redsled

Ok guys lets hear from you guru's. I know youve all heard about the dash cluster on my 87 not working and the turn signal lights and high beam light staying on. Ive been told that I probably just have a bad ground but does that mean I need to find the ground wire out of those 50 or so wires or is the ground wire on the power supply what I need to look at. Oh yeah my cruise control doesn't work either.........HELP>>>SOS :cry

65Z01

On '84-'87 there is a ground strap from the cluster that is fastened to the uniframe along with a black wire from negative battery terminal near the battery with a 10mm screw.

Power ground is pin B1 on the 32-pin connector.

Unriced

I'd bet you'll be rebuilding that cluster...

If the ground does fix it, let us know..

jfb

There are two black wires from the cluster, one is ground and the other goes to a plug- in connector along with a yellow wire to the vehicle speed sensor.
The ground wire goes to S213 (a splice with 2 or more wires) in the IP (instrument panel) harness, behind RH side of the IP. From S213, there is a black wire that goes to G201 (frame ground) which is behind the IP near LH side of the steering column.
Most likely your cruise control doesn't work because of the defective cluster ground, but also, it is common for the cruise control switch on the brake pedal to be out of adjustment.

rick lambert

There's some really good threads on the forum-if you haven't checked.Have you removed the cluster and cleaned the pins? You may want to spend a few bucks and call Gordon Killebrew, supposed to be the cluster king, I bought his manual for $30. His number is 1-800-398-3883, $10. + $3. per minute.
Good luck :seeya

okinawa86vette

Cruise control is also controlled by a vacuum line from the manifold that's shared with the HVAC system. It's common to get a leak or broken vac hose that'll cause your cruise to stop working. Also, if your cluster's malfunctioning in certain ways the cruise will quit working.

Chris

pkelley

86 corvette, 120K, A/T My car is doing the same thing but it seems to happen more when the interior gets hot. When the LCD backlight goes out, the blue highbeam and both turn signals come on. I’ve had the dash out and found a capacitor that became disconnected from the PC on the power supply. I resoldered it and it seems to work better but there is still a problem. I also lost my cruise but I don’t know if its related. If you ever get yours fixed let me know and I’ll do the same if I find my problem. Thanks in advance


[Modified by pkelley, 2:55 AM 3/1/2004]

gh86E

On my '86, the dash would go crazy when it was hot inside - every segment start lighting up or flashing. I sent it off to one of the dash repair places (Gene Taber was the repair guy). Talking to him on the phone, he didn't seem to really know how to troubleshoot thermal intermittencies. I gave him some suggestions, and sent my cluster off to him. He said the power regulators inside the cluster often are the problem, replaced most parts in it, said it was working reliably, and sent it back to me.

As soon as I put it back in the car it failed. i sent it back to him, reinforcing how it should be tested in a heat chamber. He said he'd build one. After several weeks/few months, he sent it back, saying he thought he had it fixed. Again, it soon failed. I think I sent it a third time, and he had it another several weeks. This time he replaced the whole card (there's two cards inside of the cluster), and sent it back to me. The card he replaced was the top one, which has the power regulator and drive circuitry. Same thing after receiving it - it quickly failed in the car.

I was pretty annoyed, and indicated I wanted my money back. He said to send it again. I figured he was obsessed with that top card, maybe it was the other (bottom) one. Right at the time, another CF'er who had an '86 as wellm, happend to mention he had a spare bottom cluster card he had no use for. I quickly jumped on it, and got it from him. I replaced the card myself (not hard). The bottom card has all the larger logic chips. Sure enough, that fixed it, and to this day is still working fine, even on hot days.

Gregg

pkelley

OK, I finally found the problem with my cluster on my 84 vet. For 4 years these things have been turning on and off. Found a bad solder joint on the power pin in the instrument cluster using an ohm meter. Since it is time consuming to resolder pin from the back side of the board I added a jumper wire and soldered it to the pin and then to circuit trace. Installed new lightbulbs. Works great so far.

JrRifleCoach

Same exact problem here. Tried to remove the cluster and must have missed a screw or connector. Pulled out all of the obvious screws and the cluster wa loose but not free. Any ideas on what I missed?

-JRC-

VetteNoob

Here's the URL you need.

http://www.batee.com/corvette/dcrg/index.shtml

But Ive been considering this one.

http://www.batee.com/corvette/dcrg/replace.shtml

AGENT 86

Here is some info for you guys with no manual. Cruise control and instrument panel.
http://members.shaw.ca/dankai/Instru...%20Cluster.pdf
http://members.shaw.ca/dankai/Cruise%20Control.pdf

nobodyunknown

Mines the same,both turn signal indicators & high beam.
My guages work during the day but not at night.
A couple of years ago I resoldered every solder joint on all 3 boards & the pins.It worked great.
Now about 2 months ago I changed heads & I noticed the ground wire on the back of left head was a pita.Hard to turn the jam nut ect.The light issue started a few weeks later.
So I hope thats it.
I will try regrounding that today & get back to you.
When mine rebroke I noticed that one day I raised my tilt wheel hard the lights went normal so I think its in the dash.

BIG JIM 54

If you are taking your cluster in and out, be very careful with it.

I took mine out to repaint the dash glossy black coated in clear polyuerathane. A couple of LCD dash bulbs didn't work after I reinstalled the cluster. No big deal right? I mean, I still had the dash panel over it off.
I went to my local auto parts store. They didn't have it. So I dropped by Chevy on the way home. Now I know why the auto parts store didn't stock that bulb.

Be prepared for sticker shock! Those bulbs cost $25.00 EACH!!!

And there's nothing special about those bulbs either. The next time one of those bulbs went out a bought a pack of 74's for $3.00 and soldered some legs on it cut off a capacitor I had laying around. No diff in brightness, just the cost.

BIG JIM

mikey whipreck

high beam and turn signle indacators staying on, means a bad ground at the ambient temp sensor-
the fix is on this page:
http://www.batee.com/corvette/index.shtml

if you wanna read more about the various grounds and problems and how to fix them:
http://www.corvettemagazine.com/1999...ash/dashp3.asp

I'm not sure where you bought you're bulbs...
I replaced mine I bought them all at the dealership...
cost about 50 cents a piece... but whatever...

good luck

nobodyunknown

Im back,Regrounding the wires at the rear of left head did not work.
Thanks mickey for your links I'll try that ambient temp thing next.

nobodyunknown

That Batee article doesnt say where the ambient temp switch is.
Does any one know?

tgtexas02

look down at the interior bulkhead connector.

mikey whipreck

that corvette magazine artcile has a pretty descent description with a few pics...