The digital dash in my 84 has a mind of its own. It will come on & off at will. If I go over a bump, it may go off and then if I go over another one, it may come back on. If I smack it on the left corner, it will usually come back on. I suspect either a loose connection or bad ground. Where is it? How much dismantling needs to be done? Has anyone pulled the digital instruments out and installed regular instruments. What is the sweat involved in that?

 

On '84 , The Dash ground should be a black-white stripped wire that bolts to the top left transmission bell housing bolt located at the left rear of the engine.
Hope this helps.

JB

 

You have several options for trouble here. I Have an 84, and have had it out several times. There is some good information on here somewhere, but I don't know how to find it. Getting the cluster out is not hard, but requires some amount of patience. On my 84, there are actually two connections that effect the good operation of the dash. I would clean those before I did anything else. As you take out the screws to the palte covering the cluster, you also have to remove the plate covering the switches/guages to the right of the main cluster.(makes it easier to get plate off the main frame without busting it into pieces). Often times the dash will 'sag", making it somewhat difficult to slide out the main cluser. In this case you will need to push up slightly on the dash to wiggle the cluster out. I suggest moving it towards the drivers side door. One connection is on the middle right of the cluster. This can be a pita sometimes to disconnect and reconnect. This is one connection that you should look over(both the connection on the cluster, and the connector that connects to it). It is at this point that you should know that the 84 cluster has a reputation for having the soldier that connects the actual board to the connecter, break loose, or otherwise become unconnected from the motherbaord. I can't tell you how to tell. I have had mine completely apart, and at the time saw no obvious breaks. After cleaning these connections, I would suggest you remove the switches/guages to the right of the main cluster. There are some wires that piggyback off of those which route back to the main cluster. My experience has been that if these connections are dirty, or making poor connection, it will effect the good operation of the main cluster(thought I have never read anything that stated that.) The last time I took mine out, I took some very fine wire and wrapped the connections on the main cluster together, as it appeared that mine were not making good contact. This worked for almost two year, and am now starting to experience speratic short problems. When you put it all back together, you will likely need to push the dash up to wiggle the cluster back into place. Make sure you do not put so much force on the cluster that you crack it somewhere. Good Luck in your quest!

 

Have a look here. Any and everything you need to know about repairing your digital dash cluster.
BTW, I have found that if you pull the two nuts and lower your steering column a bit, it makes the dash cluster sooooo much easier to pull and reinstall.

 

If it is the 4 back lights that are intermittent, here is a permanent fix.
There are 2 circuit boards in the cluster and they plug together with a single row of pins on the front board (as driver sees them) into a socket on the rear board. The pin closest to the center of the circuit board carries the lamp current and an age relaxed spring on the socket causes a resistance connection and the lamp current causes the socket to get so hot that it unsolders the pin on the front board. Resoldering the pin won't cure the problem and the easiest repair is to solder a short piece of insulated hookup wire from the pin to the socket. I did this on my 87 about 6 years ago and have had no trouble since and I drive it everyday.

 

Both nitronic and jfb have hit the nail on the head. If taking apart electronic stuff scares you then maybe this is not a repair you'd try to do yourself. Otherwise download or print the book by Bryan Thompson. Read it carefully and then plan on spending a full day removing the cluster and making the repair. It is much simpler than it sounds and will most likely only take a few hours. I pounded on my dash for almost a year until I followed these instructions. I added the ground jumper wire as described. My dash is now back to factory fresh normal.

 

mine is half dark, would think fix help me as well?

 

I would think that a half dark dash would probably be bad bulbs...

 

Does anyone have a pic of this? I would like to see it. Great tips.

 

Thanks guys. I appreciate your quick response to my dilemma. I'm a gear-head at heart & not adversed to modifying my Vette. I'm disillusioned with the digital dash & would like to pull it all out & replace with Stewart Warner guages. Anyone tried this?