in how the
semiconductor was formed. Perhaps one of the junctions decides to act
like a tunnel diode from time to time. It's also slightly possible
that magnetic fields could affect it. Poor analogy and a longshot, but
then we are not talking about something that happens every day.

Speaking of diodes, what about high speed rectifiers that slow down.
It happens, and it happens enough that is has made it to case
histories (symcures) in TVs at least twice. In these the diode tests
good, and would probably work fine on a 60 Hz sinewave, but at high
speed it won't. Check with the ohmmeter and it has .5V drop, in the
circuit it has over ten times that. Is it a hybrid diode that has two,
one for the initial peak and the other to take up the slack after to
protect the more delicate high speed diode ? Or is it a dual junction
of some sort ? What else couild explain it ?

That is about all the far fetched shit I got at the moment. At this
point all I can say is if you have a case of the gremlins and the
thing has anything in it like data and clock lines, suspect a software
problem first unless you KNOW it's something else. Like obvious power
problems and such.

Like in the case of a Zener that would short when it warmed up. this
was another symcure on a TV. It seems that once the Zener shorted it
was no longer dissipating any power and thus cooled down and was no
longer shorted. I don't ko what you know about TVs specifically, but
when the horizontal output transistor was shorted you had to replace a
Zener in the tuner. Ain't it great ? No sanity required.

J

Chiron · Apr 28, 2012

On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:01:46 -0400, Tom Del Rosso wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc&feature=player_embedded

If I wanted America to fail I'd put 45 mammals on the endangered species
list, and 46 clams.

I'd make the cost of regulatory compliance 10% of GDP, not including the
cost of time waiting for approvals.

But that's just what I'd have done in the 20th century. I'd do all
sorts of new things now.

I'm thinking that's not the problem. We want to fix the blame on some
group, or an individual, or a mentality or a political party or
whatever. I think it's way more complex than that, and probably not
amenable to being fixed.

As I look now at the US, I am struck by the similarities between us and
England ~100 years ago. England was the main superpower at the time,
with an almost-invincible navy, colonies and other territories throughout
the world - "the sun never sets on the British Empire." But the sun sets
for everyone.

England wound up doing what we're doing - letting herself go, screwing
around with the stock market, usury, excessive credit, too much military,
not enough social services, pig-headed arrogance, and on and on. I guess
when you're the masters of the world, you don't have to pay attention to
what the little people say...

Eventually it all fell apart. I see that happening here in the US now.
Seems to me that as a country we've grown "old" so to speak, and are now
declining into senescence. If we follow England's course, we'll become a
second-rate power, not helpless but not able to impose our will as easily
as before.

Looks to me like China's turn is next to be the big kid on the block.
Russia is also declining; India, while massive, hasn't yet had a
renaissance. The countries of Islam are so far behind in science that
they pose little threat at the moment. But China... it has the
population, the money, the scientific training, everything it needs to
start to kick ass and take names. And I don't think there's a damned
thing anyone can do about it.

--
It's certainly easy to calculate the average attendance for Perl
conferences.
-- Larry Wall in <199710071721.KAA19014@wall.org>

Phil Allison · Apr 28, 2012

"Paul Hovnanian PITA "

I'm attempting to diagnose some strange electronics behavior. And it seems
to be coming down to this question:

What types of components have failure modes that are temperature
independent
and are self healing over a time period of days?

** You are like the blind man who grabbed elephant by the tail and said:

" Ah - an elephant is just like a snake !!! "

Most intermittent faults behave like you describe if viewed over an
INSUFFICIENT time scale.

Think about it a bit harder.

..... Phil

N_Cook · Apr 28, 2012

Paul Hovnanian P.E. <paul@hovnanian.com> wrote in message
news:q66dnQa4cohKawfSnZ2dnUVZ_qadnZ2d@posted.isomediainc...

I'm attempting to diagnose some strange electronics behavior. And it seems
to be coming down to this question:

What types of components have failure modes that are temperature
independent
and are self healing over a time period of days?

--
Paul Hovnanian mailtoaul@Hovnanian.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't anthropomorphize computers. They hate that.

Capacitors for X and Y rated mains purposes , mainly polypropylene, don't
know about temp/time chracteristics

Jasen Betts · Apr 28, 2012

On 2012-04-28, N_Cook <diverse@tcp.co.uk> wrote:

Paul Hovnanian P.E. <paul@hovnanian.com> wrote in message
news:q66dnQa4cohKawfSnZ2dnUVZ_qadnZ2d@posted.isomediainc...
I'm attempting to diagnose some strange electronics behavior. And it seems
to be coming down to this question:

What types of components have failure modes that are temperature
independent
and are self healing over a time period of days?

