Is Rubber An Insulator Or A Connector?

[DerekW]

What can I say? I am impressed!

Derek

[Jan-hendrik]

Eclips212 has told me he has these strips made by a German manufacturer.

Someone else confided he has dismantled some cheap calculators and ripped out the rubber connectors to fix his XM matrix

This is the Ebay link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NAPPE-AFFICHEUR-GAUCHE...1QQcmdZViewItem

You can write eclips212 in English.

This post has been edited by Jan-hendrik on July 21, 2007 09:52 am

[demag]

I see in Babelfish this translates as "Left Tablecloth Bill Poster"..................Of course!

[kenhall1202]

Hello readers

Well I finally got round to fixing my 'afficheur gauche' using the 20 odd quid strip of 'magic' rubber via ebay and our French friend 'eclips212'. It does exactly what it says on the tin, so I am very pleased with the end result!! Thanks again Derek for the info and advice you gave me.

Points to note (apologies if I am repeating advice given elsewhere).

I gave up trying to remove the upper half of the steering column shroud and found that after removing the binnacle around the speedo etc then the display panel could be wiggled up and out without too much difficulty after disconnecting all the plugs.

With the display unit opened up I found that it took quite a tug to remove the flexible printed circuit connector from the board and the glass LCD display - it was very well stuck down. Once it was removed I tried my wife's nail varnish remover (mainly acetone but with water and other ingredients) to clean off the residue of glue and metal strip from the contact areas - this was totally ineffective. I then tried ordinary cellulose thinners with a tiny paint brush and this worked a treat softening up the glue nicely. The printed circuit strips were then given a final gentle clean with a plastic eraser leaving them all bright, gold and shiny. The glass LCD contact 'ledge' was just given a final wipe over with a rag and clean thinners.

The rubber strip (which replaces the printed circuit foil) is first of all clamped to the edge of the circuit board which is straightforward. The other long edge of the strip is folded over at 90 degrees and has to make contact with the 'ledge' on the glass LCD. This was the part that I found to be the most fiddly and nerve wracking as it would have been easy to crack the glass by pressing it too hard or unevenly. The white plastic edge clips which hold the LCD glass in postion, thus clamping the rubber strip, aren't really man enough for the job and my glass kept popping out until I gently bent the clips in a bit.

Refitting is a reversal of removal (to quote Mr Haynes!!) although I did take the opportunity to replace a blown dipped beam indicator bulb after pulling forward the speedo display.

One final tip - I broke a retaining clip off the far left alarm light housing but repaired it successfully using 'Poly Weld' for the first time. It is sold by 'StarLoc 5 star adhesives' via ebay and claims to make fast strong welds on ABS, PVC, Cellulose, Polycarbonate, Acrylic, HIPS, SAN, (don't ask me what these two are), Polystyrene etc. It worked perfectly for me.

So what are you waiting for, have a go and get that display working as it should!!

Regards, Ken Hall

[DerekW]

Hi Ken,

Glad to hear it all worked out well.

As an easy solution to a long standing problem it has to be well worth the money.

Thanks for the advice regarding the plastic weld, I've tried Marley pipe adhesive with no success so this stuff sounds like the bees knees.

Derek