Ok after buying a secondhand instrument cluster today, ive come to the following conclusion. Holden never used the auto dim function of the instrument cluster. I know this because thier is no Light sensing device of any description, where the holden manual says. It simply was never used i believe. All thats in thier is a few light bulbs and thats about it. If anyone who got a vk calais to prove me wrong id like to see it.
Ill be working on the rheostat tommorow hopefully and get something sorted out for the dimmer circuit. I think im just going to stick to what ive worked out so far as my current connection harnes at least has 70% of the fetures of the cluster already working.
Ill keep you informed.
Well i think i have been proven wrong again. The opticle sensor that it keeps talking about actuall looks like an led. No wonder i had so much trouble finding it. It looks like someone got bored and started to put leds in the dash to change the colours, but to closer inspection i dont think its an led.
Ill keep you posted
Well after close to a month i got my speedo sender unit back from the machine shop. After numerous attempts to try and drill the center out of the orginal speedo pickup gear shaft(melted the gear on lathe, split material ect)i ended up managing to use the little white drive gear out of the vk pickup unit.
This is the only succesfully non expensive way ive found to do this.
Thier is now no cable needed to drive the vk digital pickup unit, which i think is a bonus as the unit bolts straigh onto the back of the vl drive unit.
I still havent connected it yet so im not sure how good the speedo reading should be, but from what ive worked out it should be dead accurate due to the direct drive nature of the setup.
Ill keep you informed how i go with this setup and if it works out it could simplyfy alot of things.
Cheers SHannon
Do you have the wiring diagrams worked out for the lighting and/or everything else to hook up? If so, would you mind putting them up now? I'd love to get a head start on building up a harness .. Thanks
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
Until i make sure this unit works im a worried on telling you how to do it as i think i am able to totally disregard the vl circuit board i modded, keeps it really simple then also if the car smokes cause i dont have something connected correctly. But yes i will very soon, still having af ew dramas with the light dimming stuff. Im going down to the wreckers tommorow to trace some of the wires with my multimeter to once and for all sort out some of the last wires.
Hopefully will put up my finding in the next few days(as long as i can figure it out)
Cool .. Shall work on the wiring pinouts for the rest of the stuff, building up a final harness .. since starting work I dont get as much time to work on this anymore
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
Im in the same boat unfornatually, i dont get alot of time to work on this project due to work commitments, but i have monday off. I just want to try and get it all finished, i want to get my dam car on the road.
Ive been having nothing but trouble with this turbo engine, the problem i ended up finding was so stupid, but it would be the last thing you would ever look for.
Thiers two locating dowels in the block and when the head is put on it located on these dowels. What i didnt relise was these were actually some steel pipe that someone had cut up and stuck in thier instead of the orginal ones. The problem with this is the steel pipe didnt have enough clearance and it was holding the head up on the bolts only fractionaly.
When the engine gets hot the steel expands pushing the head up just a little and the head gasget would leak. Ive now since taken the block to a machine shop to get fully decked and pressure tested to make sure i dont have anymore problems, as i just cant be botherd with it anymore.
Damn .. sounds like a load of fun .. you gotta remember the fun it'll give you when its going tho
Wish I could afford to even attempt it .. the digital dash is my lil project for now .. most engine stuff I cant afford to do
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
Ok, I have one other question, about installing the light strip from the VL onto the top of the dash. How did you do it? In your photos, there seems to be some small black pieces of plastic that the strip is screwed to, that is then screwed to the VK dash. Where did these come from? Or have these been cut from an old dash?
Also, if youv got time, could I get the details on the mounts and so on? I want to get started on installing it so it sits right .. Could you provide some measurements or a template of the side mounts you made for the dash housing?
Thanks in advance .. No worries if your too busy on other projects/work .. Just started to have issues with my current VL dash, and figured itd be a good time to get going with the digital one .. Even if I had to put up with an inaccurate speedo driven from the VL sender .. (insterestingly, pulled apart my calais dash today, and found it has the same (green) speedo board as the one from my SL dash .. both are series II .. perhaps there was a circuit change somewhere along the line ..
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
Im looking into getting all those details for you champ, still spending all my time on this dam turbo engine. THe mounts i used for the top strip are infact off an old vl instrument cluster. I cut them up and made them fit, but i still need to lower it a bit more as its still not perfect. Im hoping to get this done for you real soon. Sorry i ve taken so long just this turbo engine is giving me the ****s!
hehe its ok .. I don't mind .. id never have got this far at all without your help
I read on your other thread about the engine issues .. hope you can get it sorted soon
I'm sure you will!
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
I just went for another run in the car before and the speedo is now working, but the signals for the automatic trans unit isnt working anymore. dont know what ive done thier. Oh well more mods to the prototype circuit board!
Ill keep you posted, should be hopefully fully funtional by the end of the week and ill have detalis up asap.
For the moment hunt around for a vk speedo pickup unit. Its the electrnic bit that picks up the signals for the vk calais dash from the speedo cable. Grab the whole unit if you can as the new mods require the sensor and you to destroy the cruise control part of it so you can get the drive gear out of it.
Ill keep you up to date.
So far to my eye sight it looks to be pretty accurate, but car is playing up too much at the moment to give a fair indication. But i believe it wold be within +- 5kmph accuracy. I could be wrong thou.
Trying to get the speedo and circuit board to run off the new speedo sender is being a bit more dificult than i though. ill be looking inot it more tommorow night. Ill keep you posted.
So far its as simple as they come to make the new modification. Only thing is i hope your comftable doing a bit of work inside the instrument cluster itself as these mods cannot be made externally.
Well the good and bad news is here. The new speedo drive gear is installed and all the signals to all the computers and cruise work correctly, but id guestimate the speedo is out by about 20kmh. Its just a guess but i took the car for the first highway run tonight and it feels like i was doing 100 not 80.
Hrm .. got any mates with a GPS unit with speed readings? I wonder how much it would cost to get a reduction gear made up for it to adjust it? or is it more a case of adjusting the digital signal upwards by a percentage? can that even be done?
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
