ratedZ Posted August 7, 2001 Share Posted August 7, 2001 Hey guys, I think I've acquired some new grey hair these past two days when I decided to swap out my 83 280zxt's digital dash to the 79 analog unit. Here's an outline of my problems. A.) Turbo gauge does not work B.) Speedo jumps especially while decelerating C.) Talking lady has been silenced D.) Cruise control does not work I'm using a harness off of an 81 non-turbo (which I know now is a big mistake!) Please bare with me as this is somewhat hard to explain... A.) Ok to explain my findings with this problem....on the three gauge cluster for the turbo model, there are two wires that comes out of the unit that is separate from the wire harness...the colors are black and blue with a white stripe (the blue/white wire has a canister looking thing attached to it). These wires are connected directly to the turbo gauge. So thinking I could somehow run these wires to the 81 harness I joined the black wire (I think it's the ground) to a cluster of black wires in the harness...then I unraveled the blue/white stripe wire from the 83 harness and I connected it to the 81 harness (I inserted the pin to the same hole location on the 83...the 81 harness did not have a wire there so I inserted it to the empty hole which is a mirror of the 83 harness)(confused yet?...believe me I am) So I fire it up...the needle did move but it just pegged out to the right and didn't move as I revved the engine...normally the needle should be in the middle. So ok, I started messing with those two wires and I noticed that when I unplugged the black wire and vise versa the needle would go back to the left and then it would jump to the right when I re-plugged it. Grey hair number one has popped out at this point. Another idea comes to mind and I figured that I should also put the actual harness that is connected to the cluster pins to see if the wires are identical...they are but sure enough one was missing from each harnesses. Soooo...I take the missing wire from pin to pin and inserted it to the 81 harness...now it should work right? nope...so just for sh*ts and giggles I disconnected the harness but left the black and blue/white wire connected....the other gauges didn't work as suspected but the turbo gauge was still pegged to the right...what the heck is going on. B.) The speedo works and I got the car going 110mph...the only problem is the needle jumps up and down especially during deceleration...but I think I know what the problem is with this one. When I swapped out the speedo cable I crossed threaded a camp that holds the cable to the frame and I was only able to secure the cable with one clamp. I think that the cable is not stable because of the missing clamp making it jump up and down. Correct me if I'm wrong on this one. C.) Now for the talking lady...I also think I know what's wrong with this one. When I had the dash out I decided to take out the center speaker as it's blown...unfortunately I don't have the money to replace them yet so I left the speaker on the passenger side. Is that the problem? I'm iffy as I thought that the talking lady spoke on both the front speakers...but if she only speaks on the center speaker then my problem on this is solved. I'll just reconnect the speaker. Correct me here if I'm wrong also. PS. I can here here faint voice coming out of the box in the spare tire area but that's it so it does work. D.) Here...I toss my hands in the air because I have no clue what's going on. The light "ON" does come on when I press the switch located on the dash but it doesn't engage when I press the switches on the turn signal arm (decelerate, accelerate buttons etc.) Well, as you can see I have bugs to work out and I really need your help guys as I'm now out of ideas. I can't buy a turbo harness as they are almost impossible to find and I'm out o cash (figures). So I'm stuck trying to make things work with a non turbo harness if I want to be able to drive my car. Answer what you guys can...at this point anything will help. Thanks. ratedZ http://pub28.ezboard.com/bdatsun280zx The only board dedicated to the other...the 280zx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SpyderZ Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 RatedZ, A. You should have done your research before doing the swap lol... I did this conversion the other way around. You are lucky. I have the turbo analog harness from an 82 280ZXT. When I did the swap the wiring I used was a N/A. I remember I had to cut a couple unused wires from the N/A and rewired it to make the center gauges work. Let me know if you want the harness to save you the trouble. B. All the old analog speedometers that I owed jump all over the place when you are in low speed. I've heard someone said it because of oil getting into your speedometer cable and gets into the meter and cause it to jump. I found this to be untrue. I have 3 79 speedometers and they are all clean but when I put it in my other car it jumps too. C. If you want the talking lady you have to put back that center speaker. Otherwise all you can hear is a very low voice coming from the black box next to the spare tires. D. If your 79 speedometer doesn't have the speed sensor then your cruise won't work. I believe the speed sensor is a small aprox. 1inch square box attached to the back of the meter and has a 3 wires plug-in in the back of the meter. E. After you are done you will need to replace atleast the water temp sender, the one in the thermostat housing. I have heard some people have to replace their fuel senders also but I didn't have to do for mine. good luck Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ramseylaz Posted October 6, 2005 Share Posted October 6, 2005 i was wondering if anyone had a wiring diagram of how to swap the analog gauge for the digital one, i saw that someone posted about the same thing and didnt get an answer so i thought i would try anyways Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roger.svoboda Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Had the same problem on my 300zx and the 280. Heard the hoorah about grease in the cup. Both clean as a whistle. Put the battery powered drill direct to input of the console both speedos worked just fine no jump smooth accel and decel. Took out the cables wiped dry lubed made sure there were no kinks and both units now work just fine. I think the 280 was pulled out after some one ran over a parking thingy and was just touching the drive end enough to make the thing move. Not sure about the 300 but both times I believe it was cable problem cause bench test of the meter was good. I'd take the cable out of the tranny and stick a drill on it (ccw). Have someone watch the meter. Make sure no kinks. Don't forget the 280 has that short stub under the dash. Be sure everything is mated up. good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonsZ Posted October 19, 2005 Share Posted October 19, 2005 Same here 240z. the gage jumped all over the place with the stock trans. I tried the drill thing and no problem withthe new cable. The new trans has VSS so I had to buy a box to convert digital signal to analog rotation, no jumping. Switching to digital (analog look) gages soon. All I'll need is 4 lights, two green, a blue and a red, and put them in the dash somewhere for the blinkers, bright and brake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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