On Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 3:41:23 PM UTC-4, wrote:

Anyone know the approximate resistance of the strip?

It would not be in the best interest of any (legitimate) manufacturer to build a precision-resistance into an interconnect strip. As you have discovered, they can be volatile, and any actual planned resistance will necessarily generate heat - leading to even quicker failure.

Hardwire it - and if it works properly (and it should if this is the only problem), you are done.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA