Rear defroster repair -- thoughts?

[pajeff02]

I had to DD our Suburban last week and noticed an unusual noise from the back of the vehicle. Turns out that the passenger side connector for the defroster grid decided to free itself from the glass. Do I dare apply fresh solder to the connector and then press it to the glass with my solder gun? It would really suck if I ended up cracking the back glass in this thing. I could pre-heat the area a bit with my heat gun to lessen the thermal shock... but just not sure on this one. Thoughts?

[0rion]

do you have a good gun that would heat the solder up quickly or an iron you'd have to lay on there? I would want something that's good and hot so you can just touch it long enough to melt the solder and be done. They also sell electrically conductive epoxy's you could use if the whole solder thing worries you too much. Just epoxy it back on.

[WS6SP33D]

I have te soldered a few back on. I'm not saying you should or should not. I kept the vehicles in a heated garage until the glass was alittle warm then with my quick heart mac solder gun applied solder. I have also heard of people getting someone to hold a heat gun directly behind the element to try and heat the glass while the solder is applied. Good luck jeff

[pajeff02]

I have a solder gun that does heat quickly. It would be nice to do this on a hot sunny day when the glass is blistering... but those days are months away.

[KMdef9]

I have multi-temp gun that I would use. Lowest setting with a thin guage solder and you should be fine.

Could take a blow drier to the glass, lol.

[pajeff02]

Well... it's fixed. I started by applying flux and a layer of new solder to the broken off connector. While that cooled, I warmed up the glass with my heat gun. I made sure to heat the glass around the area of the attachment point and not just a single spot. When it was hot enough that I couldn't leave my hand on it, I held the connector in place with a small screw driver and pressed the solder gun to it until it smoked and the solder flowed out. After removing the heat, I held it in place for a few more seconds and then allowed it to cool for a while before testing the strength of the bond and re-attaching the wire harness.

Thanks for the replies!

[WS6SP33D]

Nicely done Jeff

[pajeff02]

Thanks! Easy to do, but very stressful not knowing what the outcome was going to be.

[cammed goat]

Glad I read this. I have worked on vehicles with broken heat element connectors and I always wondered how those could be repaired. I know now. lol

[JayTA98]

i did solder mine in the TA and it had hold so far. nice work jeff