Capacitors for X and Y rated mains purposes , mainly polypropylene, don't
know about temp/time chracteristics

basically instant self healing, if they didn't they'd be a short
across the line and thus explode or take out the fuse.

--
ââ 100% natural

--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to news@netfront.net ---

Nemo · Apr 28, 2012

On 27/04/12 20:44, Paul Hovnanian P.E. wrote:

I'm attempting to diagnose some strange electronics behavior. And it seems
to be coming down to this question:

What types of components have failure modes that are temperature independent
and are self healing over a time period of days?

The two that come to mind are aluminium electrolytic capacitors
(possibly) and surge tolerant resistors, which used to be carbon
composition. I think surge tolerant R's tend to rise in R after an
overload. No idea about how these behave with temperature.

Thinking further... batteries?

A temperature independent failure mode implies, to me, it's not a
semiconductor and the cause is mechanical, like vibration. That could
result in a cable's insulator being worn through as it passes a sharp
object... and some squidgy plastic insulators seem to sort of self
anneal after a while if squashed together.

William R. Walsh · Apr 28, 2012

Hi!

The simple fact of the matter is that any electronic component can become
temperature sensitive. You may want to use a heat gun or "freeze spray" to
try and isolate the fault more quickly.

If you don't have freeze spray, I'm not above suggesting that you could use
your household freezer...though this comes with significant caveats, not the
least of which is what condensation might do if it causes inappropriate
electrical connections. And it should probably never be done with anything
line powered. It also wouldn't be terribly precise, though it may "reset the
clock" and let the device work normally for a while.

William

amdx · Apr 28, 2012

On 4/26/2012 2:28 PM, Joel Koltner wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc&feature=player_embedded

Well, hey... it's pretty well-produced; definitely gives Michael Moore
some "competition," I suppose.

One video leads to another and I end up here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=bavou_SEj1E

At 2:18 she says "somebody needs to pay for all my children...take care
of all our suffering... somebody needs to be held accountable."

Mikek

P E Schoen · Apr 28, 2012

"amdx" wrote in message news:a751c$4f9c63ae$18ec6dd7$7757@KNOLOGY.NET...

One video leads to another and I end up here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=bavou_SEj1E

At 2:18 she says "somebody needs to pay for all my children...take
care of all our suffering... somebody needs to be held accountable."

I suggest that anyone (but preferably welfare recipients and mentally
deficient), be given a "bounty" of, say, $5000, in return for voluntary
sterilization. And tax exemptions, as well as welfare benefits, should not
be extended beyond two children. Some of these people claim that children
are a "gift from God", and those in the "righteous right" don't agree with
birth control. So, let "God" take care of these "gifts". The churches and
bible thumpers should bear the cost of "taking care" of these children. It's
really a crime that children grow up in such dysfunctional "families", and
their values are so screwed up that they will perpetuate the paradigm of
cradle-to-grave welfare and irresponsible procreation, as well as criminal
behavior, immorality, violence, and substance abuse.

This is one of many areas where neither the stereotypical left wing OR right
wing extremists offer anything useful. It requires common sense and logic,
not emotion and religion. But politicians, and the masses of humanity they
represent, are woefully deficient in the former, and blinded and deluded by
the latter. This is one area where the "godless communists" such as the
Chinese have a huge advantage over us. Maybe "better red than bred"!

Paul

spamtrap1888 · Apr 28, 2012

On Apr 27, 6:39 pm, Jeff Urban <jurb6...@gmail.com> wrote:

Transistors though, when they short and then unshort, they are the
biggest problem. Across the whole junction, SOMETHING blew that short
out. What's more there is no way in hell it didn't take part of the
junction with it. The problem here is it would take alot of work with
an electron microscope to even see something like that. Also, when
that happens of course the ratings of the device are compromised and
the thing is going to fail again. However if it keeps on cycling there
is obviously little or no damage each time.

Perhaps it is sometimes just a slight innacuracy in how the
semiconductor was formed. Perhaps one of the junctions decides to act
like a tunnel diode from time to time. It's also slightly possible
that magnetic fields could affect it. Poor analogy and a longshot, but
then we are not talking about something that happens every day.

This jogged my memory a little. Back in the day, under bias conditions
you could sometimes invert the surface of a bipolar transistor enough
to latch it on. Unplugging it and baking it out would cure the problem
for the moment. Letting it sit would also let it heal.

