I have an 86E in pretty good condition. I am getting ready to sell because I am moving and need moving expense $$, plus the car is pretty useless where I am moving to. I replaced the original one with another one a couple of years ago, but I cant remember if I purchased it from someone on here or ebay...I am leaning more towards someone on this forum. Anyways the cluster worked for the most part until I bought my boat and it's been sitting a while. I think the last time I looked at it it had a short wire soldered to between two terminals on the circuit board...for what I cant remember. Now when I start the engine for after while in between starts, it takes a few seconds(maybe 5-10 seconds) to light up. But when it lights up I see no numbers. The LCD's are still mostly black when off, so I have eliminated that. Here's the weird part....when I take it for a drive or what not, I put on my polorized Costa's and I can see all the info on the LCD's perfectly. Whats my options? Giving a free pair of Costa's with the purchase of my vette? Seems like it would be something really simple. Dimmer switch on light swich works perfectly. I am pretty handy trcking down problems, but if someone could really narrow down the possible/probable cause would be most useful. I have the original shop manual. Thanks in advance

 

I know there is already a thread of a similar topic, but my problem is that the whole cluster is so bright that it is impossible to see the readouts without wearing polorized glasses.....just weird

 

It's fairly common to "bypass" the photocell (light sensor). This would be in the upper left hand corner as looking at the front of the speedo cluster.

With the sensor bypassed, it should be at full brightness. If the wire is broken, then it's possible the system believes it to be dark and will dim the cluster fully.

What happens when you turn on the lights? Can you see the display?

 

Probably what you are looking for in this thread below...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...aded-lcds.html

 

Well, this unit I believe came out of a 87 or 89 and I dont know what problems the previous person had. Maybe he had a bad ground or something...my dimmer will work up to a point. The display seems way brighter than the original and it doesn't fully dim when I turn it all the way down. All other dimmable lights totally go to dark as they should when the dimmer is turned all the way.

Raiderz, I think that's what I need. Thanks.

 

I ordered a couple sheets of the polorizing film. I think there is a ground issue because now it's not overwhelmingly bright(normal), but can still only see the readouts with my polorized sunglasses. Dimmer also works still. Then it goes totally off then comes back on with garbled readouts about three times in the span of 10-15 seconds. I turned the engine off and started again and now over-bright again. I have already taken off and cleaned all the ground connections at the block and replaced the block to frame grounding strap with a new one.....must be in the cluster