jbelway

I have and they were great... lifetime warranty.

blackbob

Awesome man thanks !

blackbob

Can you send me a link to the ebay store ?

Amskeptic

I am very happy.

Soldered in a new A/C-Clock display from Lextreme for $160.00 and he threw in five light bulbs, which allowed me to sneak one in for the emergency flasher switch, looks great . . .

. . . which made me want to tackle the tach/fuel needles that were only half-lit. Took the cluster out:


The '92 connectors are not really that bad, a small screwdriver depressing the tab and a sharp little bunt backwards popped them right out with no damage:


Here is a needle, you can see the black plastic tube surround has cracked and is starting to peel off:


There is no need to go tearing the IC boards or power supply off, a good thing. You will want to take the surround off so you can have better access to the needles:


In the foreground of the above shot you will see the fearsome supply of repair needs.
1) a jewelers screwdriver like to tighten the hinges on your reading glasses
2) a tube of rear window defogger repair paint (little thing too)
3) a little tube of SuperGlue®
4) a spare can of Duplicolor *Engine LowGloss Black (*heat resistant)
5) a little paint brush and solvent to clean the brush

A) Put a dab of Superglue on the tip of the jewelers screwdriver and lightly slip it between the flourescent tube and the peeled plastic. Do a little delicate slide along the tube if the plastic has delaminated. Do not allow the Superglue to land on the outside surface of the plastic, get it in between the plastic and the flourescent tube only.

B) oh so very delicately, hold the edge of the tube (needle) and lightly bring the plastic into contact with the tube. Please do not glue your fat finger to the needle. Slide your finger along the plastic a bit and if it appears that you have not glued it to the tube, press the plastic against the tube. "Back-support" the tube any time you apply any force to it. A light pinch between two fingers did it for me, you have to hold it for about 30-60 seconds per breach. Clean the screwdriver with solvent after each application. Do every location that you see a crack in the plastic or a delamination. I had a total of eight cracks and one long delaminate. Be patient. I got two quarters + half time of the Giants and the Eagles in. (Giants lost 45-38)

C) Clean the screwdriver, shake the tiny bottle of "Rear Window Defogger Repair Paint" and apply a little dab of this brown fast-drying paint *across each crack*. Stay away from the illumination strip of the flourescent tube. Also stay away from the gauge background. Please. Apply several light stripes of this too-damn-fast-drying paint. Keep it smooth, it may want to clot. Allow to dry.

D) After it is dry, your needles may look like a dalmation. So, get out the "Low-Gloss" black engine enamel and spray a little shot into the cap. Get your paint brush out and dab black paint over the brown paint. Stick on another coat up both sides of the needle and across the tip, but stay away from the white stripe of flourescent tube.

E) Wash the odometer glass while you are here. Wash the smoked glass cover too with just your hands and dishwashing liquid and do not allow it to hit the kitchen faucet or anything else. Dry. Blow off any lint and only touch the sides. Spot clean the gauge background with a damp paper towel, be delicate. Blow all lint off of everything.

F) Reassemble and stick back into the dash. Cost less than $10.00 and three lazy hours. Voila! Happy! :

lawbut2468

Excellent writeup! I am sure I will need to do this one day as my '93 LS will definitely outlast the needles. Great job!

williamb82

ok, took the cluster apart and replaced the 3 caps and did the needle repair with the defroster paint as some of the needles had cracks even though they still fully lit. my problem is now the gas gauge moves (it wouldnt before), but moves wrong. it is all over the place. ecu is out of the car so it hasnt been driven for ~2 weeks. some days if i turn the key on it shows almost empty. other days almost full, some days half. what would cause this? i took it back apart and verified that the caps i installed are the correct values and voltages and for the polorized cap it is installed in the correct polarity. is there anything else that could be bad in that circuit?

also, what chip would i need to remove from my circuit board to put onto a kph circuit board for it to show mph instead of kph on the odomoter? i found a kph cluster for cheap and am thinking of getting it.

Chin

iTrader: (34)

I have a 1993 LS400 cluster that is completely out. Can anyone tell me which pins on which connector to apply power & ground to in order to test the cluster on the bench as I am replacing caps? Thanks.

fencera

These directions are fantastic and worked perfectly on my 1990 LS400. The instrument display looks perfect now. Thanks!

