bay924s

Put me down for a DIY....

DHC8FO

"Great kit!!! Got started on mine last night.

You guys that have finished - any hints for getting the bulb / bulb holder off the circuit board? I can't seem to get it off. Twist? Pull? Snap? Squeeze?"


I use a flat nosed pliers and gently twist, should come right out at 90 degrees. Also note for re-installation;
Check before you re-install as a LED will only let the current flow one direction. If it doesn't light, twist 180 degrees. That should take care of it.

rmconner80

Thanks for the advice fellas, got the LED replaced last night.

I installed the board probably 15 times and could never get all the contacts in place, always the bottom, so the clock wouldn't display digits on the bottom half. Finally I ended up carefully trimming the soft rubber medium behind the butttons, just a bit off the very top, with a pair of sharp shears. It doesn't affect the button feel or function but it solved the problem of hanging up and not getting contact on the bottom. Just another bit of wisdom to pass on if anybody else experiences this problem.

Once again, great kit!!! Working clock goes back in the car this weekend - once the replacement parts show for the dash trim I broke trying to unplug the hazard switch connectors

DHC8FO

One of the issues here is that there's very little clearance and it's hard to get all the pieces back in place and snap the board back into place.

I have found that you can cheat and leave the clear plastic strip out (with black edges) . It acts to keep the reflected light from coming out the edges brighter that the back light. That part was over engineered. When the clock is in the plastic dash part the aperture on the dash piece is smaller that the face of the clock, so it does that job when installed.

hugrod

PM sent, thank you

DHC8FO

Got a message from Stiletto about a problem installing this kit. He was unable to get it to work. Just a reminer to all, you will need to use the new connectors, don't get them mixed up with the old ones they are actually different lengths, I suspect this is the issue here as there is no readout.

Stiletto

Yea, I deleted that message because I ended up figuring out the problem and I was embarrassed It was a blown fuse. I briefly sparked the cig-lighter when I removed the dash panel. Remember, kids, this is why they tell you to disconnect the battery before you work on your car!

Turns out everything was installed correctly all along.

Lizard944

Another clock repair success story! ....But not without a little perseverance. My clock had been working intermittently for the past six months. Finally died completely. I bought the kit from Mark and after following the awesome instructions, I sandwiched it all back together, applied power and.....nothing. After several more reassembly attempts, my obsessive compulsive disorder kicked in and I swore I'd get this working. After reading about some of the problems with the capacitors on early analog clocks, I took a close look at mine and noticed brown epoxy-looking stuff at the base. I thought I'd remove the cap to test, and when desoldering it, the (+) leg broke off and was severely corroded. Sure enough the cap had taken an electrolyte crap on the pc board. Off to Radio Shack for a 47uF 16V capacitor. Closest thing they had was 47uF 35V which they said would work fine (35V is just the upper limit.) I put power back to the board and the clock LCD was on! even without the cap in. Apparently, it was causing a short? So, what worked for me was a combination of replacing my scratched-to-hell LCD with Mark's kit (which is far better and brighter than the OE display), and replacing the electrolytic capacitor. Since most of these caps have a life of ~ 20 years, I'd say it's a good "while you're in there," repair. Just make sure you solder the new cap in with the polarity correct. The new cap has a neg (-) mark on it, and the PC board has a plus on it to denote the positive leg. I've been checking on this clock over the past four hours and it has been accurate to the second with my Atomic clock. Capacitor was Radio Shack #272-1027, 47uF 35V but you can get a whole bag of the correct 47uF 16V for the same price on the internet.

DHC8FO

Excellent- it's nice to see that there's no need to spend 400 for a new unit. Honesty I have only seen this failure 2 times, for the most part this is a pretty solid little set up.

hugrod

I got my new lcd. Just perfect!!! Thank you.

Lizard944

Shameless bump for an awesome product.

Ray_Singh

Mark -> Any idea how long i will have to wait for this to arrive in the UK?

zogster

Be patient. Took about 2 weeks for mine to arrive in the UK, but then a week longer for customs/Royal Mail to decide they wanted to sting me for an extra £12.77... turned out they charge an £8 'handling fee' as well as whatever import duty, VAT etc they fancy, which in fact was a quite reasonable £4.77. I'm looking into whether I can appeal against the £8 - they seem to be charging me for simply doing the job that they're supposed to be doing anyhow, and I don't recall paying such a fee the last few times I bought anything from the USA.

Ray_Singh

LOL - Ok i will wait.

Sounds just like the UK. Paying people extra to do what they are paid to do anyway. .... Oh and add some tax too.....

Ray_Singh

Thanks Mark, package arrived today. No customs to pay either

No instructions in the package though, can anyone help me with some instructions please?
Im a newbie to doing self repairs - if possible make them as noddy as possible including removing the dash panel.

Please help - i waited a long time for this to arrive and dont want to make an **** of it......