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Desoldering Line-in jack on soundcard

The line-in jack on my Soundblaster Audigy got a bit traumatized when some unnamed party's clumsy $^#!@! boat-sized foot snagged a cable and ripped the stereo adapter out. It bent the adapter pin and apparently it bent the contacts inside. I fiddled with the contacts inside (after taking the card out of course) with a bent paper clip which improved the situation somewhat, but it's still not tight and only works when the adapter is at a certain angle.

So, being someone who likes to attempt to fix something before getting another one, I wanted to see if I can break open the jack box and put things right. The box is held in place by 5 soldered tabs. I tried hitting them with a soldering iron and a desoldering gizmo that's an aluminum tube with a spring-loaded plunger and a plastic nozzle. I got 2 of the tabs clear this way but not having much luck with the other 3.

I'm guessing there might be a more effective way/tool to do this. Any suggestions? The card is used, so there's no warranty issues, I just want to try to fix it.

Thanks for all shared wisdom.

Reply to
Doc
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Reply to
JeffM

somewhat,

things

a

to

Jeff's right, solder wick (soderwik?) will do it just fine. Wick on the solder, iron on the wick, very slight wiggle just as the solder melts, and Presto! Either the solder is all wicked up, or the PCB land is lifted and twisted and things get just a little bit more difficult. Been there, done that, 97 3/4 % success rate. Old Chief Lynn

Reply to
Lynn Coffelt

Maybe not a tool, but a Technique to clear holes from excess solder; Heat the solder untill it melts..and then simply try to blow it out. After a few attempts, and perhaps feeling a bit light headed, it should give you some results. (make sure you don't 'burn' other stuff on the PCB while (re)heating the solder.)

Good luck!

Jasper

Reply to
Jasper Keuning

somewhat,

things

a

to

Try an electrical paint stripper (those that look like hair dryers). Heat all the tabs at once and then use pliers to get it off the board.

--DF

Reply to
Deefoo

In addition to solder wick, try replacing the solder that's on there with some 63/37. (Then remove that, of course.) The stuff that's on there is often a higher-temperature alloy, and it's been defluxed; both make it harder to remove.

Reply to
stickyfox

Try lubricating the plunger of the desolder tool with grease or oil - it increases its efficiency 100% most times

Reply to
neilish

Will give it a try, many thanks to you and others replies.

Reply to
Doc

Reply to
Ol' Duffer

Suggestion: old, defunct soundcards are a dime a dozen from various sources.

Practice on one of those until you get it right; or you risk trashing your card beyond repair. Once you've successfully removed a jack, reinstall it on the dead card for practice (successful desoldering is only half the battle).

Now that you've got all that down, remove the jack from your 'good' card and *throw it away*! It's not worth trying to fix.

Replace it with one from your 'practice' card....

jak

Reply to
jakdedert

I can vouch for that. I was in a situation where we regularly replaced DIPs in plated-thru holes. I got so good with solder wick that the chip would literally fall out of the board.

But, if you learn to use the solder sucker properly first, it cuts down on your wick consumption, but it is a PITA keeping it clean. :-)

Good Luck! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Keep in mind that you might have a low-powered iron whose heat is being sucked up by a ground plane on the card. Therefore your solder will not melt well, if at all. That might explain why it worked on the signal pins (?), but not so well on the ground and mechanical pins (?).

Reply to
a7yvm109gf5d1

If you try this I recommend using something like small pieces of sheet metal to make a shield around the part you want to remove. It's hard to direct the heat from those guns, and you could end up with a lot of nearby parts overheated and SMT parts might just start dropping off the board.

Reply to
Carl Smith

Just make sure that whatever you lube the plunger with is compatible with rubber. I got something into a solder sucker once and the o-ring plunger seal absorbed it and grew and jammed up the solder sucker. When I finally got it pulled apart, I found that the o-ring looked perfectly normal, but was now about

1/8 inch larger in diameter than it used to be.
Reply to
Carl Smith

I've always used the "slap the PCB on the table" method. It's faster and more effective than a solder sucker since the melted solder doesn't get as much of a chance to cool down. As soon as the solder start to melt simply slap the PCB on the edge of the table and watch melted solder instantly solidify into messy patterns on the floor (not recommended for carpeted floors). This works best if you first cut the legs off of the old jack so that the pins will fly off along with the solder. I learned this from a friend of mine who used to work for a Hitachi TV factory.

Also, very old solder are often hard to melt. The solution is to re-solder to pin with a bit of new solder.

Reply to
slebetman

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