well, 27 quid down at maplins, thanks chris, new soldering iron and the bits i needed and looks ok, double checked everything and found to my surprise that the 5 amp fuse i bought on sunday does not work! so hoping that when all back together it should work just fine, suspect the flashing left pod is now a wire issue and will check tomorrow. pod checked out ok, sometimes, just sometimes, bless him, its quite good to live next door to a guy that was a head honcho for texas instruments back in the day! he even remembers the watches sir clive bought out and a calculator.
Not a racoon im afraid, just a wild cat i picked up along the way, peanut i called her, as she has a fondness for peanut butter when i dropped my toast in the morning and she pounced on it. she rather likes the c5 and has been asleep on the seat in the garage. I think I remember the cartoon also though!
thanks again chris for the maplins link.