Just found out, after having my truck for almost a year, my rear defrost doesnt work. spent almost an hour and a half looking at each line for breaks and found none. what i did find was the wire coming from the window strut to power it is broken off of where it sticks on to the grid, is there a way to fix that? my dad said i might be able to solder it if i dont let the glass get too hot but im not sure what to do.

 

You might be able to bond it to the grid with epoxy. I did this on one for a Bronco II that I have, but haven't tried it yet as I haven't completed the wiring yet (it is a new hatch from another vehicle.

What I did was sand the back of the tab and sanded the grid location where it broke off from. I then put epoxy just around the edges of the tab and glued it to the grid hoping that the center of it made an electrical contact. I then mixed more epoxy and covered the tab and the grid with a generous dab and spread it - this was after the initial glue had set. I didn't check for continuity and can't now because the vehicle is in storage for the winter.

Hope this might work for you. If it does, let me know!

Bill

 

the tab? is that the rectangle block of tangled looking wires thats glued to the contact? if so, thats still on the window, where its broke is the wire going to that block.

 

Yeah you can totally solder it on. Ive done it quite a few times in my days. Getting that little tab hot enough to solder is not going to heat the glass enough to break it. Thats the best fix. The epoxy glue probably works just as well too.

I heat the crap out of backglasses with my heatgun and lean on them with my hands and stuff when doing tints, and I have never blown a window up doing that (only dropping the heatgun once did cost me). Tempered glass is very strong and can take heat much better than laminated glass can, and your piddly little soldering tip isnt going to come close to breaking it, especially when its heat is getting soaked up by a copper tab and some solder.

Also, ever stick your hand on a tinted backglass in the high summer sun? Now thats hot and even pouring ice cold water on that window isnt going to get it to explode.

You can take it to the glass shop, and for whatever they charge you the technitian is just going to solder it back on with no fear of breaking the glass.

 

+1, I soldered mine without issue. I had a little trouble getting the solder to stick, but I think I just didn't have enough heat to get the tab hot with my small soldering gun.

 

thanks man, that helps alot!!

 

Useat least a 40 watt iron with flat tip or 150 watt gun. Idea is that if you leave heat on it long, the foil comes off the glass.






Note I'm using dikes not pliers. Pliers suck heat away from tab.



Using plumbers flux and solder is perfectly fine in this case if you clean it up well afterwards. But never use acid flux or acid core on wires. Sucks up under insulation and corrodes wires.

 

fixed mine today a little plummers acid and solder went right back on works great