Montgomery Ward Monitor Fix!

[Performa]

Recently @DeanG passed this beautiful old Montgomery Ward TV-Monitor hybrid set my way, and it had it's formal debut at LincCon back in August, as seen here:

While it works pretty good, it developed (or rather revealed) an intermittent fault where the composite video cable had to be plugged in "just so" to get the video to display.

I presumed this would be a fairly straightforward fix to reflow the solder on the connector at the board, and that would be that. Not so, as the connector is a strange "double decker" arrangement where the inputs are mounted above the outputs on a plastic piece (bottom right on the next photo). After reflowing all the visible solder on the board, I've found that it's less particular about how the cord is plugged into it, but still much more sensitive than it probably should be. Any ideas as to what I should try next? I'm leery to remove the connector piece as I'm not sure how tough it would be to get it reconnected to the board if I remove it.

 

[Performa]

To be clear, the monitor does work, and for our applications will be fine, but I'd be keen to get it to a place where it won't ever need any "babysitting" to make sure it's still working. We've got enough monitors that need that as it is.

It has a really nice integrated handle though, so it's a prime monitor for going to shows!

 

[Performa]

Also, it's missing the front door that covers the fine tuning controls and the plexiglass that originally sat in front of the screen. I have a plan to replace the plexiglass in front with some off-the-shelf parts from Menards, but the front door is a trickier thing. I've looked around to see if anyone has a model of it to 3D print a replacement, but it doesn't seem to be one for this particular monitor yet. I'm open to ideas on how to fix that too, as I love the black/silver aesthetic of these old monitors, and would love it looking closer to new sometime down the road.

Many thanks all for any help on this one, I appreciate it!

 

[Performa]

I got the following replies on Facebook, and I'm pleased to report that they worked. The deoxit made a significant improvement, and while it's not "perfect" it is much better than it was before. Now I can plug it in, adjust the plug once, and it holds steady!

Many thanks for the help everyone! This monitor will be out at future shows!