[SOLVED] Fluke 83 multimeter repair attempt

[alank2]

My dad had an old Fluke 73 that got left out and rained on.  It was performing very badly with wildly swinging readings when just sitting there.  I took it apart and you could see quite a bit of corrosion on the tracks especially near the IC's.  I hit the entire backside of the board with some water soluble flux pen and retouched all the joints and then gave it a water rinse and compressed air blow off.  Got it back together, no wild readings any more.  Calibrated its one DC calibration pot and all ranges are in spec now.

[giosif]

Try using a paperclip cut into a U shape, flatten the middle part, then cut small groove across bottom of receptical, solder U clip, apply small dob of glue & job done. ( check continuity of all receptical pins)
Fixed my 85III receptical & still working ok.

Spent most of the afternoon today doing something similar to what you describe: used copper wire bent in tight flat spiral pattern, with one longer end perpendicular to the plane of the spiral pattern; I then tinned the spiral and soldered it to the broken pieces of the receptacle, after which I soldered the receptacle back to the board.
I now have a working multimeter. 
Not sure how solid the solder joints between the broken pieces of the receptacle and the pieces of copper wire are, but it looks to be working fine.
It will certainly be useful as a low voltage/small tasks multimeter.

[giosif]

Hi,

I have an Fluke 83 that is broken that I use for parts. Think it got that cap intact. I'm away during the holiday so  I cant check right now.
But if you are intrested i can check it and if it's ok i can mail it to you.

Thanks, halexa!
The cap, however, looks to be in good nick: capacitance is spot on, resistance measures OL, and visual inspection shows no obvious damage to the body of the capacitor, except for a small char mark which I scraped off.
But thank you for the offer!

[giosif]

My dad had an old Fluke 73 that got left out and rained on.  It was performing very badly with wildly swinging readings when just sitting there.  I took it apart and you could see quite a bit of corrosion on the tracks especially near the IC's.  I hit the entire backside of the board with some water soluble flux pen and retouched all the joints and then gave it a water rinse and compressed air blow off.  Got it back together, no wild readings any more.  Calibrated its one DC calibration pot and all ranges are in spec now.

Hmm... That is some extreme IP rating testing... ;-)
And an extreme recovery too. 

[retiredcaps]

used copper wire bent in tight flat spiral pattern, with one longer end perpendicular to the plane of the spiral pattern; I then tinned the spiral and soldered it to the broken pieces of the receptacle, after which I soldered the receptacle back to the board.

Pictures?

[giosif]

used copper wire bent in tight flat spiral pattern, with one longer end perpendicular to the plane of the spiral pattern; I then tinned the spiral and soldered it to the broken pieces of the receptacle, after which I soldered the receptacle back to the board.

Pictures?

Damn, I knew I should have taken pictures while I was working on it!
But I couldn't resist the urge to see if it was all going to work (had a bit of time pressure as well) and skipped the pictures.

Anyway, I've recreated the pattern and also taken photos of the final setup (as much as it can be seen).
I've used four such wires, two per input plug (the two other input plugs got desoldered without damage in the first place).
Not terribly proud of the end result, but it works and should be ok for the currenty intended usage.
Might repurpose it if/when I get a replacement input receptacle.