86 Digital Dash Info

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Jun 18, 2005 | 10:33 PM

Tvnewsengineer

Thread Starter

Intermediate

Joined: Oct 2004

Posts: 47

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From: Clearwater Florida

86 Digital Dash Info

I have an issue with my digital display. I have been to the links previously posted in the forum. My next step is to get the Killebrew book. My problem isn't the highbeam/no display failure, but almost full led readouts across all 3 displays that will read normal then noisy garbage, then normal ,etc

. I will be pulling it out next Sunday and my electronics background tells me it is either a loose main connector or bad electrolytics in the power supply. I was wondering if anyone else has had this similar problem and what the soluion was. Any help would be appreciated.

Jun 18, 2005 | 11:47 PM

tigmaned

Pro

Joined: May 2005

Posts: 510

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From: crofton maryland

the one out of 1986 had a dim side, then i had the hi-beam turn signal deal then went all black, i checked all the grounds?? sent it to gene taber for repairs, tried of beating a dead horse!! mine was fix by united radio in 1987. i found it scary that the odometer is only in there with 3 little screws!! so would really knows how many miles are on theere vette with a non secure odometer like this!! i guess alot of digital dashes out of 1986 has problems???

Jun 19, 2005 | 12:26 AM

vettenut85

Instructor

Joined: May 2004

Posts: 163

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From: machesney park il

noisy garbage could be water in the conector that goes thru the firewall.it is behind the battery almost right under the cowel drain tube which is why it gets full of water.just disconnect it and blow out any water,this costs nothing to check out.

Jun 19, 2005 | 12:31 AM

65Z01

Team Owner

Joined: Dec 2000

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From: SE NY

Cruise-In II Veteran

Gordon's book states that the main cause of such problems is likely due to a grounding problem. Here's a quick overview of his rremarks.

The signal ground comes into the large 32-pin connector on pin D3 on a Blk/Wht wire. This wire goes to the ambient over-ride sensor, then to the bulkhead connector to cavity B1 to the engine harness wire to the left rear of the engine. Locate the bulkhead connector under the left side of the dash and the ambient over-ride sensor will be dime-sized, 1/2" thick, attached to the back of the plastic connector head. It has the Blk/Wht wire and a Dk/Blu wire comming from it.

Ground the Blk/Wht wire and see if the dash works properly; if not pull the display cluster and clean all the contact points.

Jun 19, 2005 | 11:13 AM

Tvnewsengineer

Thread Starter

Intermediate

Joined: Oct 2004

Posts: 47

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From: Clearwater Florida

thanks all, I'll check these.

Jun 21, 2005 | 04:30 PM

tgtexas02

Drifting

Joined: Aug 2004

Posts: 1,294

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From: Galveston & Belton Texas

Very complicated issues involved to finding cluster problems which I believe are mostly ground or cold joint problems. For what it is worth, I accidently found a bad connector post which joins the two main boards together. It was loose and was a ground conductor. Lots of luck.

Jun 21, 2005 | 04:41 PM

mikey whipreck

Melting Slicks

Joined: Jun 2004

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mine did what you describe for a while- because the alternator was over/under charging and sending surges through my electrical system... That didn't take very long before it fried the on board power supply of the cluster...