I made a fine mess. I bought a hakko fx888 right out of the box decided to change the tip, for what ever reason it didn't work put the old tip on and it worked. Switched back and it has not worked since. Openned the iron and was checking resistance on the heating element at that point I noticed that one lead was not attached. Not sure that it came that way or I did it during inspection. So I attempted a repair. Now your saying why didn't you just return....well many ocean waves are between me and the place it was to be returned too or lets say I didn't want to wait 5 weeks for a new one.
So now in the process of "repairing" I aaa uhm, Yup made it worse by shortening the lead. Can I fix this or do is a new element required? I can't just unsolder the element end as it requires high temp solder. (as per Hakko site) So can I just extend this wire some how?
Acquisition of a new element has proven fruit less for some reason it's not carried locally, not sure nationally. That's either a good thing or a bad thing, either they never break or they break to often or I moved to the jungle and I bought a humidifer because someone told me I would need it.
Attached is the pic of the shortened red wire and hakko replace diagram caps.