John Miles, KE5FX · Apr 29, 2012

On Apr 27, 12:44 pm, "Paul Hovnanian P.E." <p...@hovnanian.com> wrote:

I'm attempting to diagnose some strange electronics behavior. And it seems
to be coming down to this question:

What types of components have failure modes that are temperature independent
and are self healing over a time period of days?

Mechanical switches and relays are some frustrating ones. Relays
meant for switching power circuits can fail to pass a low-level signal
even when apparently closed. Many people don't know to look for dry-
rated contacts (e.g., gold-plated) when specifying such parts.

Also, when building or repairing your own gear, you need to be careful
when reusing parts that have previously been used to switch high
currents or voltages. Carbonization and general dirtiness in an old
power switch can make a nice humidity sensor when you reuse that power
switch to drive a logic gate (use a pullup/pulldown resistor, duh!) or
even the LED in an optocoupler (not so obvious). Meanwhile, a relay
with gold-plated contacts may no longer have gold-plated contacts
after it's been used to switch loads near its full rated power.

-- john

Bill Sloman · Apr 29, 2012

On Apr 27, 12:59 am, flipper <flip...@fish.net> wrote:

On Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:28:00 -0700, Joel Koltner

zapwire-use...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Jim Thompson wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc&feature=player_embedded

Well, hey... it's pretty well-produced; definitely gives Michael Moore
some "competition," I suppose.

It also has something Michael Moore doesn't, honesty.

Now, you may argue there are 'other reasons' but it doesn't alter the
fact that strangling energy supplies and increasing cost is the most
effective way to destroy an economy, as exemplified by our Dear Leader
explaining his cap and trade program would necessarily "skyrocket"
cost, that when Congress wouldn't pass it his administration would do
it anyway, even 'worse', and the EPA announcing they are on a mission
to "crucify" the oil and gas industry, in addition to bankrupting the
coal industry.

Letting the energy industry keep on pushing up atmospheric CO2 levels
is another way of destroying the economy. It's a bit slower, but the
"destruction" is going to be a whole lot more real.

Moving over to renewable energy sources would double the price of
energy - in the short term.

Energy apparently represents 8.4% of the current US GDP

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2008/07/us-energy-consumption-as-percent-of-gdp.html

so doubling the price overnight would put a nasty crimp in your
economy. Something like this happened in 1973 when the price of oil
went up by a factor of four, and it didn't destroy anybody's economy.

In fact it isn't going to happen in the short term - you've got to a
build a whole lot of renewable energy generating plant before you can
switch, and the very act of building that much plant would at least
halve the price of renewable energy (the rule of thumb for economies
of scale is that increasing manufacturing volume by a factor ten
halves the cost of manufacture).

Paying for the necessary capital investment might be seen as putting a
crimp in your economy, but it can also be seen as Kenysian stimulus
spending, which your economy still seems to need to keep out of
recession.

And as you build more renewable energy generators, you'll need to
import less oil - and what you pay for the oil you import is roughly
your long term balance of payments deficit, which does happen to be
unsustainable either.

In short, this administration has been on a 4 year quest to destroy
every viable source of domestic energy supply.

A bizarre misinterpretation, propagated by particularly stupid right-
wing nitwits.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Jim Yanik · Apr 29, 2012

"William R. Walsh" <newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com>
wrote in news:bNXmr.14916$M37.7331@newsfe01.iad:

Hi!

The simple fact of the matter is that any electronic component can
become temperature sensitive. You may want to use a heat gun or
"freeze spray" to try and isolate the fault more quickly.

If you don't have freeze spray, I'm not above suggesting that you
could use your household freezer...though this comes with significant
caveats, not the least of which is what condensation might do if it
causes inappropriate electrical connections. And it should probably
never be done with anything line powered. It also wouldn't be terribly
precise, though it may "reset the clock" and let the device work
normally for a while.

William

helpful hint;
when using freeze spray,it's better to spray a Q-tip and apply that to the
component than to spray the component directly.
you can CAUSE "problems" to appear with freeze spray.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

krw@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz · Apr 29, 2012

On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 10:34:25 -0500, Jim Yanik <jyanik@abuse.gov> wrote:

"William R. Walsh" <newsgroups1@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.com
wrote in news:bNXmr.14916$M37.7331@newsfe01.iad:

Hi!

The simple fact of the matter is that any electronic component can
become temperature sensitive. You may want to use a heat gun or
"freeze spray" to try and isolate the fault more quickly.

