blackbuggy Posted February 8, 2006 Share Posted February 8, 2006 I bought a 84 2wd subaru, mint, no rust, 80 000km, loaded, i have swapped in a 4wd tranny, lifted it and left the original motor in and all wired up (runs and drives great). there were only 4 wires going to the tranny and the spedo cable. 2 wires for the 4wd light and 2 wires for the reverse light. Now the digital gauges (spedo, tach, fuel, temp, etc.) dont work.... they either dont light up at all, or they are all garbled and a buzzer continuosly goes off. Like i said i didnt touch anything on the motor side. The only other thing there was, was the cruise actuator i removed under the hood, but even it didnt affect the dash when i plugged it in and unplugged it. any help would be great! im am at a stand still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85Sub4WD Posted February 8, 2006 Share Posted February 8, 2006 what did you do with those wires? and is it possible you disturbed something in the center console?? The digidashes do seem failure-prone for whatever reason. - I think the usual culprit is loose solder joints, and/or overvoltage from a bad voltage regulator. - Does the car still start and run?? good luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbone Posted February 8, 2006 Share Posted February 8, 2006 The early digidashes are extremely sensitive to any flucuation of voltage. The buzzing you hear means the regulator in the dash is fried. If you can find someone in CN to fix it that would be to your benefit. Otherwise the wait here is long to find/fix one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted February 8, 2006 Share Posted February 8, 2006 Stop what you are doing and IMMEDIATELY replace the alt with a known good one. Likely it has failed. The buzzer you hear is warning you of bad voltage to the dash. Most likely tho the dash is blown. Sorry, but there really is no good way to save them - once you let the magic smoke out they are done. Best thing for you is to get an analog cluster and spend a weekend (or five) with wiring diagrams to get it converted over. You'll have to replace the fuel level sender in the tank, and the coolant temp sender in the manifold. I've done it, and it's not terribly difficult, but I used a 1980 cluster because I like the way they look - that made the wireing a lot harder. Get an analog cluster from an 82-84 Subaru GL and it won't be too bad. Finding a good replacement digi is possible, but they are getting very rare, and sometimes go for several hundred $$. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnW Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 I can probably source you 1-2 digital ones that are used in unknown/untested condition from local pull a parts here. The yard gets $17.99 ea for them at the one and probably around the same at another yard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caboobaroo Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 I do know that Hondasucks figured out why these digidashes go out like they do. Might want to send him a PM and see what he can do if anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbuggy Posted February 27, 2006 Author Share Posted February 27, 2006 i never smelt a burnt smell or see any smoke. the voltage with the car running is around 14.5V from idle to red line (measured with meter) i dont get it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbuggy Posted February 27, 2006 Author Share Posted February 27, 2006 so if my alt is ok, and there was no voltage spike, how do i replace the regulator/supply in the dash? and what part do you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnW Posted September 14, 2006 Share Posted September 14, 2006 Any update on this problem/solutions? Got a friend with 84 Turbo that has the buzzing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roundeye Posted September 14, 2006 Share Posted September 14, 2006 i never smelt a burnt smell or see any smoke.the voltage with the car running is around 14.5V from idle to red line (measured with meter) i dont get it? Check for presence of AC voltage. If your diode(s) fry, you can still have near correct voltage (in DC) but it will put out AC voltage. That means destruction of sensitive electronics designed for DC. I believe that is what GD is also refering to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheaT_BeeR_MaN Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 a lesson i learned about digi dash. ok so i have a 83 with a digi dash from the week i bought it, it had problems like not reading things correctly. but anyways the first week i bought it i took it to show a friend and turn the ingition on and beeeeeep. i was like wtf. so i tried on off and all that. i ended up taking the whole cluster out and the trip computer fried a resistor and i mean fried it looked like it caught on fire.. so i just unplugged it. but then i didnt get a read out of anything but temp. i didnt relize it looped so just to let u know it has to have the plug for the digi dash to work. took me about 2 months to figure that out. it still decides if it wants to display the right speed or fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 If you have solid 12 volt power getting to the dash and a good ground connection also then it would seem the power convertor in the dash is the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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