I know it has been done before. I have a digi dash in my 87 wagon. If I can find an analog gauge cluster for my wagon, would any one be willing to do the wriing part of the swap for me? Obviously I dont' mean for free. I'm pretty machanically inclined, but electrical stuff on a car, I can't stand. takes a long for me to figure it out.

 

thanks

anthony

good luck on that one! maybe this will help.

Digi to Analog for 86 Twagon finished!!!!! very long post

thanks jonas! I searched for that thread a couple times but must have looked past it every time. I apreciate it

npnp... since you will have it apart anyway may i suggest this?

i just used a red permenant marker on the lightbulbs in the cluster. it would be a good idea to replace all those bulbs anyway.

Hope it's easier on the EA82 than it was in my EA81. Boy did that suck. It mostly works tho. I made the mistake of trying to put the "cooler" 80/81 dash in. I should have just used an 83/84 cluster and I wouldn't have had so many issues. Took me a month of hand wringing and teeth gnashing to get it hooked up where I was ok with it. Wasn't my daily, so I didn't work on it all the time - just kept walking away, and spending hours stareing and tracing lines on the diagrams to figure out where I needed resistors in circuits that didn't have them, wire colors, connector pin numbering, etc. No thanks - I'll not do it again.

 

My advice - do enough wireing that your indicators work, and the tach, fuel guage and speedo (but that's mechanical anyway). Get the backlights working, your door indicators (have to, or your dome light won't work - all part of the same circuit), high beam, turn signals, etc.

 

The other guages - just replace them with some nice Autometer aftermarket guages. More accurate, simple to wire. The 2.25 inch three guage "sets" are nice. Get one with Coolant temp, Oil Pressure, and Voltage. Digi's don't have the oil pressure sender anyway, so you would have to add one, and the wire for it - better to add an aftermarket one with a readable scale, and do the wireing for that.

 

GD

Jonas, I had already planned on doing that, just wasn't sure how I was goin to go about doing it yet. was thinking red shrink wrap i found one time for light bulbs, but I can't seem to find it now.

 

GD, soem of that had already crossed my mind. I have an aftermarket oil pressure gauge, not sure how much I'm gonna end up wiring though. I'll start with the must haves and if they aren't to big a pain I'll work from ther.

 

thanks guys

npnp... since you will have it apart anyway may i suggest this?

i just used a red permenant marker on the lightbulbs in the cluster. it would be a good idea to replace all those bulbs anyway.

oooo...thats very nice!!! i envy you

I know it has been done before. I have a digi dash in my 87 wagon. If I can find an analog gauge cluster for my wagon, would any one be willing to do the wriing part of the swap for me? Obviously I dont' mean for free. I'm pretty machanically inclined, but electrical stuff on a car, I can't stand. takes a long for me to figure it out.

 

thanks

anthony

 

 

Is your digi dash not working? If so and you would like to see if it can be fixed you could send it to me and I'll see what I can do to fix it. No charge to you except shipping and parts costs if I fix it. I have been interested in seeing if there is something we can do for the folks with digital dashes. I prefer them myself. Of the three cars I used to own with the digi dash none of them had any trouble with the display.

anthony, i'll donate an XT6 dash cluster to you if that helps you at all. doubt it fits but an XT is EA82 and an XT and XT6 cluster will swap....so maybe?

actually i might even be able to cut the wires out of the dash...can't recall how it plugs in but i could snag the plugs for you.

Both my Subies got Analog Dashs... I wish I could have at least one with Digital... But let me tell you somethin´ about the Colour: I obtained Blue LED bulbs exactly shaped as the normal Dash ones, and I Used them on my White Wagon, the result is a Very Briliant Dash in blue (Just like Neon) but then, after three months I switched again to the traditional lightning, due to the extreme bright in blue, that was hurtin´ my eyes in long road trips at night. Even with the Dimmer, they were too bright or too dark...

Maybe you can find LED´s not too bright to change colour in a more "Natural" way...

In other hand: in your situation, I would do anything to keep my digital dash workin´ ... or use aftermarket Gauges, but not Changin´ it.

Well... Good Luck!

my digi work flawlessly, thats why I'm looking for a busted one to use the plugs and things off of, so if I screw up the swap I have a working one to put in.

 

Gary: thatd be cool. definatly worth a shot.