Here are a couple of notes based on my experience:
1. I messed up the needle calibrations by bumping their positions while all the way down. It was very easy to do and I only noticed how far off they were when I put it all back together and drove around the neighborhood 10 mph faster than I should have (used gps to confirm actual speed). Be careful!
2. I got some superglue on the lit portion of the needle (from finger pressing). I took a q-tip with some acetone on it and wiped it off no problem. Whew.
3. Some of my original paint was missing along the edges of the bulb. I used the black paint to carefully re-do the border and although it did not look 100% perfect while out of the car, behind the tinted cover and with the panel lit, it does look perfect.
4. I used needles instead of a screw driver to apply individual drops of glue. Same purpose...
4. I replaced a few of my bulbs while I was in there. Used #74 bulbs... most expensive part of this project. Funny thing is that when I put it back together, other bulbs were out. Could be good to check your bulbs or replace them all while it's out.

Cleaning the display and getting these needles to light up again properly makes a big difference when sitting in the driver's seat. Great write up! Thanks!!

Machinist3

so I have a. Sc400 1992 that the das won't light up on, I believed that the caps were bad for the tach spedo water temp and fuel guage as well as the other ancillary lights bc none work. Only lights that illuminate are turn signals high beam light, door open light and the battery light works. I went to a localjunk yard and grabbed one outa a sc w trac control and put it in and it acts the same as my old one exactly. No new illumination, what are the odds on that and what is wrong with my car that is stopping powr from reaching the cluster? Wheredo the 3 plugs go to? And also now my car won't shift into overdrive?

sjls400

I just want to say thanks, my 94 LS400 dash lights flicked and flashed then came on after the car was driven for a while. I read this and went to radio shack, got a $8.00 soldering kit and a C212 capacitor. Took the dash out, took the C212 off and put the new one on and it worked, the temp is 41. I think that's cold enough to let me know that it works. Thanks again.

margarita

I'm having these same issues with my 94 LS400 -- black dash, or only flickering lights on cold startup, which (so far) usually come to life after the car has warmed up some. Both the fuel and engine temperature gauges are slow to register too. Sometimes I can see that the needles are working even though the back light does not come on (happens every now and then). Usually everything works after driving it the car for a 15 or 20 minutes.

Question: Will these inaccurate gauges impair or effect the car's performance in any way? Today the gas "reserve light" came on, but I know I have a good quarter tank of gas left. After the car warmed up and the fuel gauge started moving, the reserve light then went off. I was just wondering if warning lights such as low fuel (when the fuel is not actually low) could effect the engine. Same with the engine temp gauge being a little slow.

Just trying to figure out whether this is something I have to deal with ASAP. I would be less concerned about this if I knew that the car would continue to work as usual, dash lights or no dash lights. Thanks...

SixEye

I want to say no, it will not affect the car's performance in anyway. But I would definitely encourage you to have it repaired since driving without your dash could be dangerous and scary—not knowing how fast you are going, how much fuel you have and whether you can trust the warning lights or not. I had mine repaired a while back by BBA-reman.com, they are on eBay and so far all the lights and gauges work with no problems. Oh, did I mention I won the ebay auction for $85, sweet deal. Unless of course you do it your self like a lot of people here have successfully done. Hope this helps.

jbelway

I agree with SixEye... no performance issues, BBA is a good choice and very smooth transaction [I won an 85.00 auction as well] and it is really dangerous driving without a speedo.

SLORICK

Best Advice I read on this forum was for my speedometer intermittantly failing to read. . . someone posted: REACH UP AND SLAP THE TOP OF THE DASH ABOVE THE SPEEDO WITH THE FLAT OF YOUR HAND. works every time.

My 94 LS400 is 17 years old with 150K miles. Old enough for Antique Plates?
Blue Book is $1K? I am not going to sell it to anyone, just use it once a week to buy smokes, will get wifes 2002 LS430 handmedown sometime, then donate the old LS400 to the Cancer Society. I am retired, 60, not 16, so dont want to "fix" something and break two other things, just for cosmetics. I live with burned out radio bulbs and clock, slow fuel, and power steering with a slow leak at the rack costing $1K. I just add PS fluid once a month when it growls and wipe up the oil on the garage floor. Life is too short to fix cars, rather drink wine here in central california. When gas goes to $5, everyone buying hybrids or electrics for $50K, I am gonna fill my LS400 with a tank of gas, and laugh since it's paid for, low insurance, low plate fee, looks classic and I may pass up the wife's LS430 and drive this LS400 until it dies from a more serious death. I got Pancreatic Cancer at Thanksgiving, so LS400 may outlive me. . . Just Slap it ontop of the dash, and keep going. . .

BOOGEYMAN4

Mines usually lights up after the car warms, but its annoying.
Whats the quickest and cheapest way to fix this?