General Info

As cool as the digital dash looks, I must admit that I have had my fair share of problems with it. At 90,000 miles, the entire dash decided to stop working. At that time, I just decided to take it to the dealer and have them fix it. They installed a remanufactured dash for $239. This worked for 105,000 additional miles. This time my speedo decided to stop working. Everything else still lights up. I disassembled the dash hoping to find a loose wire/connector.

	This is how the dash looks when it is completely installed and working properly.
	This is the dash installed in the truck without the font lenses in place. It is turned on in this picture.
	This is the dash installed in the truck without the font lenses in place. It is turned off in this picture.
	This is the connector in the dash that the cluster plugs into. It is a single 32 pin connector.
	This is the back of the cluster.
	This is the back without the metal plate.
	This is the dash with the rear circuit board removed. There are ribbon cables on either side that connect the back board to the front board.
	This is the front side of the back board. The sub-board on the right is a TDK power supply.
	This is the back board with the power supply removed. You have to de-solder the power supply to remove it.
	This is the power supply. I think that it is the cause of most problems with these dashes. It is made by TDK. TDK also made power supplies for the dashes used in Nissan 300zx.
	This is the back of the power supply. I found a loose solder joint here that I though was the problem. After resoldering the joint, the speedo works better but it still fades out occasionally.

The Pinout

Here is a pinout Looking at the 34 pin connector on the back of the dash cluster.

Some additional Info About the Dash - provided by Mike Noonan

• The TBI and CPI versions seem to be the same. Many salvage yards will insist that they are different parts that can not be interchanged. This is not true.
• There is a capacitor on the back circuit board that can be changed to recalibrate the tach for a V8. More info to come.
• The mileage is stored on the front circuit board. It is probably on the only chip that is on the front of the board near the mileage display.
• If one of the front clusters is not lighting up, the problem is not necessarily with that cluster or even on the front circuit board. My speedo is not lighting up because of a problem on the back circuit board.

Where they can be repaired:

RPM Research
5455 Fowler Rd.
Victoria, V8Y 1Y4

(250) 704 6614

The part # for my dash(auto w 4.3 TBI) is 25089409

RPM Research repairs these dashes and gives a 2 year warranty.

There are a few other companies that repair these clusters but RPM seems to have the best price. Also they are looking into what it would take to re-calibrate the tach signal for a V8.

Some UseFul Links

• Flat Dash Diagnosis
• Nissan 300Zx dig dash repair(used a very similar TDK power supply)
• TDK (The people that made the power supply)
• 87 Lebaron Digital Dash Conversion

Questions I have about the Dash

• Can I buy parts somewhere?
• Is there a book on repairing these dashes?
• Are the schematics for these clusters available from anywhere?

If you know the answer to any of these questions, please email me at mattw@suscom.net