Steve944

would like to see pics
stephen

Steve944

if any one is interested, there is a good description of the pod removal and circuit board repair on speedometer here
www.dwaynesgarage.norcal928.org

rixter

Dwaynes write up on this is excellant....
pic shows old board on top, note the connectors are peeling
new board from nichols on bottom

rse

Interesting circuit board; all flexible. Not a lot of stuff on it. Should'nt be hard to fix.
Charly, that's one thing I never fixed, the tabs peeling off. How'd you that?
Ron

Fabio421

So Nichols has the ability to test our clusters as well?

rixter

yes

karl ruiter

I was thinking about making a replacement using 4 or 5 hard PCBs connected together with flex strips. No setup charge, and probably get 10 board sets for $10 each. Maybe another $10 per set for the flex strips and other misc parts. But the boards will be 1/16th thick and I doubt the bulbs will support the extra thickness. Of course the bulbs could be replaced with LEDs that soldered directly to the PCB and then the bulb holder depth would be moot.

peter.scannell

Tony, wassup! I assume you guys are talking about the flexible circuit board from the back of the instrument panel in the pod. I got mine from 928 intl. replacing the circuit isn't hard removing the pod without breaking the contacts is impossible, panel is NLA. And getting to the circuit means removing the steering wheel and disconnecting all connections (upside down). I'd think hard before starting.

Peter

Steve944

i tried 928intl 928rus and several others for a 82, told no luck by all, i will contact Nichols next

chrly924s

The boards on these cars changed almost each year. Everything in my instrument cluster failed. I tried all the usual fixes, but nothing helped because the connector tabs on the board were seperating from the board and breaking. I bought a whole cluster before I researched this and now I am stuck w/a 'like new' cluster that is stamped '86' on it. I was up against taking the car to SITM last year and got in a hurry. My wife had some copper tape that she got from Hobby Lobby that was an exact match for the tabs. She used it in her stain glass shop. However, nothing I used would adhere it to the board.
What I decided on was too radical in my mind, but the board was trash and I had nothing to lose. I decided to soldier wires to the connector tabs. I tried to avoid cutting any of the wiring harness, but after taking the harness plugs apart, it was obvious that I couldn't 'save' the plugs w/o destroying them. SO, I cut the plugs from the wiring harness and put them in a Ziplock bag in a safe place for posterity. Who knows, in the next life, things might be perfect and we can buy new boards at AutoZone for $19.95.
The 3 plugs on the wiring harness are marked 'L', 'M', & 'R' on the WSM wiring diagram; 'Left, 'Middle', & 'Right". My 951 has them as 'A', 'B', & 'C'. Go figure! The wires are also numbered '1' - 'whatever' depending on the year.
I wanted to get some clear shrink tube and make little labels; 'L1', 'L2', 'M1', 'R1', etc, to mark each wire as I cut it off the plugs, but here again I was in a time crunch and couldn't source it locally. I bought enough male/female bullet connectors to do the job and used a fine Sharpy to number each one. Again, I wanted to use different connectors and here you may find something better like multi pin connectors so you don't have 30+ connections.
I used wire I had at hand, thus the different colors. I cut wire for each tab about 6"-8" long to give me enough room to plug/unplug all these things(something Porsche didn't do to start with). Strip the end of each wire enough for the bullet connectors on one end and enough for the tabs on the other end. Twist the ends and 'tin' each one. Tinning is presoldiering the wires. You will not be able to soldier the wires to the tabs w/o doing this; you will melt thru the board. Make sure the tabs are clean. If any are broken off completely, you will have to slide the wire on up under the plug clip to get to more circuit. Next dip the 'tinned' wire ends in flux. EXTREME CAUTION AND SOME SOLDIERING SKILLS ARE NEED HERE, BUT IT'S NOT ROCKET SURGERY!! You will need a hot soldier gun. I found that it helps if the tip is about the same width as the wire so the heat transfers to as much wire/tab surface as quickly as possible. Place the wire end on the tab and touch the hot tip to it until the soldier/flux goes liquid- IT JUST TAKES A MILLI SECOND! It also helps if you have an extra set of hands to hold the soldiered joint down w/something til it goes back solid. My Weller came w/ a tool for this that is pointed and doesn't stick to the soldier-try Radio Shack.
After you finish soldiering all the wires to the tabs, you will need to clean all the joints. I used a Q-Tip and some acetone. I think a better product would be STABILANT, but time was a factor here. Check the integity of the joints w/an ohm meter. After the joints are all good and clean, you need to secure then in place to keep them from pulling out. I bought a 'Plastic Welder' epoxy at the hardware store. regular epoxy would probably be as good. There are several brands-3M, Locktite, etc. I took some thin plastic from a throw away food container(Black Forest Smoked Ham) and cut out 3 tabs that would slip into the plug clip on the board and cover the soldier joints. Then mix up enough epoxy to cover all 3 joints. Spread the epoxy over the soldiered joints and then slip the plastic tabs over the epoxy and hold in place w/a clothes pin til they set up. After the epoxy sets up, crimp soldier the connectors to the other ends of the wires and to the 'car side' of the wiring harness, being careful to match up the correct wires.
Plug the connectors up to their corespondingly numbered mate and istall the cluster in the pod. Everthing in the cluster seems to work better than before, but that could be just me. Total cost was about $20.

ksucat90

I would be very interested in this. Do tell more

Steve944

i like the way you did that, i was not sure about the soldering to the tabs, did not think that it would work, well wrong again, i really appreciate the info and pictures
thanks
stephen

rse

Nice work! those solder joints on the connector are awesome considering their tight spacing.
Appreciate the pictures, thanks.
My 2 cents: If you're new at this, get the right tool. You need a soldering iron with the handle as close
to the ironing tip as possible. Otherwise its very, very hard to keep the tip positioned and steady. I
learned the hard way when I did not have my old trusty one and bought a cheapy from radio shack. It
took a few hours to do what takes 15 minutes with the right handle.

txhokie4life

is there a source for a circuit board which has males on both sides that match the female connector
for the instrument panel.

could do what Chris did, but still use the original wire harness connector by
soldering to the mylar and then to the board. Then use board as the new landing pad
for the connector.

m

kingcredie

We can make the printed circuit board for you. Do you need the components and assembly service?
Do you have Gerber file and BOM and pick and place file?