[Den]

I was changing a cap in my preamp and one of the soldering pads came off.  How do I get solder to adhere to the tracing?  

Thanks,
Den

[JohnR]

Yikes!  

I tend to do things like take a small piece of wire (such as the cut-off cap lead), wrap it around the cap lead, and orient it so it can be soldered onto the track that is still attached to the board.

These things always get messy . The key is to work fast (ish) and not use too much heat.

[Curt]

Scrape the solder mask (the clear coating that's stopping you from soldering) off the trace (lightly) with an exacto knife or single edge razor blade. Clean all the way down to the copper trace and try not to scrape off much copper, just enough to make it a little shinny. No other prep is required.

Bend the caps lead so it will lay flat on the trace for a shot distance maybe 5mm max to obtain a little more mechanical strength after it's soldered.

Put a little solder on the cleaned iron tip and heat the trace and caps wire lead together applying solder as required. Solder the full 5mm length to the trace. Only apply the iron for 5-8s max total, to avoid lifting the trace.

Done. Not too bad.

What kind of cap is it? Remember, bypass caps (for noise suppression) need very short lead lengths to work their best.

Good luck.

[Curt]

I was talking about an area of the trace still firmly on the PCB, near the lifted pad. Not soldering to a dangling trace  

I forgot about the pad. This is a big problem since the pad normally connects to the plate thru hole and to the pad and the circuit on the other side of the PCB. Unless this is repaired the circuit may not be complete.

A wire strung through the PCB hole and the dangling trace pad could be soldered on the good PCB side first, then where the trace is still connected firmly on the bad side, scrape trace clean as I mentioned in the above post. Then bend the wire (solid core of course maube 28-24 ga) and lay in as also described before 5mm min on the good trace section and solder.

Doing this repair you may noe be able to solder the cap leas directly to the wire (jumper so to speak) where the PCB hole is and you will then have the correct cap lead lenth as well.

If possibe solder the lifted pad to the wire if not you may want to just cut it off after the repair is complete and working. An Exacto knife works well.

Hope I got it right this time

[Den]

Thanks for the tips, Guys.  
 
This PCB is single-sided and of cheap0 construction.  The pad separated from the board and the tracing.  It's gone-daddy-gone, but the tracing is still intact.
I'm replacing a small ceramic cap with a larger 4.7uF electrolytic, and the axial leads are plenty long.  The tracing goes to a pin of a nearby chip, onto which I could try soldering the cap's lead directly, but . . .

The key is to work fast (ish) and not use too much heat.

I don't want to fry the chip.  

[randytsuch]

Thanks for the tips, Guys.  
 
This PCB is single-sided and of cheap0 construction.  The pad separated from the board and the tracing.  It's gone-daddy-gone, but the tracing is still intact.
I'm replacing a small ceramic cap with a larger 4.7uF electrolytic, and the axial leads are plenty long.  The tracing goes to a pin of a nearby chip, onto which I could try soldering the cap's lead directly, but . . .

The key is to work fast (ish) and not use too much heat.

I don't want to fry the chip.  

Hi Den,
I have soldered caps directly to chips before, with no problem.  You should not fry the chip as long as you work fast, as Curt indicated.  I think the key is a good soldering iron.  It makes it much easier, and allows you to work faster.  I would tin the leads on the cap, and chip first, let them cool off, then heat up the cap leads, and solder it to the chip.  It also might help to clean the leads off first, to remove any oxidation on the leads.  This makes it easier to tin the leads.  Good luck.

Randy