Kenwood TH79A LCD Fix

This shows how to take apart and repair the common problem with the LCD on Kenwood's TH-79A radio. The issue manifests in many different ways, including no display, jumbled characters, lines, scrolling blank areas, etc. The problem is that there is a small piece of foam that holds the LCD's communication cable against the circuit board. Over time this tiny piece of foam loses its 'springy-ness' and the cable no longer had good contact. In this video I show how to take the radio apart, remove the LCD, add a small piece of foam to fix the issue, test it to make sure it's fixed, then reassemble. The whole process took about 2 hours. The tools required are a number 0 Phillips, a small flat head, a needle nose, a piece of foam tape roughly 2" x 1/8", and a soldering iron.


Timecodes
0:00 - Intro
3:35 - Disassembly
4:25 - Splitting the case
5:14 - Removing circuit board
9:14 - Test LCD to confirm problem
11:25 - Remove side button board
11:42 - Desolder bezel pins
12:41 - Remove LCD
13:27 - Install magic piece of foam
14:48 - Reinstall LCD
15:05 - Solder pins
15:26 - Reinstall side board & buttons
15:36 - Reinstall circuit board
17:24 - Reassemble case
18:09 - Quick test
18:29 - Final assembly