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Half an Instrument Panel is better than none


Posti

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I picked up a used instrument panel off eBay and installed it today.  The speedometer and fuel gauge work, as do the idiot lights across the bottom and the trip odometer.  However, the left side with the clock and odometer are still dark.  Is this likely to be an instrument panel issue or something with the controllers?  The CRT works fine and has everything up.

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I think you probably have a another bad IPC. I'm no electronics expert but I can't think of anything else that would cause half the IPC to fail to light up.

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I lucked out - the seller gave me a full refund with no questions and did not want the part back. I had sent a photo of it showing the left side backed out and described what i had done to test it, and that must have satisfied her. So while it is not a total fix, I can drive the car with all but the minor data functions showing. The face is nearly perfect. Turns out a local junkyard has a Reatta and the instrument cluster on hand, so I will be paying a visit this weekend.

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Good to hear there are still some honest sellers on eBay. :)  I hope you find another good one that allows returns if needed.

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Lucked out again, I think. Found an 89 IPC on eBay that looks clean and is supposed to work well, located less than 20 miles away for $80 BIN. The seller is bringing it to his workplace near my house tomorrow, so I save the $20 shipping. He also has other Reatta parts from his 1989 that he parted out a while back. Curious to see what he has. Also located a Reatta in a local salvage yard and plan to investigate that on Friday.

 

The first IPC from eBay looks good and provides all of the important functions. I'll do some electrical troubleshooting - should be a prime power input to the left side that is broken/interrupted. I can explore the original IPC that is totally dead and somewhat scarred up first.

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Your luck seems to be holding out. You must carry a rabbit's foot in your pocket. ;)  I'd be careful not to destroy the old ones troubleshooting. They can still rebuilt but they aren't making any more of them.

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Yet another bad IPC - this one has all the digital displays working, but the indicator light bank at the bottom is dead.  I checked all the bulbs just to be sure.  According to the shop manual, it's a 'Take it to an authorized dealer for repair' issue.  That makes three IPCs, each with a different issue.  One totally dead, one with no left side, and one with no indicators!  A local salvage yard lists one - I plan to take the Reatta over and install it on the spot to see if it works.  For now, I am using the first replacement, which has all the important operational functions working.

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As a follow-up, the seller not only gave me a full refund of the $80, but told me to keep the IPC and see if I can troubleshoot it. He also brought over a large assortment of Reatta parts - some I could not afford right now, such as the complete taillight assembly. However, he sold me a brake master cylinder assembly with the pump and all switches/accessories for $60 (removed from a wrecked car, but has new switches), and a spare hubcap in excellent shape for $20. And he gave me a power antenna that has a new mast - when we tested it the relay clicked but the motor doesn't activate. My motor works fine, so I can swap out the antenna mast and have a good unit. I also bought some ABS front leads - the rubber casings are breaking apart but the silver leads look to be in good shape. For $20, it was worth having something to play with. Overall, my experience with eBay sellers has been outstanding. Thanks, Bill!

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Looks like a good deal on the parts. However I will warn you that with the rubber cracking off the leads, they will not last but will short out. What I do, with my mechanic friend is remove the plug end and all the rubber mounts. If the rubber casing is cracked as you say I break off all the rubber and then slide on a hard plastic 1/4" tubing. I then slide over a solid length of of heat shrink tubing to go from the barrel end to the plug and shrink to fit. Reinstall the rubber mounts and then the plug connector. My friend and I can rebuild two leads in about 90 minutes. Which is why I charge $125.00 each [delivered per lead. They look like brand new original equipment when I am done.

I will pay $35.00 each [delivered] for each one of those leads if they test good with an ohm meter [800-1400 ohms].

You have my contact information. Thanks.

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Hiya! No argument that yours are worth the price - just that for a $900 car I don't know much about yet, I want to hold off any big expenses until i have the major stuff sorted out. For $10 each I have some to play with and learn.

