SO what actually is this new drive unit? an adaption of the old circuitry? or your own new design?

Its actually the vk drive unit pick-up. I was trying to work it out last night and i dont believe it will make any difference to any other parts in the car. I still use the original circuit board that i designed, but (fingers crossed) i can do it this way without the mods. Thiers no reason why it shouldnt work the circumference difference between the two sensors is on 26mm so i believe it should be very close to reading the right speed anyway. Im guessing maybe 10kmp out, but that can be rectified by changing the pickup gears. Still only testing due to not sure if it will be out more than that. Hard to sat without testing it.

Cool .. sounds like some good progress Let me know when and how I can help you with testing .. more than happy to help out Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

No stress, ive got to figure out one tricky issue then ill let you know.

Which issue?

Have you ever tried to drill hardend steel. Its very strong. I was hoping thier might me an easier way than destroy 3 or 4 drill bits. I have to use the pull down drill on it due to strength and need it fairly accurate.

Well i tried to drill the hole in the hardned stell today with no luck. I went and bought a cobalt tipped drill bit, set the pull down drill speed to low and used heaps of oil for lube. Basically the shaft has fracture marks all thru it and the hole not even central. I tried.

Oh yeah and im talking about the speedo pickup drive gear shaft. Thats what ive been trying to drill.

Hrm.. thats a bugger .. What would you need to have drilled the casing for?

I need to make it slighly larger to put a nylon part in for the square outputshaft of the sensor to grab onto. Im thinking ill have to fill it up with epoxy and somehow use grease on the sensor shaft so it dosent stick to it. Just an idear at the moment

Ok heres what i think the lights connection do. Well im thinking to myself does the normal vl have a dimmer for the dash during the day?? Well it dosent cause you normally dont have your lights on. So how ive riged the wires up are as follows Pin 4 plug goes to ground when lights are off. When lights turn on pin7 overides that and the dimmer circuit becomes active. Now the dash should automatically dim when your light turn on im told. if this is the case thats fine. You wont be able to go as bright as the daylight setting cause the circuit detects that the light are on. But you will have the full 5 stage of brightness control. I believe this starts at 13v and evry .6v is a stage. So far it all looks to be working for me know, ill try and finish the circuit tommorow and see how it goes.

Sweet! well done mate! So how about the loading on the VL existing dimming circuit? Any ideas on loading that up enough? Sounds like its really coming together tho Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Just finished for the night and got the full adjustment spectrum happening. Its going to be another custom circuit job thou, due to issues arising with the original dimmer circuit. Good thing is its not overly complex at all and is very easy to build. Ill put details up once i finsh proto typing it.

Ok my instrument cluster is now complete with the following features working. Speedo Tacho Fuel guage Temp gauge Low Coolant indicator Low Oil indicator Dimmer Due to problems with certain items for the moment ive decide not to get the features working due to it not being accurate or too pricy. Fuel estimate guage. Ive now got a funtional dimmer circuit with a modified circuit for the orginal vl so all of the functions work correctly. At this stage everytihing is a plug-in/plug -out job if i want to go back to standard. Once the fuel estimator guage is working i dont believe this is a feature i can offer anymore, so thats why ive scrapped that part of the dash for the moment. Il keep you informed and ill post up the circuit digrams in the next few days and you can give it a try too. parts should cost no more than $5 for the dimmer circuit and just a little bit of time to fit. Cheers Shannon

absolutely amazing I'm not fussed personally about the "trip computer" stuff either, as I'm running dual fuel and it wouldnt work on LPG as it is If youv got the time/patience/bother, I'm still interested in paying you to make me a speedo unit that works, as mine still is in a non functional state .. If its too much trouble, just say so. If not, lemme know a price I can handle all the wiring, just the board itself isnt working. Dimmer circuit I figure I'll have no problems with either. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

No stress, just been trying to find a board thats the same as mine, because i think thier is slight differences. I think ive got a better way to do that yet so ill keep you informed. Thats why ive held back on it. I think i can do the same job with fewer componets. this way the speedo cable has totally be cut out of the picture and the circuit is way simpler with stringer signals in the end result. Which i believe is going to be a must due to signal degradation.

hmm sounds good .. keep me posted on everything a template for making the mounting brackets mightnt be a bad idea for the website either .. make it VERY valueable resource for anyone interested in doing this .. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Ive been looking around for the parts for the dimmer circuit but having trouble sourcing some parts i need. ill keep you informed with the progress.

Sweet! what method are you using to create the current load anyway? just something to burn it off as heat? or are you actually using it? Or something totally different?

Im just using a very simple circuit to do it instead. I really dont want to burn it off in heat. Not behind the dash anyway. Im just going to use a fet and potentiometer with a few resistors. Its very simple. Im just having trouble finding the minature dual gang potentiometer i need. Should be sorted by the end of the week i hope.