after suffering 4 + months with the dad-gummed ABS module warning light pestering me incessantly, I'd finally had enough. I needed to drive the car up to Iowa City, IA for a 1,100 mile trip in quick 24 hour turn around. If I had to be looking at that amber warning light for 9 hours straight I knew I'd go off my rocker.

Thanks to the forum's collective wisdom and experience, I was reasonably sure I was going to find cracked solder around the power pins. And sure enough, with a little magnification I could make out the circle of a faint "break" line in the solder. I had no success in trying to suck off the old solder, and was leery of taking my time & putting too much heat into that old circuit board. So I melted it good, and added a little fresh solder on top of that.

Fixed.


But the repair was going too easy. That alone should've alerted me to be on my toes, but I didn't pay attention to that little warning voice we al have.

I was doing the repair using the technique of pulling out the module without un-doing the brake lines. It's a very, very very time consuming process. But with a lot of cursing and slight bending of the lines I was making fine but slow progress. That is until I tried to plug in the module. Any guesses how I'd F'ed up ?

You guessed it, I'd bent several of the module connector pins during the removal or replacement process, and failed to notice my mistake. lt was now 2:00 am and my neighbors must be sound sleepers to have slept thru a new and loud(er) round of cussin'. It was impossible to straighten the pins with the module in place. Just not enough room to work in and the pins have to be REALLY REALLY straight or they will foul all over again.

At 2 in the AM, here was no way I could've removed and replaced the module AGAIN using the same technique. I was just running out of time & patience.**. So I opted for the brake line removal, even though it meant I'd likely be bleeding the brakes later. With the brake lines mainly out of the way the module practically falls out on it's own. A tip to those interested: have a handful of rubber caps close at hand. As soon as the brake line is free from the threads on the module , quickly pull it up and cap it. Later, when you are putting the lines back on, put some FRESH brake fluid in the little cavities on the module where the lines attach. With some luck you won't lose a drop of fluid, or introduce any air into the system, and won't need to do ANY brake bleeding. In fact, I filled the module brake line cavities with a little too much brake fluid, and with some brake pedal pumping, I ended up with too much fluid in my master cylinder; it was running out the top ! I was able to clean that up before it ran down the sides of the M/C.

In retrospect, I would advise anyone doing the module repair to just remove the brake lines. The alternative is too time consuming, and there is a real possibility of damaging the brake lines by muscling them out of the way.

Z




** It took me several decades, but I've learned It's very easy to make a bad situation worse by having time restraints and hurrying to meet a time deadline. One mistake easily turns into several worse problems, all by needlessly rushing.

 

** It took me several decades, but I've learned It's very easy to make a bad situation worse by having time restraints and hurrying to meet a time deadline. One mistake easily turns into several worse problems, all by needlessly rushing.

Amen Brother

 

Unfortunately, like you, I usually only recognize this post-hoc.