M18 Battery fault and solution

[JOEPRO]

I know, I shouldn't have bought a couple of cheap ebay knock off m18 batteries! This was a couple of years back and to be fair they were performing like the real thing except one of them which began to only show 2 bars of 4 and stop charging half way through.

Figured nothing to lose but take a look see inside.

One wire was trapped in the housing since it was made which eventually had intermittent connection. So this will be an easy fix. I'll solder in a new wire to replace the broken one.

Glad I didn't junk it and looked inside first I'll get a year or two more use out of this battery.

 

[Barking Mat]

Some stuff, I just can't get the solder to take to.

I was fixing an intermittent fault on a rear light cluster on my V70 the other day, and no matter what I tried it wouldn't solder, filed it, abrasived it, still no luck, ended up drilling a hole, looping the wire through, then soldering it. It's a bodge, but it works.

 

[Parm]

Some stuff, I just can't get the solder to take to.

I was fixing an intermittent fault on a rear light cluster on my V70 the other day, and no matter what I tried it wouldn't solder, filed it, abrasived it, still no luck, ended up drilling a hole, looping the wire through, then soldering it. It's a bodge, but it works.

Some electrical solders can dry out and stop working properly?

 

[Barking Mat]

Some electrical solders can dry out and stop working properly?

Neh, think some boards are monkey metal or somesuch, solder worked fine on other things.

 

[wristpin]

Neh, think some boards are monkey metal or somesuch, solder worked fine on other things.

Aren’t they more of a spot weld than a soldered joint?

 

[Barking Mat]

Aren’t they more of a spot weld than a soldered joint?

Looking at the design, no soldering was involved, parts of the tracks stuck up 90° so a female plastic plug socket was glued over it, the pins of the plug were part of the tracks.

I'll get a photo tomorrow, I've not finished arguing with it, it's not that interesting anyway, just annoying.

 

[500e]

Plumbing flux and clean off after tinning, then clean, clean

 

[James1979]

Looking at the design, no soldering was involved, parts of the tracks stuck up 90° so a female plastic plug socket was glued over it, the pins of the plug were part of the tracks.

I'll get a photo tomorrow, I've not finished arguing with it, it's not that interesting anyway, just annoying.

What solder are you using?

The modern lead free stuff is absolute crap.

I’ve a roll of pre regs lead stuff which I got NOS and that sticks really well - even older wires and sticks to the tabs on boards.

That said, bit of wire wool or scotchbrite pad works wonders

 

[500e]

A lot of the tags on the batteries we use are SS so don't solder well with flux cored 60/40 (proper solder) you want a good hot iron and just a touch of plumbers flux To Tin we use Everbuild P20 but any good paste flux works, the past is better than Bakers as you can control it, but you must clean after using it. Do not use on multi core wire it will corrode.
We have been building battery packs for years with no corrosion problems, the hot iron and flux means a short heat cycle on the tab or print.
Cleaning before you start is a given as @James1979 says

 

[JOEPRO]

I got a replacement wire soldered back in AOK this evening and the battery is charging OK again so back to full capacity