Repairing electronic vehicles

[chewielvr]

I was wondering if there is a link about repairing vintage vehicle electronics? I tinkered with a couple tie fighters and actually got them to work even though they had battery acid all around the compartment. If you are game here are the steps:

Get two AA batteries, one philips screwdriver. Unscrew everything and save them in a safe place. Now gently put the middle piece upside down (otherwise some pieces will fall out) and be careful of the plastic windshield. Okay so now that you know where all the pieces fit take them out. This includes the seat the wing poppers and springs. Make sure the wiring isn't acided. Give the noise spinner a little spin to get the dust out. Now check the battery compartment. Mine was very acidy and I couldn't see the copper on either side so..get a sharp knife or needle and start scraping! Yes scrape scrape away! At least until you get a good part of each battery end starting to shine again. Once you do go ahead and put the AA batteries in and press down on the button and hopefully you will hear that wonderful tie fighter shriek. If your connectors are good enough you may even get the light to turn on as well. Once you do, put the parts back they way they came and screw it up and add your wings and your vehicle now works! I tried this on my Tie Interceptor and DV Tie Fighter. Because the DV Tie Fighter is older it had a worse job at it but I finally got some juice going.

Hope that helps.
PS: X-wings seem to be harder to do this too, I'm still working on mine.

 

[thechosenbun]

all the electronics are pretty basic in the old sw gear. theres no chips so its pretty much a case of tracking the wires and resoldering anything that needs it. leds buzzers ect might need replaced but you can pick them up for nothing
tel

 

[HellasLEAF_Jedi]

ahh, great thread. I have a number of vehicles that I would love to get the electronics working for again. in fact, I just got a Tie Fighter last night in great shape but no electronics. no sure I have the [censored] to do this myself, but I'm sure it can't be too hard.

 

[aussiejames]

This has been mentioned before, toyfixer has some great pictures and "instructions". I have managed to get all mine going including remote R2D2. Sandpaper, CLR some WD40 and some patience is all you need. 1970s electronics are great- not complicated at all

 

[Tyler_H]

http://www.toyfixer.com

Thats my site, check under vehicles!

All the old electronics are super basic... A lot of time they just need a little sanding or some wd40 because they have froze up a little

 

[starwarsnut]

this works very well. i have fixed alot of vehicles. sometimes i have turned the motor alittle to get it working also. they just get frozen up. there's nothing like hearing the sounds of the tie fighter and x-wings when you get them working again!

yes alot of times the wires has to be reconnected or the terminals have to be cleaned.

 

[The_Oz]

I got the electronics working on an vintage At-At. Actually is was just a wire that had come off. I soldered the wire back on, gave the little motor a push start and it has worked great ever since. After putting in a new bulb the chin guns lit up too. All the vintage ships and play sets that have electronics are really simple to fix.

 

[ThorOakenfelder]

this works very well. i have fixed alot of vehicles. sometimes i have turned the motor alittle to get it working also. they just get frozen up. there's nothing like hearing the sounds of the tie fighter and x-wings when you get them working again!

yes alot of times the wires has to be reconnected or the terminals have to be cleaned.

I did that too on a few, and it worked great. Although one time I didn't really fix the motor because the problem was some missing teeth on one of the gears so it just kept jamming.

 

[chewielvr]

I just thought to mention this because there are many collectors that think once the battery acid has gotten to the electronics it will never work again. Most times its not too hard to get it working again. To those who really know how to fix most of the electronics, what is the worst vehicle or item to fix? I'd be curious to know what that is. I've tried to fix my sandcrawler remote but so far nada.

 

[Tyler_H]

I got the electronics working on an vintage At-At. Actually is was just a wire that had come off. I soldered the wire back on, gave the little motor a push start and it has worked great ever since. After putting in a new bulb the chin guns lit up too. All the vintage ships and play sets that have electronics are really simple to fix.

My AT AT was the same... I just took the head apart and moved the motor parts a little and they started working again.. I throw batteries in and platy with it once a year or so to keep it from freezing again

 

[aussiejames]

The troop transporter noise was the hardest for me to fix but it's easy now I know what to do. Remote R2 was a patience tester but I got 2 out of 3 going! I'm still missing a remote for my sandcrawler. It works ie goes forward when you turn it on but with no remote it won't go into reverse and turn

I don't have a remote Landspeeder -that may be complicated?

 

[Yehuda_K]

sometimes if you clap your hands, you can get it to change direction

 

[aussiejames]

Clap your hands

That must be for the landspeeder? I can't wait to see the look on my wife's face as I'm chasing my sandcrawler done the driveway clapping my hands

 

[Dave_T]

The troop transporter noise was the hardest for me to fix but it's easy now I know what to do.

I thought I knew what to do with that after following the directions, but I got stuck. It's still apart, and I'm not sure how to continue the restoration. I can hear the sounds if I manually mess around with the record player (so at least that's cool for now), but I can't get it to work on its own.

 

[Yehuda_K]

LOL -yeah thats for my landspeeder
my contributions
http://threads.rebelscum.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB1&Number=1391756&Forum=All_Forums&Words=sonic%20landspeeder&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=1391756&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=11219&daterange=1&newerval=1&newertype=y&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post1391756
and
http://threads.rebelscum.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB1&Number=1404719&Forum=,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,All_Forums,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,&Words=&Searchpage=14&Limit=25&Main=1404719&Search=true&where=&Name=11219&daterange=&newerval=&newertype=&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post1404719

 

[CanadianCollectR]

Clap your hands

That must be for the landspeeder? I can't wait to see the look on my wife's face as I'm chasing my sandcrawler done the driveway clapping my hands

Just make sure she doesn't have a video camera...

 

[aussiejames]

With a video camera I'd get $500 (TV's funniest home videos) & the thread "aussie james is an idiot" gets bumped back to the first page