Technical => Electrical Tech => Topic started by: jcassity on March 16, 2014, 11:23:05 AM
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: jcassity on March 16, 2014, 11:23:05 AM
last I checked , we all as a team concluded these clusters are as rare as hens teeth.
Does any member here have this cluster other than jayandmmustangs?
here is the last known thread I am aware of who dissected and showed us everything we need to know about this super rare cluster. http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?21828-83-instrument-cluster&highlight=digital
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: White85GS on March 16, 2014, 12:18:55 PM
My buddy made that how-to!! Back when he had his 83 T-Bird.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: jcassity on March 16, 2014, 12:31:42 PM
trying to get an actual count of how many 83/84 cars got this cluster, sounds like an eric job!
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: Kitz Kat on March 16, 2014, 12:40:59 PM
Probably, Eric is the one for knowledge. lol
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: dragon574444 on March 16, 2014, 02:09:51 PM
I got one in my 84 Elan. I'm looking for a spare parts unit, let me know if anyone here's selling one. The speedometer module stopped working for some reason, but I was able to replace it with an 80-82 module that "Watchdevil" had. It doesn't line up exactly right, but it works. I'm really not sure how I broke the old one, I removed it to install some gauges and the speedometer was stuck on 0 MPH when I reinstalled it. I powered it up on a bench and tried spinning the input shaft by hand, no response.
Not much I can tell you about it that the cheeseman hasn't already shown. I'd like to do a little fiddling with it, when you turn the car on, there is a 3 digit display, but the speedometer stops at 85. Might be a simple jumper to enable the last digit, like the later units.
Like Cheeseman said, they do make the proper sending units for this combo. I bought a brand new sending unit and my gas gauge works correctly. I've read that the LTD/Fairmont guys don't have access to new sending units.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: jcassity on March 16, 2014, 03:06:05 PM
well,, it goes to show,,, good thing I write things down. dragon~ your confusing me, you have the sendor that *all* us full digital guys use. Your saying you purchased a new sendor. IF so, like you said, then pls share the pn. Your sender works just like the 87/88 full digital (star wars) cluster senders with respect to resistivity in the correct float direction. empty vs full.
Notice the buttstuffog dash senders 83-88 are low resistance when full, the digital cluster senders are high resistance when full, including the 83 evtm page posted on my linky above.
from my diy link notes:
Conventional "buttstuffog cluster" 87 Evtm page 127 or 129 shows Empty - resistance - 60 to 86 ohms Full - resistance - 8 to 12 ohms
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: CoogarXR on March 16, 2014, 04:49:58 PM
I have one in my parts d. I got it a long time ago (I think I bought it on ebay), and I ran it in my 83 3.8 for a while. If I recall, the gas gage worked backwards or something (when using the factory buttstuffog sending unit). It's been 10+ years since I used it, lol. So you can count another one in existence, although it is not on the road.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: Dansbirds on March 16, 2014, 04:55:31 PM
I have this cluster in my 83 Heritage I also have a 80 with this similar cluster and a spare 83 cluster
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: rodsterh on March 16, 2014, 05:56:55 PM
I have this cluster in my 83 Heritage too.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: jandmmustangs on March 16, 2014, 06:50:05 PM
Like Scott said, my 84 élan has one. However, the car has an 87 tank in it with the buttstuffog sender and the fuel gauge just flashes on and off.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: MY83T on March 16, 2014, 09:42:16 PM
My 83 heritage has it also....no idea if it was high enough on the dash to avoid the floodwater or not. I have to pull the dash apart when the weather is good.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: dragon574444 on March 17, 2014, 02:21:01 AM
Quote from: White85GS;430677
tuen signal horn, and center mount horn, lol.
Yeah, I think Ford was trying to use up all their spare parts. One of those "Hey, check this out" sorta things.
Quote from: jcassity;430670
dragon~ your confusing me, you have the sendor that *all* us full digital guys use. Your saying you purchased a new sendor.
I was just mentioning that replacement sending units exist, I wasn't sure if they were hard to find or not. My old sending unit rusted apart and I was able to buy a new one at Advance Auto Parts along with the correct in-tank fuel pump.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: jcassity on March 20, 2014, 11:05:29 PM
that's interesting news there ,, everyone with full digital star wars clusters seem to have the opposite problem.
the purpose for this thread was to inventory the members with these clusters,, jandmmustangs has a fuel guage problem and I told him he's probably the last person on earth with a working unit that I can recall since lumpycheeseman was around.
I am attempting to count how many there are on this thread,, four of you?
by the way dragon,, im still interested in the illuminated birds.. I seem to recall us discussing your testing some of those out and perhaps learning they have a 5v input,, not 12, because the power wire feed has an in series resistor to step the voltage down.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: MY83T on March 21, 2014, 12:21:46 AM
J, my fuel gauge/sender operated flawlessly always.....not sure about now.....
