Hi all. Want to vet a strategy I'm thinking of. I've owned my STTNG for about 13 years or so, and I'm going through a long overdue overhaul of the power sections of the WPC board (all bridges, and C30, C2, C4, C8, C5, C6, C7, and C11). I'm in process- BR5, C30, C2, C4, and C8 are all complete.

I'm also re-doing the pins for J121 (this is the SECOND time) and J120. When I repaired the GI about 6 years ago, J120 was severely burnt. I upgraded last time with heavier duty molex and greater surface area molex connectors... But now still burnt.

This go around, the 2nd pad trace on the J120 (top of board) toasted off and is massively corroded (see photos). It doesn't matter functionally as far as I can tell, so I may just re-use it (curious to your thoughts). So here is what I'm thinking. Key objective in my mind is to minimize heat and resistance in those areas going forward:

1) Jumpering with quality gauge wire behind the board from the first two respective pins on J120 to J121.
2) Use heavier gauge wire in the molex to eliminate heat / resistance that grows presumably due to the small GI wire that has been largely toasted over time.
3) Use traditional electrical box twist connector for the two respective wires on the GI.

My thought process is any heat will be generated away from the board and in the twist connector.

Not interested in converting yet to LED. I'd only do that with a herg board, and I'm not ready for that leap.

Thoughts?

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Thanks fellas. Done. Do you think there is any value in connecting heavier gauge wire to interface in the molex on the female side, and then connect off board to the light gauge GI wire? I don’t want to keep dealing with heat and burnt connectors on the board.