First soldering project (in 30 yrs): ribbon in CX 80

[Swami]

I am going to attempt to poke the four wires from the ribbon through four holes in the underside of the board and solder them to the four soldering points seen in the front angled corner. This is an Atari CX80 I got off an eBay auction untested and somehow a wire in the ribbon had corroded completely loose, so had to detach the ribbon to reattach all four wires since it broke off inside the hole. Another of the four was all frayed as well. The trackball would not go up and down unless I held the ribbon in a very particular position.

Questions:
1. what type of solder wire will work best if I end up needing more than the old solder there (diameter, type)?

2. The ribbon is attached to the optical emitter/ detector for the up/down encoder wheel. Is the risk I will overheat and damage it from the soldering?

3. I have a basic 40w Waller soldering station, cleaning wire and sponge, desoldering vacuum sucker, some kind of solder braid 2.5 mm thick, a set of soldering tweezers. Anything else recommended besides the soldering wire? Thanks.

[the_crayon_king]

Solder: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YFES1TE/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I dunno tip types for Weller but a bent tip will change your life.

 

If possible remove the old solder.

 

You shouldn't be heating anything long enough to cause damage. only a few seconds like literally 2 seconds or less. Heat at 330C when in doubt.

I dunno what those wires are going to but if its all roughly the same place then get your wires the same length.

Pretin them then trim the excess wire sticking out from the sheath 2mm or less is preferable.

 

They should be short enough that the sheath protects them from shorting together with any normal stress on the cable.

 

Tweasers may help with placement but if you overheat your wire is going to rip through the sheath

 

If you use flux make sure you clean it off. The solder I linked is no clean fluxed solder.

 

Lastly post an update

Edited September 24, 2017 by the_crayon_king