Long story short - I am troubleshooting an occassional engine bucking problem. After some steps, came to MAF and replaced original (at 170K miles) with another one (OEM). For a week, the bucking had stopped and I thought that did the trick. Took apart the original MAF to see if the soldering etc had failed. Nothing seemed like it. Very solid construction. Pictures attached for what it might be worth for others who want do do any repair job with the MAF. I didn't find any issues with this one. The metal wiring net at the front is fastened very hard - so my learning was that touching it mildly to do some cleaning is pretty safe. Some black dirt wasn't going until I wiped softly with cloth. Sadly, the bucking is now back, so I destroyed a perfectly working MAF - oh well.
