DCL ground????????????Bad??????????

[72-stomper]

My gages were acting weird on my 92 con.I did the DCL tune up and it only worked for a day......Sometimes my gages work sometimes they dont. When they are not working,,I can pound the top of the dash and it fixes the prob for a while. I pulled it back apart recleaned the terminals so they look good as new and put a little piece of masking tape behind the brass terminals....same prob:mad: :mad: Could there be a loose ground???? Any sugestions????? I would hate to have to unplug that annoyong buzzer that is driving me insane:eek:
Thanks,
Mark

[98TC-Cartier]

Did yiu resolder all the cable connector pins on the circuit boards??

[MichiganTeddyBear]

you have one of the more trouble some problems (like I had).. Like 98TC said, resolder the connector pins on the circuit boards, you should be gold... that is what my problem was, did that, never happened again.

[pro-five-oh]

We need that TECH article MTB, stat!

(no pressure, I swear!)

[MichiganTeddyBear]

No pressure.. common... pour it on pro... I work the best under pressure... :)

I will do my best to get something to you or Steve within a wee week or so.. I was so busy with other things I havn't had a much of a chance to work on it...

[72-stomper]

Did yiu resolder all the cable connector pins on the circuit boards??

No I did not solder. I do not know what the cable connector pins are. or where they are. I didnt take the gage cluster apart so I did not see any circut boards. :o

[MichiganTeddyBear]

ok, here is the quick and basic thing you gotta do...

remove cluster from dash (you know how already).

carefully dissassemble cluster (remember your dealing with 15 year old plastic, and it gets brittle).

carefully remove the printed circuit board that the 2 black connectors from the wiring harness plug into. use LOTS of caution here, ford chose to be very cheap on the design of the connection inbetween the various boards.

the connector pins that most likely need to be resoldered are on the board you just removed. flip it to the 'back side' (really the component side, but we will call it the back side, because it faces the back of the car when installed. the 2 black connectors will have a bunch of pins comming thru the board, these need resoldering.. be very very carefull, and use a small (no more than 60W, prefferably less than 50W) iron with a small tip, and some quality rosin core (NEVER acid core) solder to resolder them pins.. all of them, they may not look like they have bad connections but they could. the cracks in the solder are usually microscopic in size.

now carefully reassemble the cluster, reinstall it, and your good to go. while your in there, replace the backlite bulbs if you havn't yet.

Now, if your squeemish about doing this, you have 2 choices... find a good electronics repair shop in your area, and take them the cluster (assembled) and point out the 2 connectors on the back (black ones) and ask them to do it, OR... if you can be without for a few days, send it to me, with return shipping, and I will take care of it. I takes me about 2 hours to go thru one, but I do more than just the 2 connectors...

[72-stomper]

Thanks alot MTB,
I will give it a try. My brother is an electronics wizz so Ill have him do the soldering. Ill let ya know how it works next week.
This forum rules:p

[Willys]

How much do you charge to go through the DCL? My problem is tolerable right now but the world changes over night.

Also, is there a way to put a switch on the annoying buzzer. Seems to me there a a post on this a long time back.

[MichiganTeddyBear]

pay shipping both ways and I will resolder the cluster for ya.

I hate to see an Essex sidelined for such a minor problem...