Soldering wore back on DZ1000

You may need to work under a magnifying lamp.

You may want to take photos as you dismantle for ease of reassembly.

With tiny phillips screwdriver, carefully remove the circuit board with the LEDs (from the bottom). 

Use a 23 watt soldering iron with the small pointy tip (or similar).  Use small solder such as 0.015" diameter wire.

Remove the old wire (use desoldering braid if needed).  Add new drop of solder if needed.  Strip and tin new wire.  Solder.  Reassemble.

Dis-assemble the switch motor and remove the board to access soldering the wires.

Re-solder all three when you have it apart.   Check with DZ, some modelers were returning them for repair.

Thank you for the good info.  Looks like I need to get a 23w soldering iron before trying this.

I really have nothing to lose. They were in a box of misc train parts I bought for $5 at a garage sale.  I was only interested in the controllers.

I guess it must be true that some (me) model train folks are a bit touched.  I am willing to spend $20 - $30 for a  soldering iron just to try to fix 2 controllers that only really cost me $2.50 each. Makes perfect sense to me.

Thank you,

Ed

Any soldering station with controlled temperature works well for PC boards.  My Hakko is a 70W station, but I set the temperature at 650F.

I'm curious, what's the problem with soldering that board?  The wires don't look that small to me, am I missing something?

The hardest part of the project is getting to the board,  especially for those reluctant to dis-assemble the switch motor.

Makes sense Mike, and now I know what the little machine sockets are for, the LED's.   I've never taken one of those apart.