If you don't have freeze spray, I'm not above suggesting that you
could use your household freezer...though this comes with significant
caveats, not the least of which is what condensation might do if it
causes inappropriate electrical connections. And it should probably
never be done with anything line powered. It also wouldn't be terribly
precise, though it may "reset the clock" and let the device work
normally for a while.

William

helpful hint;
when using freeze spray,it's better to spray a Q-tip and apply that to the
component than to spray the component directly.
you can CAUSE "problems" to appear with freeze spray.

Isn't that the point?

Paul Hovnanian P.E. · Apr 29, 2012

Arfa Daily wrote:

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." <paul@hovnanian.com> wrote in message
news:q66dnQa4cohKawfSnZ2dnUVZ_qadnZ2d@posted.isomediainc...
I'm attempting to diagnose some strange electronics behavior. And it
seems to be coming down to this question:

What types of components have failure modes that are temperature
independent
and are self healing over a time period of days?

--
Paul Hovnanian mailtoaul@Hovnanian.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't anthropomorphize computers. They hate that.

Not really enough information to make an informed comment. Virtually any
component can have odd failure modes including intermittent ones, but I
don't think I can come up with any examples that are consistently allied
to any particular component type, and that are not temperature related. By
far the most common time related failures these days, are down to bad
electrolytics, but if you dig down, there is almost always a temperature
angle to the failure. For instance, caps or resistors in the startup
supply of a switcher, will often fail due to heat issues, but you don't
notice because as long as the item remains powered, the cap or resistor
does not cause a problem. Now remove the power completely, and try and
restart it a few hours later. Chances are, it won't now come back on. But
leave it a few days, and it might well restart the next time ...

Another possibility is bad joints, particularly with anything manufactured
in the last 5 years, which will make use of lead-free solder. Bad joints
in this hateful stuff, can give rise to the most bizarre intermittent
symptoms, which can on occasion have apparent self-healing behaviour.

You need to tell us a bit more about the actual failures you are seeing,
and what the actual equipment is.

Arfa

This is a further symptom of some weird problems my truck's electronic
ignition module is having. It seems that when it begins to misbehave badly,
if I park it for a week or so, the problems go away for a few days. Then
they start to reappear. Temperature doesn't seem to have anything to do
with it, as the failures are just as likely to occur on a cold start as
after having driven on a warm day.

I don't think its due to lead free solder. The truck is 33 years old. I
re-heated all of the solder joints I could get to (most of the module is
potted). I added an external cap (on the theory that an internal cap inside
the possting may have failed open). No difference. Cleaned all the
connections and added a dedicated ground lead from the battery negative to
the module (on the theory that body rust somethere might have taken out the
original ground path). No change.

The symptoms are that every once in a while (about once a day) the ignition
will just cut out. Every time a coast to the side of the road and start
poking around with a voltmeter, all is well (12 volts is present where its
supposed to be). I've replaced everything except for the module. Those go
for about $350. If one can be found. The really funny thing is that: in
order to test the coil output, I hooked up an old timing light (a direct
connect type that triggers off the coil secondary). The presence of that
strobe in the ignition circuit fixes whatever is wrong within a few
seconds. And the fix lasts for a day or two. I don't have to leave the
strobe connected. Once it starts, its OK without it. Otherwise, it just
never starts unless I leave it parked for a week or two, which seems to be
when the 'self healing' kicks in.

Since the problem has been narrowed down to that module, its pretty certain
I'll just need a new one (something other than the $350 OEM part). I might
try building my own (there's not much to one of these). But the failure
mode has me puzzled and I'd like to understand what might be wrong here.
Even if it has no bearing on the eventual fix.

Since I have enough vehicles at my disposal, I don't actually have to fix
this any time soon. So I'm trying to solve the puzzle rather then just
throw parts out.

--
Paul Hovnanian mailto

aul@Hovnanian.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
Have a pleasant Terran revolution.

Paul Hovnanian P.E. · Apr 29, 2012

Phil Allison wrote:

"Paul Hovnanian PITA "

I'm attempting to diagnose some strange electronics behavior. And it
seems to be coming down to this question:

What types of components have failure modes that are temperature
independent
and are self healing over a time period of days?

** You are like the blind man who grabbed elephant by the tail and said:

" Ah - an elephant is just like a snake !!! "

Most intermittent faults behave like you describe if viewed over an
INSUFFICIENT time scale.

Think about it a bit harder.

I've been watching this go on for about 6 months now. Since its a redundant
piece of equipment (one of my trucks), I'm more interested in understanding
the failure mode than actually fixing it.

