Gauges not working

[vandenham]

A couple of weeks ago my speedometer stopped working and then started up again. This has happened several times and now it does not work at all. Today when I started up the car, the voltage and oil pressure gauges were not working. I suspect it is the plastic circuit board behind the instrument cluster.

Before I start pulling the pod out to check, are there other places I should check first. I don't think I can buy a new circuit board - it looks like they are no longer available.

Thanks

[MPDano]

I bought mine (new) from 928 Intl a couple years back. If you can't buy a new PCB, then look at the back of your Cluster and see if the fingers on your PCB Connectors have peeled back. This is a common issue. You might be able to fix your old one, you may have to though.

[Plexus928]

I dumped the lot,

[vandenham]

That looks great!

I'll pull the pod first and see if I can fix the PCB. I'm hoping to keep it original.

[garylewa]

Originally Posted by Plexus928

I dumped the lot,

what car is this cluster from and do all of the gauges work? Very interested in this........please share when you have time.

[MPDano]

Except, 200kph is pretty slow for a 928. That only equates to a little over 124mph.

[Plexus928]

Made it myself,that's a 928 instument pod, split the clear from the front, removed all the instruments, cut out all the plastic, apart from about a quarter inch all the way round the edge.
to start with made a cardboard patrn that fitted into the remains of the pod.
the engine that I am installing is a 4.3 Vvti Lexus V8, so the original oil gauge had to go, needed one that read to 7 bar, tacho probably would have been a pain, so went with VDO ,cockpit series, easy to set up on the electronics on the ECU, Speedo is also VDO cockpit series,also runs off ECU. fully programmable at the push of a button,
change your diff/tyres, just hit the button ,take it over a measured mile/kilometer( depending on what VDO cockpit speedo you use)resets with perfect accuracy.
This speedo is available in miles (summit racing, etc) 120mph and 200mph, also 200kph and 320kph, I'm in Australia and we have these killjoys called the police, 120 kph is maximum speed, 45 over any speed limit, and it's instant loss of licence. and also, I can't really see myself doing over 200 all that often, so I opted for the 200KPH model(and I get to see the needle move out of more than the first quarter of the sweep.)If I go faster, I just won't know how much faster, the Police will no doubt enlighten me.-I'd be in deep doo doo past 120 anyway
Speedo is 100mm(4 inch) tacho is 80mm, smaller gauges are sunpro 1 1/2 inch, unfortunately they do not make a 1 1/2 inch fuel gauge, as I would have prefered a 2 inch oil pressure and a smaller fuel gauge.
there is enough room in the original cluster to fit an extra gauge for oil temp.VDO make both the tacho and speedo i 80mm, 85mm and 100mm, if you want a tacho dead centre and sppdo too the side, just swap them.
Once I worked out the positions, I cut a piece if 1.5mm alluminum plate to fit the space in the pod, hole sawed the holes for gauges, fitted it, bondo'd the edges, drilled a hole in the clear cover to fit a spring loaded "push "to reset the trip meter, and program the speedo, sprayed it matt black, drilled some holes for LED warning lights.
refitted the clear front.
Easy
(Godammmmm, there goes the originality)

[Landseer]

^^ Very, very cool. Like the look very much.

What are the pros / cons of Lexus V8 across the years?
Really like the look of their SC400 and also the later convertible coupe.
Are they the future "928" --- with a great ratio of fun / price?

How tricky will the engine transplant be? How will you adapt to the transmission? Will you use the 928 transmission?

Anything you can share would be interesting.


I thought anything goes in the wide open spaces of Australia? Maybe I watched Mad Max too many times.

[MPDano]

Originally Posted by Landseer

I thought anything goes in the wide open spaces of Australia? Maybe I watched Mad Max too many times.

Pretty sure Mel had a higher Speedo than 200 Kph

[Plexus928]

Originally Posted by Landseer

^^ Very, very cool. Like the look very much.

