I have a set of Dakota Digital gauges and they have been working fine for the past month that i had the car. Recently the right half of the gauges have stopped working. Im not to tech savvy with these gauges and ive read the troubleshooting guide and im not too sure they cover my problem. Has anyone had this happen? Can anyone help?

The fuel, volts, and rpm gauges dont work.
http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.c...rod/prd168.htm

 

did you do the install yourself? if not i would double check the wires back there and make sure its what it should be. id download the instructions from the link you provided and basically go though and reinstall them double checking everything. if there is a wiring diagram it should be pretty straight forward just take your time. good luck!

 

take out the gauges check the 12vred and black ground wires

and make sure the circuit board didnt crack from a bad bump in the road and killed half of the guages


but most likely 12v or ground wire

 

If they installed like mine, the only connection to the gauges is a ribbon cable to the cpu. I would check to see if it's completely seated where it plugs into the cpu.

 

Thanks for all the help guys. It turns out that it wasnt getting the 12 volts that it needed. If i have any other problems ill be sure to ask you guys.

 

Please tell me about your install, and any difficulties or challenges you faced in the process. I am looking to partake on this challenge soon and would love the upper hand if possible. Please post your thoughts and experiences.

 

I had help with mine. Since my cluster wasn't stocked, I sent in a working set I acquired from a junkyard and Dakota Digital pretty much gutted the cluster and put in their own gauges. The cluster is connected via a ribbon cable (similar to computer hard drive cable) to a CPU that gets mounted somewhere under the dash. CPU receives all the inputs from your stock harness by tapping the signals from the original harness and runnnig another wire from there to the CPU.

The package comes with all the senders and adapters you should need. I already had electronic speedometer, so the VSS converter wasn't needed. For VSS on your 87, you may also want the SGI-5 box to convert the 8000 pulse per mile the sender puts out to something your ECM can read. http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.c...rod/prd126.htm

Instructions say not to run your speed signal close to the tach signal, but I (we) made that mistake anyway and had a speed indication while sitting still (inductive pick-up), that was soon corrected.

My car had 177,000 miles on it when I put them in, now it's at 235,000. You can request from them any odometer reading, otherwise they'll set it to zero.

 

Wow, what did they charge you for all of this on top of the cost of the gauges?
Can I see your setup ?
Where on the harness do you tap, right behind the dash or directly after the ECM ?

Thanks for the input Al !

 

I had help with the install, did part myself as I work with electronics. We tapped the wires in the harness right behind the instrument cluster and ran them to the Dakota Digital CPU. It helps lots to have a wiring diagram for the car. I also used the original cluster (I sent in a different one to be retrofitted) to find which pin on the back went to what gauge/indicator.

Here's a shot I took while on the rollers at a dyno...

 

Do your turn signal indicators work ?

What did they charge you to send in the cluster and have them fit eveything into it ?

 

Does yours have a trip meter and odo ?

 

Turn signal indicators are relocated to either side of the speed readout, high beam indicator is now to the right of the speed readout as well as a cruise "C" indication if you're equipped and hook that up. Had I known this prior, I might have filled in the openings for them and the other indicators across the top and repainted the bezel. The "BRAKE" and "SERVICE ENGINE SOON" indicators are now below the tach.

My 92 cost me about $950 when I got it, it's now $1100 on their site. Your 87 will be significantly less if you decide to go for it since they stock those and don't have to custom make them.

http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.c...rod/prd168.htm

 

Well, its about that time. If you can believe it, I have a good friend who got tired of me fiddling with my stock gauges and bought me a set of the Dakota Digital gauges !!!

We will be beginning the install this weekend. Was hoping one of you might know where I can find the wiring diagram for the gauge cluster (87 TPI) . I know the gauge cluster itself is a wiring diagram in its 80's wackness, but an actual one would help.

 

..doh.. not finding the gauge cluster wiring diagram anywhere, not even on autozone's website. Where did you find the wiring diagram for yours ?

 

You might find them at AllData, you may need to open an account. Great site for wiring and locations. The store that my stereo intaller works at has an account with them.

www.alldata.com