My old favorite Weller WTCP Solder Station needs repair.
The soldering iron cord plugs into a plastic connector on the Power
Supply unit. Two of the three wires in the power supply unit, just came
out of the pins, apparently only crimped, never soldered, wires still in
perfect condition.

All I want to do, is remove those two pins so I can solder or recrimp
the wires and reinstall pins loaded with wire into the connector again.
Can the empty pins be released with tiny needle? I tried but could not
release.

Need help releasing those pins.

Perfectly good station. Do not want to cut connector off cord and
permanently wire into power supply unit.

Many thanks for any suggestions,
73, W6MIK, Dave

On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 06:38:06 -0700 David Shalita
wrote:

All I want to do, is remove those two pins so I can solder or recrimp
the wires and reinstall pins loaded with wire into the connector again.
Can the empty pins be released with tiny needle? I tried but could not
release.

Yes, these are HARD to get out. You MAY have success with a D-conn pin
tool, but you will need to find SOME kind of tubular pin extractor.
The tube must be thin walled, small enough to fit in the hole in the
connector body and large enough to fit around the pin.

These pins are THE weak point in the WTCP? solder stations. The crimp
connections ALL become Ohmic after some time and will eventually get
hot and melt the connector body. If you can get the pins out now and
solder them carefully to the wires this solder station will last the
rest of your life.

I've lost count of how many of these I've fixed over the years, but I
still have trouble finding a pin remover when I need one.

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Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
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