--
Paul Hovnanian mailto

aul@Hovnanian.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
Shoot straight you bastards! Don't make a mess of it.

Artemus · Apr 29, 2012

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." <paul@hovnanian.com> wrote in message
news:Nfqdnb5ALLQxGQDSnZ2dnUVZ_sudnZ2d@posted.isomediainc...

This is a further symptom of some weird problems my truck's electronic
ignition module is having. It seems that when it begins to misbehave badly,
if I park it for a week or so, the problems go away for a few days. Then
they start to reappear. Temperature doesn't seem to have anything to do
with it, as the failures are just as likely to occur on a cold start as
after having driven on a warm day.

I don't think its due to lead free solder. The truck is 33 years old. I
re-heated all of the solder joints I could get to (most of the module is
potted). I added an external cap (on the theory that an internal cap inside
the possting may have failed open). No difference. Cleaned all the
connections and added a dedicated ground lead from the battery negative to
the module (on the theory that body rust somethere might have taken out the
original ground path). No change.

One of the sensors that feed the ignition module may have a flakey
ground. There shouldn't be a lot of them on something that old. My
'75 280Z had an intermittant problem like yours which drove me crazy.
2 dealers were stumped. I finally nailed it by driving around with a
battery powered o'scope, DMM, and a bunch of wires going to the
engine to tap various test points. Turned out it was one of the water
temp sensors which caused the fuel injection pulses to jump to max
width, flooding the engine.
Art

The symptoms are that every once in a while (about once a day) the ignition
will just cut out. Every time a coast to the side of the road and start
poking around with a voltmeter, all is well (12 volts is present where its
supposed to be). I've replaced everything except for the module. Those go
for about $350. If one can be found. The really funny thing is that: in
order to test the coil output, I hooked up an old timing light (a direct
connect type that triggers off the coil secondary). The presence of that
strobe in the ignition circuit fixes whatever is wrong within a few
seconds. And the fix lasts for a day or two. I don't have to leave the
strobe connected. Once it starts, its OK without it. Otherwise, it just
never starts unless I leave it parked for a week or two, which seems to be
when the 'self healing' kicks in.

Since the problem has been narrowed down to that module, its pretty certain
I'll just need a new one (something other than the $350 OEM part). I might
try building my own (there's not much to one of these). But the failure
mode has me puzzled and I'd like to understand what might be wrong here.
Even if it has no bearing on the eventual fix.

Since I have enough vehicles at my disposal, I don't actually have to fix
this any time soon. So I'm trying to solve the puzzle rather then just
throw parts out.

--
Paul Hovnanian mailtoaul@Hovnanian.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
Have a pleasant Terran revolution.

Jim Thompson · Apr 29, 2012

On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:06:39 -0700, "Artemus" <bogus@invalid.org> wrote:

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." <paul@hovnanian.com> wrote in message
news:Nfqdnb5ALLQxGQDSnZ2dnUVZ_sudnZ2d@posted.isomediainc...

This is a further symptom of some weird problems my truck's electronic
ignition module is having. It seems that when it begins to misbehave badly,
if I park it for a week or so, the problems go away for a few days. Then
they start to reappear. Temperature doesn't seem to have anything to do
with it, as the failures are just as likely to occur on a cold start as
after having driven on a warm day.

I don't think its due to lead free solder. The truck is 33 years old. I
re-heated all of the solder joints I could get to (most of the module is
potted). I added an external cap (on the theory that an internal cap inside
the possting may have failed open). No difference. Cleaned all the
connections and added a dedicated ground lead from the battery negative to
the module (on the theory that body rust somethere might have taken out the
original ground path). No change.

One of the sensors that feed the ignition module may have a flakey
ground. There shouldn't be a lot of them on something that old. My
'75 280Z had an intermittant problem like yours which drove me crazy.
2 dealers were stumped. I finally nailed it by driving around with a
battery powered o'scope, DMM, and a bunch of wires going to the
engine to tap various test points. Turned out it was one of the water
temp sensors which caused the fuel injection pulses to jump to max
width, flooding the engine.
Art

[snip]

Jim Thompson · Apr 29, 2012

On Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:22:54 -0500, amdx <amdx@knologynotthis.net> wrote:

On 4/26/2012 2:28 PM, Joel Koltner wrote:
Jim Thompson wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc&feature=player_embedded

Well, hey... it's pretty well-produced; definitely gives Michael Moore
some "competition," I suppose.

One video leads to another and I end up here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=bavou_SEj1E

At 2:18 she says "somebody needs to pay for all my children...take care
of all our suffering... somebody needs to be held accountable."

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