I bought an 85 Berlinetta recently that needs an engine. The original engine was already pulled, so I have no way of checking the electronics yet. Looking at the gauges, the speedometer is standard with the half mph and the other half kpm. The fuel gauge is on the right side and is standard. BUT, the three center gauges (oil, temperature, battery) look standard, but do not have needles. They have a moon shape place on the left side of each that could possibly be for digital bars or something. I hope this makes sense, cause it's hard to describe. Anyway, has anyone seen this or heard of this before? If so, is this rare?

[This message has been edited by 85 Berlinetta (edited December 05, 2001).]

 

They're idiot lights. Not rare, not digital, just lights that let you know when you have a problem.

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Drew
predatorman@hotmail.com
83 Camaro 5.0L *1995-98*
87 Iroc 5.7L
91 Formula 5.7L 14.3@98mph
91 RS Convertible 5.0L
91 Firebird 3.1L 17.00@82mph *Gtech*
92 S10 2.8L
98 Grand Am GT 3100
Parts for sale

 

Sounds like the idiot light dash. It's not digital. It just lights up when the oil pressure drops, water temp goes too high, or voltage too high/low. They call them idiot lights because by the time they light up you're already screwed.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about those...lol. I didn't even think of that. Thanks guys.

 

I have a 86 Camaro Berlinetta....the last year they were made i was told.i also have a digital dash witht the standard guages..Do they work??...i wish they did lol...Speedo has been gone for a while...i think it has to do with having a 350 put in..it would stop at 85 and flash when it did work..I hooked up a techometerunder the dash ont he passeger side..the gas needle and battery needle works.other that nothing else does.

Tell me this...your blinkers switch...is it on the dash..sort of like a 3 way toggle switch?. mine is..you will fight to get that working lol...thats pretty much all i know of the berlinetta..If anyone has an info where to find a new speedo or how to repair one please let me know

thanks,
bruce

 

THose aren't idiot lights, just those people that replied. Those are bar graph gauges. I saw a set of these in the junk yard were the center where digital. There is an actually little bar that moves back and forth.

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un4givin89


Poor Mans White Face Guages
MikeKey.net - Camaro Enthusiast

 

AFAIK those only came on cars with the digital speedo and that's not what he has.



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There were two different dashes offered in the Berlinetta, the first was the base model dash with idiot lights. There other is the digital dash that used a digital spedometer, tach, and bar gauges.

"Looking at the gauges, the speedometer is standard with the half mph and the other half kpm. The fuel gauge is on the right side and is standard. BUT, the three center gauges (oil, temperature, battery) look standard, but do not have needles. They have a moon shape place on the left side of each that could possibly be for digital bars or something."

Here's a picture of the digital berlinetta dash borrowed from another thread...
Do you see anything that looks like half moons here? How about a standard speedo with dual needles?

On the converse, the base model type dash had the dual needle speedo, dual needle gas gauge (gallons/litres), and three half moon shaped idiot lights with hash marks to appear as though there might have been an intention for them to be guages.

Perhaps people that don't fully understand what they're dealing with, should keep from accusing people of being idiots until they've versed themselves in the topic.

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Drew
predatorman@hotmail.com
83 Camaro 5.0L *1995-98*
87 Iroc 5.7L
91 Formula 5.7L 14.3@98mph
91 RS Convertible 5.0L
91 Firebird 3.1L 17.00@82mph *Gtech*
92 S10 2.8L
98 Grand Am GT 3100
Parts for sale

 

Thanks Drew. I didn't appreciate being called an idiot by someone who doesn't even know where to put jackstands under the car!

[This message has been edited by Jza (edited December 10, 2001).]

 

found this pic of my 83 coupes dash cluster. Note the middle 'guages' aka idiot lights?

 

even those ones don't look like the ones I saw in the junk yard. The top half of the circle was moon shaped, while the botom half just had the symbol on it. I'll get a pic some time.

 

After the cluster shown above GM used a cluster with all the markings and needles in white again with the idiot lights in the middle. I believe they were used from 84 or 85 up to ???
The point is there are three types of clusters, full instrumentation, digital guages, and speedo, fuel, and idiot lights. There never was a mix of guages and digital.