Quote from: jcassity;430929
that's interesting news there ,, everyone with full digital star wars clusters seem to have the opposite problem.
the purpose for this thread was to inventory the members with these clusters,, jandmmustangs has a fuel guage problem and I told him he's probably the last person on earth with a working unit that I can recall since lumpycheeseman was around.
I am attempting to count how many there are on this thread,, four of you?
by the way dragon,, im still interested in the illuminated birds.. I seem to recall us discussing your testing some of those out and perhaps learning they have a 5v input,, not 12, because the power wire feed has an in series resistor to step the voltage down.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: Dansbirds on March 21, 2014, 06:48:48 AM
Jcassity, my cluster had a fuel level issue which was cured by a wiring repair(lovely little rodent) my spare cluster if I remember correctly has a functioning fuel level display but an inop speedo display. Also I might still have a coach lamp bird laying around if thats what you were speaking with dragon about. I think it buzzed but didnt light.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: thunderjet302 on March 21, 2014, 02:39:54 PM
If I'm looking at the 83-84 digital cluster correctly it appears that the only digital thing about it is the speedometer and gas gauge? It's not like the 85-88 digital cluster which has full instrumentation.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: CoogarXR on March 21, 2014, 04:25:37 PM
Yep. Even the odometer is mechanical, lol.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: White85GS on March 21, 2014, 08:43:14 PM
Quote from: thunderjet302;430952
If I'm looking at the 83-84 digital cluster correctly it appears that the only digital thing about it is the speedometer and gas gauge? It's not like the 85-88 digital cluster which has full instrumentation.
Quote from: CoogarXR;430957
Yep. Even the odometer is mechanical, lol.
1980-83 Conti Mark VI's and 1981-89 Town Cars were the same way. Because of that, I almost prefer the buttstuffog cluster in those. But those did have that cool, along the lines of the Tripminder's functions, built into the cluster.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: jcassity on March 23, 2014, 06:39:08 PM
Quote from: thunderjet302;430952
If I'm looking at the 83-84 digital cluster correctly it appears that the only digital thing about it is the speedometer and gas gauge? It's not like the 85-88 digital cluster which has full instrumentation.
yeah, and the link I posted earlier to Lumpycheeseman's diy write up shows all the internals as well and showing it powered up.
dan, if you can part with it it would be nice to have, id like to have a pair of them. If you can ,, look around the house for a power supply like those that come with your chordless phone or whatever,, look for one that has around 5vdc output. not sure why yours is buzzing, dragon did all the hard work discovering how those light up and such so if you do send me one,, ill have to dig up his older threads about them and get it working again.
another thing I am after for my personal stock is lighted cougar emblems.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: dragon574444 on March 23, 2014, 10:53:36 PM
Quote from: jcassity;431078
yeah, and the link I posted earlier to Lumpycheeseman's diy write up shows all the internals as well and showing it powered up.
dan, if you can part with it it would be nice to have, id like to have a pair of them. If you can ,, look around the house for a power supply like those that come with your chordless phone or whatever,, look for one that has around 5vdc output. not sure why yours is buzzing, dragon did all the hard work discovering how those light up and such so if you do send me one,, ill have to dig up his older threads about them and get it working again.
another thing I am after for my personal stock is lighted cougar emblems.
I didn't do too much work, unfortunately I never got around to rebuilding the inverter that died. If you hear the inverter buzzing when you apply voltage across it, that means it will illuminate the panel if the panel is still good. From there it's just a matter of buying a new panel and cutting it to size and putting it all back together to make it look pretty. I'm not sure what the input voltage is supposed to be, but I can tell you that 12 volts wasn't too much for it. Didn't know they only needed 5 volts until after the fact. The inverter takes the DC voltage and turns it into a very high frequency AC voltage. I didn't have my oscilloscope to check the actual frequency or voltage. I'll be doing some more research eventually, it'll be pretty simple to make a circuit to replace the inverter. The only problem will be the form factor, the ones Ford used were about half the size of a AA Battery, and were a completely sealed unit within the emblem itself.
Here's a link to the thread where I was playing around with them, pictures are gone though. I guess I did have an oscilloscope on hand while I was testing. Also, how the hell has it been 4 years since I made that thread?
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: jcassity on March 24, 2014, 09:32:18 AM
4 years may have slipped but my memory of who does what cool projects here has not.
Title: 83 84 digital cluster members
Post by: tbolt64 on December 02, 2014, 12:41:37 PM
I will bring this back from the past... my '84 Elan has one and its fully functioning!