What are the pros / cons of Lexus V8 across the years?
Really like the look of their SC400 and also the later convertible coupe.
Are they the future "928" --- with a great ratio of fun / price?

How tricky will the engine transplant be? How will you adapt to the transmission? Will you use the 928 transmission?

Anything you can share would be interesting.


I thought anything goes in the wide open spaces of Australia? Maybe I watched Mad Max too many times.

Up untill a few years ago, the Northern Territory (desert centre) had no speed limits on the highways, this pleasure was taken away after a (government authorised ) 2000 kilometre cannonball run ended with a couple of Japanese entrants in a Ferarri turning themselves into hamburger and bone splinters.
End of cannonball runsand introduction of 130kilometre speed limit.
Every other state has 110 KPH limit,( the Northern territory is a long way to go to drive at an extra 20 KPH) and it is enforced!fixed speed cameras, mobile speed cameras, and point to point tracking (if your average over the distance is over the limit-GONE!)
99% of my driving is in within the city limits-even lower speed limits, and I don't have any children to impress with a 320KPH speedo-it's a speedo, not a speed limiter.as pointed out earlier, past 200, the police will let me know.
total drivetrain replacement, will put up a build thread when it's finished.(engine was easy, fitting the transmission requires tunnel rebuild, took a while to work out how to fit a Borg Warner LSD into the Wisach rear end.-got it in the end.
Big brakes all round, will have more power/torque than a GTS- need to make it stop as well.
The shape of the SC430 takes a bit of getting used too, and I think that retractable roof will be big problems in the future,pity they didn't make a fixed head version.
Toyota Racing Developments replaced the TT Supra with it for Japanese racing, makes equal power to TT-and with no turbos,brilliant engine!
(Mad Mal is much more entertaining since he moved to Hollywood

[MPDano]

I'm just messing with you

Not many of us go as high as the speedo shows either. I just like the bragging rights of it all. The 85mph Speedo in some 928's are actually very funny

[Plexus928]

[QUOTE=MPDano;6216097]I'm just messing with you

I realise that, -I for one would not like to be anywhere close to one going anywhere near that fast!,I once had an E type on a long downhill expressway indicating 160MPH (as far as the speedo went) that is a mile every 22 seconds! the light poles were going past that quick they looked like a picket fence.
too fast for me these days. I've got past that age when I thought I was indestructable,and I don't have a death wish.

[vandenham]

Just to finish up this thread - I have my gauges working now.

I did pull the instrument pod and cleaned up everything but it did not fix up my gauges when I re-installed it. It turns out that fuse 12 was faulty and caused the Voltage and Oil Pressure gauges to fail. Earlier, I had swapped out all my fuses for new ones, but ran out of 8 amp ones so ended up putting in two old ones. One of these old ones was fuse 12.

The speedometer failure was caused by a bad connection in the 6 pin connector in the trunk area. The connector was clean, but the pins for the speed sensor had enough oxidation on them to break the connection. I had checked the continuity from this connector all the way up to the instrument panel and had checked that the speed sensor was working, but did not test them together.

Learn something every day!

[MPDano]

Very awesome! But now you know all your paths are squeaky clean!

[vandenham]

I have the added benefit of fixing the instrument cluster lights so they are now much brighter. And I found one of the brackets for the instrument cluster was missing so I fixed it also - there was a rattling noise in the dash that is now gone!

[Maleficio]

Good work. Did you coat your connections with a WD-40 type coating, or just clean them and leave them dry?

I like to coat my connections with WD-40 periodically, ......always successful with preventing future oxidation problems.

[vandenham]

I just cleaned them and let them dry. I will go ahead and use the WD-40 - makes sense that it would help with oxidation.

THANKS

[Maleficio]

Originally Posted by vandenham

I just cleaned them and let them dry. I will go ahead and use the WD-40 - makes sense that it would help with oxidation.

THANKS

Some dudes will probably advise against it. Why.....I don't know. It's always worked perfectly for me.

