Dash Restoration; Check it out.

[Anthony10370]

Well I dont know if this is the best place to post this but anyway.

So I decided that I was fed up with messing around with half broken and half corroded dashboard connections and so I decided to completely rewire the entire dashboard through some "dub D" connectors.

Bought materials.


new color coded wiring diagram:


I decided that since so many of the components had either constant power, constant ground, or both I would make a "central harness" :


Labeled the back:


Then I soldered a plus or minus to each of the lights where applicable and ran a "signal wire" also to each light, attached and soldered terminal connectors to the wires going to the gauges.

At this point it was like "Yikes this is A mess, Hope I can finish it"


But I just had to neaten it up a bit, organize the wires, and attach the connectors (keeping track of the wires and making a new version of the diagram of course).



Here's a close-up of the 25 pin connector:



I havn't installed it yet because I still have to do the dash in car wiring for the connectors. but it should work well.

[Danglerb]

I've thought about that, hope it works well.

[MPDano]

Damn dude! Ingenious. Please give us an update once you get it all connected.

[Landseer]

Thanks for showing that!

[928gene928]

Anthony,
Very nice job, will be an inspiration to others.

[harborman]

Lots of work, hope it pays off!!!!!

[Anthony10370]

Thanks for the feedback, I'm making the final connections in the car today ill update on how well it works!

[Nixon]

Very nice. I would love to rewire my whole car but I'm still a little timid. There's about a dozen or so of you "hard core" guy's in here that give the rest of us the will to keep the faith with these cars. Great idea hope it works well..........Nix

[Nixon]

Funny, I just noticed all your responses are from the guys I'm talking about...... Nix

[Anthony10370]

Well I got it fully installed at about 1 AM last night. It works great from what I can tell. I cannot start the engine right now because I am about to do a head gasket. However the voltage gauge, fuel gauge, and all the lights seem to read /work properly. the temp and oil pressure gauges jump to "zero" from rest so it also seems that they work. Ill just have to wait to start the engine to see if the tachometer and speedometer work; ill make sure they go all the way up.

I also moved connectors "M" and "R" over to the left which required unwrapping and re-wrapping the dash wiring harness.

Here is a couple of pictures:

Before:


After:


I also gave the backlight optics a new coat of silver, cleaned and repainted the dash backing (in between the gauges).


Now I just have to work out some issue with the central warning system turning most of the warning lights on partially, I dont know if this is a "prove out" process or not. It had this problem before the rewire too and I double checked all my wiring with a 12v power source and there are no crossed wires (each light can come on individually). I dont know what is causing it.

[stepson]

Great Job Anthony!

[tmpusfugit]

Good work, I just had to rewire all the connectors on one of mine, PO had cut them all off....I may ultimately end up doing something like you did.....the flex circuit is NLA and I have one circuit run destroyed....

[stepson]

Tmpus,
Are you coming to Third Coast first weekend in Nov?

[tmpusfugit]

Originally Posted by stepson

Tmpus,
Are you coming to Third Coast first weekend in Nov?

John,

I am not certain about attending yet. Would like to meet the others in the area, it mostly depends on getting one of our two 928's in presentable/road worthy condition as well as working around some other travel commitments for the month....

best regards,

Jim D

[legendary]

great work - would love to see how this turns out

[stepson]

Originally Posted by tmpusfugit

John,

I am not certain about attending yet. Would like to meet the others in the area, it mostly depends on getting one of our two 928's in presentable/road worthy condition as well as working around some other travel commitments for the month....

best regards,

Jim D

Hey, the first Third Coast I attended was with the Stepson which had no door panels, no radio, no A/C. It needed tie rods and shocks all around. It was the most fun I ever had to that point with my clothes on. Just get one running/drivable and come on over! You will be amazed at the amount of knowledge you will come away with.

Sorry for the hijack, but it looks like a great job, Anthony!

[tmpusfugit]

John,

the car I hope to drive needs a dash, which I now have, but it needs to be recovered...also the car has been driven a total of 400 miles in the last 8 years. Oh yeah, the TB and WP have less than 2000 miles on them, put in 12 years ago...I have not yet powered it up, have been reconnecting all the cut off wires and correcting other minor problems and putting things back together from PO's planned changes....
Starting point looked a bit worse than it really was, but a lot of work remains to get it back to ready for the road...I suspect if I can make it, it will be in the white one....I have logged 3000+ miles in it in the last 3 months, following TB/WP etc etc

Jim D

[tmpusfugit]

Does anybody want or need a new set of VDO gauges...the PO was planning to use these in the red 928. I am returning to stock....

[Maleficio]

Originally Posted by Anthony10370

Now I just have to work out some issue with the central warning system turning most of the warning lights on partially, I dont know if this is a "prove out" process or not. It had this problem before the rewire too and I double checked all my wiring with a 12v power source and there are no crossed wires (each light can come on individually). I dont know what is causing it.

Very slick work! Very nice.

You may want to replace your central warning unit. Mine was completely dead, bought a used from 928worldwide (now shut down) for around $30. Works great.

[Barbapapa]

Wow! What awesome work
I just thought that old 928s were destined to have screwy instrument panels and that's the way it is.
If you can get that part sorted out, everything else is easy