How many times before it's........

[s.r.v.]

considered bad to rewire a whole pedal's offboard components? Will i fry the board or something? One of my pedals still doesnt work, but last time I rewired it it worked momentarily, so i figure maybe it would work better now? thanks

[darron]

there's nothing bad about rewiring something when you consider that this forum is dedicated to people who make the whole pedal from almost scratch. but if it's not broken, then why fix it? if you can measure good continuity on the current wiring and you can test that the component is working correctly, then rewiring might not help you out at all. the heat from the iron may even damage something. every time you cut those factory wires they get that little bit smaller too hehe.

[s.r.v.]

oh it is broken, no LED, no sound, only bypassable.
i have 9v everywhere, except like 7 at the LED, and except at 1 cap where i get 2 on the negative side

[snoof]

somethings wrong there, if it's an electrcolytic cap, there should be no voltage on the neg side.

[Mark Hammer]

There's rewiring and there's rewiring.  I think one needs to be mindful of how much strain one puts on the board end of any leads one is resoldering/reconnecting and tugging on the wire to strip or route it.  For me, the risk is inadvertently fracturing a lead without realizing it.

[Pushtone]

Solder and resoldering can cause the copper PCB pads to lift.
Then your faced with an ugly repair that may be weaker.

I find the most delicate component is those DC jacks. I've had several go bad after soldering them just twice.

The 3PDT switches are more robust but I still don't like to solder them more than once.
To test a circuit with a footswitch I stick the lead through the hole in the lug and twist.
Holds together enough to test.

After advice from the forum I started weaving the leads through the PCB and I have not had a board wire break since.
It lets me be very rough with the PCB with the off board wires. A great technique.

[Mark Hammer]

What I've done in past is simply squirt a bit of hot melt glue at the base of the wires where they are attached to the board.  Not elegant, and really messy if you need to unsolder one for any reason.  But if you simply want something like a battery connector wire to hold up a little longer, works like a charm.

[StephenGiles]

Don't forget that it's better to be in bad taste than to taste bad!