[darrens8]

Originally Posted by Plexus928

Made it myself,that's a 928 instument pod, split the clear from the front, removed all the instruments, cut out all the plastic, apart from about a quarter inch all the way round the edge.
to start with made a cardboard patrn that fitted into the remains of the pod.
the engine that I am installing is a 4.3 Vvti Lexus V8, so the original oil gauge had to go, needed one that read to 7 bar, tacho probably would have been a pain, so went with VDO ,cockpit series, easy to set up on the electronics on the ECU, Speedo is also VDO cockpit series,also runs off ECU. fully programmable at the push of a button,
change your diff/tyres, just hit the button ,take it over a measured mile/kilometer( depending on what VDO cockpit speedo you use)resets with perfect accuracy.
This speedo is available in miles (summit racing, etc) 120mph and 200mph, also 200kph and 320kph, I'm in Australia and we have these killjoys called the police, 120 kph is maximum speed, 45 over any speed limit, and it's instant loss of licence. and also, I can't really see myself doing over 200 all that often, so I opted for the 200KPH model(and I get to see the needle move out of more than the first quarter of the sweep.)If I go faster, I just won't know how much faster, the Police will no doubt enlighten me.-I'd be in deep doo doo past 120 anyway
Speedo is 100mm(4 inch) tacho is 80mm, smaller gauges are sunpro 1 1/2 inch, unfortunately they do not make a 1 1/2 inch fuel gauge, as I would have prefered a 2 inch oil pressure and a smaller fuel gauge.
there is enough room in the original cluster to fit an extra gauge for oil temp.VDO make both the tacho and speedo i 80mm, 85mm and 100mm, if you want a tacho dead centre and sppdo too the side, just swap them.
Once I worked out the positions, I cut a piece if 1.5mm alluminum plate to fit the space in the pod, hole sawed the holes for gauges, fitted it, bondo'd the edges, drilled a hole in the clear cover to fit a spring loaded "push "to reset the trip meter, and program the speedo, sprayed it matt black, drilled some holes for LED warning lights.
refitted the clear front.
Easy
(Godammmmm, there goes the originality)

just wanted to ask Plexus if it was difficult to wire up your speedo, tach and revs for the new engine?. mine has an ls2 and i sit have no idea how to wire them up. Ive been told that the wires come off the auto trans and just assumed the speedo and tach would keep working as normal. Im also in Australia and in Perth theres not man people that specialize on these cars. Was thinking about buying a gps speedo/tach off ebay and by passing the whole system. Any idas you have on this would be much appreciated..

Thanks

[Plexus928]

I've only had to do the hook up with Toyota/ lexus engines in the past, (JZ turbo into 260Z's) Tacho should not be too dificult with an LS2,there should be a take off from the ECU to dash on whatever car it was originally in.even a brain dead auto electrician should be able to set up a VDO cockpit series tacho to work here, easy.
Lexus has electronic speedo, from memory they take the pulse from somewhere around the ABS sensor on the front left wheel, Not a clue reguards LS2s, Wire to me is all done with black magic and mirrors, It is easier for me to ring a local wire genius called Sideshow (famous on Oz Toyota forums) he just pulls a pulse from somewhere off the tranny, VDO cockpit series speedo can be switched depending on what you sensor pulse you hook to. they even make a whatsit to convert cable to pulse.Check them out, reasonably priced,work with nearly any system.buy your tacho from the states- cheap! speedo in kilometres is harder, you will get ripped off price wise (about $300) in Oz, the same speedo with a MPH face is half the price in US of A.
I'm not in any way familiar to what 928s originally used, ( I pulled the engine and transaxle and ebayed them as parts) I purposely bought one with a cooked engine to do this swap (always loved the shape, but engine primitive by todays standards,and I always wondered what one would go like with some serious power up front duck for cover
good luck

see if you can contact boganspeed, on rennlist, he is in Perth and is doing a LS1 conversion AHHHHH! pushrods!
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/7617445-post1.html