Help fixing receiver wire

[tbfoto]

Ok...so I have this old Associated RC10 buggy that I'm tryng to get up and running. It has an old Airtronics radio that surprisingly still works great. The receiver antennae is in the upright tube but over the years it some how got bent real bad and about 6 inches of it just broke off. The rest of the wire is still in the tube and I cannot pull it out. SOOO can I unsolder the wire inside the receiver case and solder on a new wire? I know that it will need to be the same length as original. What kind of wire?

Thanks,
tbfoto

[Daddeo]

I believe 19 AWG braided wire should suffice. I could be wrong about the size but that's just what I'm recalling off the top of my head.

[skunk.werkz]

If you would like a proper antenna, you can purchase futaba antenna wire from your local hobby shop or online at TowerHobbies.com Be careful when soldering, don't heat up the internal board too much or you could pull the traces off the silicon and then nothing will work.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXERH8&P=7

[dangermouse]

You should just be able to pick up some similar wire from an electronics shop.

It is the length that matters most. There is an antenna length calculator on Tamiyaclub http://www.tamiyaclub.com/tools.asp?id=ariel

[GAMMACRUSH]

this is a cool thread, have some receivers that need this done lol

[Halgar]

Can't say as to the wire size. I just walked into the hobby shop and told them that 6" of my Maxx antenna had gotten shorn off. They handed me a new piece of "antenna wire" in a package. Traxxas listed the length for my truck/radio as "such and such" length, so I precut the wire to that length before soldering. It's easy enough to do, but as was said, be careful of your heat and what you touch or you'll mess up the who thing.

[GJW]

if you strip back the insulation from the reciever wire you can see its very fine multi stranded copper wire....i just found what i had lying around with the same insulation dimentions or went to an electronics shop and found something very close....the key is to remove a very small amount of insulation from the new wire as the heat fromthe iron will make it shink and to pre-tin (coat new copper wire with solder) the copper before hand and de-solder old wire from the pcb (printed circuit board) place the new wire on the spot in the reciever and apply the tip of the solderng iron on it it will melt very quickly seeing there is such a small surface area...quick on off motion and a steady hand you can even hole a small screwdriver on the wire to keep it there while you aply the heat....and your done....all to easy and keep to the same length that the reciever had only some can be shortened with no adverse affects not all recievers.....good luck mate

[Erich Reichert]

The type of wire doesn't really matter... wire is wire as long as its the same length and gauge (gauge isn't as critical) so you can get similar wire anywhere and just cut it to the right length. I wouldn't recommend splicing it to the wire that is already existing though as that will affect its range. The best thing to do is us a screwdriver to CAREFULLY push the tabs in and pop the reciever open. Then with either a small tips iron or the side (if you have a chisel type tip) unsolder the old wire from the back of the board and replace the whole piece. Be sure not to leave the iron on the board too long or it could damage the other components. Just use a good hot iron and get in and out as quickly as you can.

A tip to get hte new wire in: Tin the new wire before you try to attach it and then put the iron on the back of the hole (most likely will be covered over in solder) and when it melts push the tinned wire through the hole.

If you DON'T feel that your soldering abilities OR your iron are up to the task DON"T DO IT! I am more then happy to fix it for you ify ou want to mail it ot me. Sometimes its just safer to realize you may not be able to do somehting then to ruin, in this case a perfectly good reciever.

Good Luck!