Electronics repair shop needed

bighatnohorse wrote:
Regarding the eBay seller:
At first it was just one guy doing the repair - now there are many companies offering the same.
It was a simple fix.

Hazard?
The unit I have in question still works - the all-important break-away is still operational.
The state-dependent-requirement of supplemental braking action is defunct.
So, yes, I would have it repaired if possible.

All probably more information than needed but no, I'm not out of my mind.

BOTH "functions" are EQUALLY IMPORTANT, 1/2 working is not anywhere close to 100% working and most likely will be a considerably more complex part to repair than the breakaway part.

Comparing a FICM fix to your defunct brake system is apples and oranges, can't really compare them. The "fix" will be entirely different and most likely your brake system will be far more complex than you think to fix.

The folks offering repaired FICM are most likely NOT real "companies", most likely they are nothing more than ONE person tinkering in their garage or basement (it isn't any "secret" on how to fix FICMs). IF that was a real legit electronic repair company they would have at least their own real website and not attempting to sell their "products" via an AUCTION SITE. These sellers have no skin in the game after the purchase. They are often "fly by night" vendors.

That IS one of the big issues when dealing with EBay stuff.

Since you have it in your mind that it is a simple fix, perhaps contact a few of the EBay FICM sellers to see if they are interested in taking up your cause?

What do you have to lose?

Honestly, the manufacturer of your brake system is out of business, you have bought a used system WITH THE SAME ISSUE, cut your losses and go buy a new brake system with a warranty. Chances are it will be more dependable than a cobbled up repair.

This advice IS coming from a person who also attempts to fix everything, there is a point in time that you simply HAVE to put the fork in it and call it dead..

Heck I have a couple of 1970's CRT TVs sitting in my basement that still work, yes, I have repaired them multiple times over the yrs but they are not "reliable" the pix isn't as good as newer HD TVs, they are huge, weigh a ton and eat electricity.. They got replaced with newer LCD TVs that I repaired.. And you simply cannot give them away. Those OLD CRT TVs are destined for the curb..

Dumped my 2003 truck with 240,000 miles a couple of yrs ago, thing was literally rusting away in front of my eyes, repaired the bed wheel wells, repaired rusting brake lines, repaired rusting transmission lines, repaired rusting power steering lines, Tailgate was nearly rotted through, drivers door was shot, passenger door was nearly ratted through.. Was the best most reliable truck I have ever had with only a couple of trips to the dealer for repairs..

Just dumped our 2006 truck this spring, kept dumping money into repairs, bed rails rotted out, doors were showing sings of rot and the final kicker was the passenger exhaust header gasket blew out, no way was I going to sink $800-$1,000 into that repair which typically results in multiple broken exhaust studs in the process that require drilling out the studs.. That truck only had 120,000 miles..

Yes, your brake system was expensive, yes, it will be expensive to buy a new unit, Yes, it is irritating that it broke, but...

Sometimes you have to let things go..

Regarding the eBay seller:
At first it was just one guy doing the repair - now there are many companies offering the same.
It was a simple fix.

Hazard?
The unit I have in question still works - the all-important break-away is still operational.
The state-dependent-requirement of supplemental braking action is defunct.
So, yes, I would have it repaired if possible.

All probably more information than needed but no, I'm not out of my mind.

I would also suspect there are way more 6.0 Fuel Injector Control Modules out there than there are US Gear Unified Tow Brake Systems. I don't think I'd spend too much time trying to find a solution and just move on. This coming from someone who tries to fix everything rather than replacing.

I would suspect that the Ford FICM repair is a bit less on the hazardous side, basically the FICM fails engine quits and you pull over.

Brakes quit, however, is a whole different hazard issue.

Kind of doubt the EBay FICM repair is going to have any warranty or guarantees and would be pretty difficult to nail down in case of a lawsuit.

EBayers come and go like the fog mist in the morning goes.. They sell bad items, misrepresent items and get a bad rap and they simply disappear with no trace and restart with a new seller name and start the process all over.

I would not wish to bet my life on anything bought through Ebay..

Small Mom and Pop shops are few and far between and everyone that brings something in EXPECTS some sort of warranty on the repair, those shops depend on good reputation for good quality work at a reasonable price. Most have shuttered and the ones that may still be standing fix things more by replacing modules rather than trouble shooting.. And heck even modern TVs, there is no manufacturer support or parts, once that model is no longer made, all the parts dry up and you have to depend on folks scavenging and reselling used modules.

Might be some industrial electronic repair shops but they most likely will not be willing to take time for looking at consumer level equipment.

All very good responses.

My hopes were raised by how the Ford problem with their 6.0 Fuel Injector Control Module (FICM) was found repairable by someone who made it an eBay business.

I'll continue to bash may head on this problem for a while longer and then probably take your advice.
:)

bighatnohorse wrote:

garyemunson wrote:
That kind of work is so labor intensive you'd be better off replacing with new. Without factory support with board level schematics and possibly of proprietary parts, I could see several days of shop tinkering with no guarantee of success.

I was hoping to get lucky. There are a few thousand of these units out there and an electronics shop willing to take on this kind of project could capture a nice income stream.
Replacing with a new system is the most likely conclusion.

A few thousand units, not worth the time it would take to sit down and trace out every single trace then figure out the resistor/capacitor values, lookup and determine all of the ICs and transistors... That process could take weeks or even months to fully reverse engineer. Then if the unit has some sort of processor/EPROM/Memory and all of the functions of the circuit and if those parts are custom made for that device you will be 100% out of luck.

Spent a lot of my youth working in little Mom ans Pop electronics repair shops, spent a lot of time working on equipment without schematics. Often times if TV manufacturers did not sell enough of a model, then Sam's would not bother doing the footwork I mentioned above and no schematic was available.

Ran into special custom made IC chips that were obsolete and the only way to fix was to find a used "donor" set which had a completely different problem that you could use the chip and hope that chip was good. Doesn't always work and often only fixed the unit for a short time.

As time moved forward, TVs got cheap, too cheap for folks to spend $75 or more to get repaired and that business pretty much died out. Just can't earn a living charging $50 for the amount of time it can often take to diagnose..

As a well seasoned Electronics Tech of well over 30 yrs I wouldn't touch anything like an important safety item like this with a ten foot pole for a customer. No way I would want to stick my head out that I fixed a critical brake system and you were involved in an event and the failure pointed back to my "repair".

While I might "tinker" with my own electronic stuff, it becomes a whole nuther beast when other lives may depend on some cobbled together repair.

Do yourself and everyone a favor, buy a new system..

Rather than reselling yours as parts, junk it. Good chance OTHER folks will have the very same problem that yours has (common problem) and reselling the junker as parts like you have found is a mine field of garbage..

Try Dinosaur Electronics. I've talked with the owner and he was very helpful. If he can't help you he might know someone who can.

You would have to provide a component circuit diagram with the items values and specs.
Even then it could be the price of 50 of these to fix one.

How do you think that is possible with replacement units being so cheap? The age of the neighborhood TV repair shop is long gone.

garyemunson wrote:
That kind of work is so labor intensive you'd be better off replacing with new. Without factory support with board level schematics and possibly of proprietary parts, I could see several days of shop tinkering with no guarantee of success.

I was hoping to get lucky. There are a few thousand of these units out there and an electronics shop willing to take on this kind of project could capture a nice income stream.
Replacing with a new system is the most likely conclusion.