88 Dash light issues
Thread Starter
1st Gear
Joined: Jul 2024
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
88 Dash light issues
Hi,
Hoping for some help. Took my 88 (manual) out about a month ago, dash lights kept cutting in and out and I was running really rough to when I thought it wasn’t going to make it home. Pulled over, let it cool Dow and got it home.
since then I’ve cleaned the plugs, wires and grounds. Rebuilt the starter and alternator. Put a new battery in. Pulled the dash, cluster appears fine like new ( guy before me had replaced a lot) there are no blown fuses.
since then it drives much better does seem to miss a bit here and there. The dash was only lighting up on the left, but not working. After putting dash cluster back it all lights came on when the key was on, once started, it went black again.
I do see the white wire at the tach distributor isn’t showing power.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated
Thanks
Hoping for some help. Took my 88 (manual) out about a month ago, dash lights kept cutting in and out and I was running really rough to when I thought it wasn’t going to make it home. Pulled over, let it cool Dow and got it home.
since then I’ve cleaned the plugs, wires and grounds. Rebuilt the starter and alternator. Put a new battery in. Pulled the dash, cluster appears fine like new ( guy before me had replaced a lot) there are no blown fuses.
since then it drives much better does seem to miss a bit here and there. The dash was only lighting up on the left, but not working. After putting dash cluster back it all lights came on when the key was on, once started, it went black again.
I do see the white wire at the tach distributor isn’t showing power.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated
Thanks
Advanced
Joined: Jun 2024
Posts: 87
Likes: 25
The cluster lights really have nothing to do with how the car runs, except for the fact that vibrations may cause bad connections inside the cluster to make and lose contacts, I suppose.
The ground connections inside the cluster are known to go bad. I don't know how good you are with electronics, but I bought a wiring harness for my '86 cluster from Batee.com, which allows you to power up the cluster when out of the vehicle. It comes with a power supply, but I hooked it to my benchtop siglent power supply instead (that way I can measure current draw), and found that there was a cold solder joint in the main header pins which connect to two PCBs together. I sucked that old solder off, cleaned the PCB and pins the best I could, and resoldered. Works great. Difficult to find without being able to power it out of the car, however.
Side note, I replaced the 4 bulbs with LEDS and power consumption went from about 1.7 amps to about 600 mA, just from the bulbs! I'm not a huge fan of the color spectrum on these "white" leds, so I may look for something else, but definitely worth the upgrade IMO.
The ground connections inside the cluster are known to go bad. I don't know how good you are with electronics, but I bought a wiring harness for my '86 cluster from Batee.com, which allows you to power up the cluster when out of the vehicle. It comes with a power supply, but I hooked it to my benchtop siglent power supply instead (that way I can measure current draw), and found that there was a cold solder joint in the main header pins which connect to two PCBs together. I sucked that old solder off, cleaned the PCB and pins the best I could, and resoldered. Works great. Difficult to find without being able to power it out of the car, however.
Side note, I replaced the 4 bulbs with LEDS and power consumption went from about 1.7 amps to about 600 mA, just from the bulbs! I'm not a huge fan of the color spectrum on these "white" leds, so I may look for something else, but definitely worth the upgrade IMO.
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2022
Posts: 1,805
Likes: 365
From: Central Florida
Check the ground strap to the engine from the frame. Clean the battery terminals no matter how good they look. I would also check for a voltage drop between the engine and the battery and frame and battery.
Why did you let it cool down ?? was it hot.. How is the fuel pressure ??
Why did you let it cool down ?? was it hot.. How is the fuel pressure ??
