Fixed mine a few weeks ago, worked great. I had the soldering done for free as "training" for one of my micro miniature repair techs. The luster of my accomplishment was tarnished as I snapped the shifter cable changing out the broken/brittle piece on the shifter. When "they" say, "be careful that you don't snap the outer cable housing", they weren't kidding. $900 + dollars later, fixed.

Great ideas using the clamps I did mine without using clamps and one of the resisters started to slide a little but I did get it back in place and cleaned off a little solder that slid with it.
In the end evertything worked great. Your way is a much better aproche to the problem.

I just completed this yesterday and the display is bright and clear. I'm impressed.
The 241 chips are not attached too well and when you hit the chip with a fine tip soldering iron - they move easily. Also my chips were in different locations not in two rows of 4.
Thanks

The easiest way to deal with soldering down components like that is to just tape them down with kapton (high temperature) tape. Don't use masking, packing, scotch, etc. tape which will just melt or burn.

I know the original post was over a decade ago but I'm new to Corvettes and new to the forum, so THANK YOU Genocid!
Just got an '03 C5 with under 44K miles The only issues are some ripped stitching on the driver's side bolster and the dim HVAC display. There is a local upholstery shop that will replace the vinyl panel and rebuild the cushions for a reasonable price. I'm really happy to see I'll be able to fix the display myself for free!

Fixed it! Thank you Genocid! As Barjack noted, the resistors will move when you melt the solder, so I followed a tip from another member and used a small plastic clamp to hold each one in place as I soldered. Worked great! Total project took about 2 hours. YMMV.

Did my wife's yesterday. Added solder at places, not at others. But the outcome was a great success, and I think the resisters move when you heat the not-broken end first. But, isolating the breaks ahead of time is likely not worth the effort. The clamp looks like a good idea as well. Wish I'd thought of it. Currently HF has a very small 30 Watt soldering iron on sale for about $4.00. I used one of those. All is now good.

Well 18 yrs later time to do mine after read the first page I see there are other things to look at out of the 30 or so pages is there a post I should read that’s not on the first couple post. TIA for any and all help.

Pops

Nope--the first page tells it all. Carefully follow the instructions to disassemble everything, starting with the waterfall (for verts).

2 bits of advice:

1. Use a real soldering iron and solder meant for electronics. A 40 watt pencil iron will do. A gun is too big. Do NOT use any kind of "cold" solder.
2. use a small plastic clamp with a long reach like the one in my photo (post #606). If you don't the resistors will slide around. They do not have leads that go thru the board (like all the other resistors on there), just pads that sit on the board. Poor design that causes the breaks IMO

The great thing about this fix (besides being totally free) is you can remove the module, take it indoors and solder it on your bench (or kitchen table). Don't take any shortcuts with battery-powered soldering irons or cold solder. Do it right. The trickiest part is preventing the resistors from sliding around.

I'll add my vote: THIS SHOULD BE A STICKY!
-Kent

J. Kent thanks for the info my job is to get it out and get the parts together here at work we have a full service circuit board dept. that will do all the soldering 👍

Thanks again

Dale

Another successful display restoration.

My additional $0.02: Have fine-point tweezers at hand before you start. When (not if) a resistor slides, you'll be able to easily put it back in place. In fact, after my first "slider," on all the rest of the resistors I prevented sliding by lightly pressed down on the center of the resistor with the tweezers before touching it with the tip of the soldering iron. If I needed more solder, I'd pull up the iron, put a dab on the iron tip, put the tweezers back on the resistor, then bring the iron back into contact. Less than 5 minutes to solder all 16 pads, going very slow. The display now matches the radio display brightness for the first time in more than a decade.