1984 Instrament Cluster

[kmcewan]

I'm now the proud owner of a 1984 coupe with lots of little problems. Most of the problems are electrical.

Has any one ever seen all the LCDs on the cluster light blink on and off intermitently. It appears that all the indiviual displays are all working, but nothing reads consistantly.

I've looked at every parts place I could find and all seem willing to "Rebuild" the cluster for around $350. Before I do that, I wanted to know if someone else has seen this.

What goes into a rebuild? Sounds like someone is replacing a chip and charging an arm and a leg for it.

Thanks for the help

Kmcewan

 

[Ken]

The terminals that connect the boards together are corroded most likely. You can take the unit apart and clean them without spending all of your hard-earned cash.

We have several members here that have done this themselves, vigman will respond soon, and Christian/Sue (sorry man, forgot your "handle" ) has a web page devoted to it. He'll respond to your question soon as well Ken.

Gordon Killebrew, former Corvette Plant Technician, has an excellent book covering the digital display found on the 1984-1989 Corvettes. It's available from Gordon at:

• For Your Car, Inc.
• P.O. Box 239
• Cross Plains, TN 37049-0239

You can also find it the Mid America Designs.

As an aside and another plug for Gordon, he runs a school for the fourth generation Corvette owners. In it he provides an overview of how the Corvette functions, troubleshooting seminars, as well as advanced mechanical and troubleshooting instruction. He has a special class for ZR-1 owners too. From the US or Canada, call and register at 1-800-F-Y-VETTE (398-3883). Local (Tennessee) residents call 615-654-2864.

_ken

BTW, run a "search" on this subject and you'll find a lot of the same questions have already been asked.

 

[Drewser]

Welcome

Welcome kmcewan,

You will LOVE it here. I have an 84 too, but mine has never given me any problems at all. The best site I've found belongs to a member here. They have taken the entire car apart and tweeked it. A little too much carbon fiber for my tastes, but they really have put a LOT of work (and love) into their baby. If Corvette1984 doesn't post their site here in the next few days I will as it is one of my favorites.

 

[vigman]

To wrench...or not to wrench

That is the question......

So are you going to take it out & repair it yourself? If so get it on the bench and I'll advise you ( via remote control ). Read the previous posting about dash clusters before you start.


Mike

PS I charge about 175.ish depending on the problems & IF you ship it to me.
e-mail for details

 

[billd]

sounds familiar

I just got my 84 3 weeks ago and had similar problems with the cluster. I did the same thing your doing. I purchased the instrument cluster book that Ken is recommending and it has alot of insight in it. Vigman is very knowledgable and is very helpful. His price for rebuilding the cluster is awesome. I went to the local corvette place in Denver and they wanted $400 to rebuild the cluster and $150 to remove it.

So I pulled mine out and fixed it myself with vigmans feedback.

It was super easy to fix.

Good luck
Bill

 

[kmcewan]

Bill,

After reading one post about corroded contacts on the boards of the cluster, I started pushing on different parts of the bezel, and parts of the cluster started behaving normally.

I plan to take out the bezel and clean all the contacts and see what that gets me.

Sounds like the book is a must have and I plan to buy it.

So far, this forum has been a wealth of information and I'm glad I found it.

Thanks to all for your inputs.

Regards,

Ken(kmcewan)