Rebuilding the FI relay board. Options

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

My soldering skills leave something to be desired and the space in which to perform the soldering is rather tight but I was able to do it...I think...at least it looked okay and felt solid. Here's a picture of before my soldering and after it was all coated:
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-2-1063733351.jpg)

Mine showed only a couple cracks in the tar bottom and I'm sure I could've easily patched them but I wanted to see if recoating was easy. It is, just messy and I recommend wearing nitrile or latex gloves. The LET shrinks considerably. One container will be more than enough for two coats and left overs for later wiring projects. The 3M undercoating sprayed on easily and did not shrink. Several coats of that would probably be fine. I hesitated using RTV because I thought I read somewhere that it may be slightly acidic on some metals and I didn't want to risk having my copper strips and soldered joints disappearing on me one day while driving.

If anyone else has done this differently I would like to hear about it, be is successful or not. Mine was successful (short term at least (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) as the car started right up and ran after installation. Will it last for the years to come? We'll certainly find out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

The chemicals are readily available at any decent auto parts store. I used NAPA.

Yes, you can soak the whole board in thinner. I soaked mine for 1/2 a day, scraped off a thin layer of tar, soaked it some more and chipped away at it with a flat blade screwdriver (#2 size I think it was (IMG:http://www.vwvortex.com/vwbb/tongue.gif)). Added more thinner and let it soak over night and into the next day (I was in no rush). Scraped it some more and washed with carb cleaner. The board won't be hurt, don't worry.

You want to coat the underside so NO MOISTURE will ever creep its way in and create corrosion. You solder the connections so there is no chance of vibration wearing away the connections (wallowing out). Thus you are insuring a 'more fit' board that should last a lifetime!

Of the two 914's I've owned, neither one has a bad board. They seem pretty darn durable to me. But I wanted to fix the couple of cracks in mine and since I plan on fixing more of my 914 (terrible battery rust) and treating her right (plus I wanted to stain my hands with black spots (IMG:http://www.vwvortex.com/vwbb/wink.gif)) I figured what the hay (IMG:http://www.vwvortex.com/vwbb/biggrin.gif)