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No problem. I started my reply talking about how the lead will go bad, then expanded into what I do to resore them to like new condition. I understand that if you bought the car cheap, $125.00 for a lead could be considered expensive.

I will also say that I spent $550.00 for a "Pewter" Reatta that is sitting on my desk. Which for 5 years I thought was too extravagent until I saw one in real life and then decided I had to have one. So when one popped up on Ebay I bought it which is almost 2/3 the price of your car and I can't take mine anywhere!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I picked up a used instrument panel off eBay and installed it today.  The speedometer and fuel gauge work, as do the idiot lights across the bottom and the trip odometer.  However, the left side with the clock and odometer are still dark.  Is this likely to be an instrument panel issue or something with the controllers?  The CRT works fine and has everything up.


What was the reason you replaced the IPC? I have a 1989 and the IPC is blank....twice in very hot weather the IPC lit up then when I shut off the ign. it wouldn't work again.

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Hiya!

 

The IPC was dead when I bought the car - I think that was why the prior owner sold it as it would not pass state inspection. So far I have gone through four IPCs - the original which just had the warning lights at the bottom, an eBay IPC with the odometer/clock side out, an eBay IPC with the warning lights out, and a junkyard IPC with only the warning lights again. The individual problems could be repeated, which tells me that the car itself is OK - just need to find a good IPC.

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Yet another bad IPC - this one has all the digital displays working, but the indicator light bank at the bottom is dead.  I checked all the bulbs just to be sure.  According to the shop manual, it's a 'Take it to an authorized dealer for repair' issue.  That makes three IPCs, each with a different issue.  One totally dead, one with no left side, and one with no indicators!  A local salvage yard lists one - I plan to take the Reatta over and install it on the spot to see if it works.  For now, I am using the first replacement, which has all the important operational functions working.

 

If you find a good IPC how much would you want for the IPC that has everything but the warning light problem?

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I plan to try repairing the one with no warning lights - should be a simple break in the common power circuit. Could be a similar issue in the one with no odometer/clock.

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I have a good 1988/89 IPC available. $135.00 delivered.

Email me at:

lemke1044@aol.com

if interested.

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  • 4 weeks later...

SUCCESS!  Two months and five Instrument displays later, I finally have a complete working dashboard!  The original unit had a dead upper half, the first eBay replacement had a dead upper left side, the second eBay replacement had a dead lower half, and a junkyard replacement was totally dead.  The third eBay unit showed up Friday, but a blizzard delayed attempts until today, when 30 degrees suddenly changed to 69 degrees!  The latest unit had a scratched-up face and worn buttons, but it all worked when I plugged it in!  I simply swapped out a good face from another unit and took care of the worn buttons with some carefully applied magic marker. 

reatta_dashgood.jpg.1b53918ca663713390eed121f458e429.jpg

reatta_dashdone.jpg.45859dd6c391d2a4de34fb7dd8dc043b.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bob, saw this and thought I'd chime in. The 88/89 cluster seems to have an issue where the idiot lights (Telltale's in GM speak) stop functioning but the bulbs are not bad. I have at least five like this sitting here presently myself. There appears to be an issue with the lamp driver circuitry within the IPC that I've not nailed down yet. Transistor switches are used internally to drive the lamps from logic signals from the cluster CPU. I hope to eventually have a fix for this.

 

The cluster with the missing clock/odometer display is also an internal failure of the cluster. It is unlikely to be a power supply issue as the other portion of the display is working still (there are two separate VFD panels that comprise the digital portion of the display but these share a common power supply circuit internally) so it is either the display glass itself (though this is unlikely) or the serial to parallel shift register driver IC's for that half have failed resulting in no display output.

 

I've not looked recently to see if anyplace is still servicing the 88/89 clusters. The 90/91 type is still repaired by a few Delco authorized shops, but these are getting thin as well. If you are not inclined to repair the bad ones you have now, I may be interested in picking them up as cores. I have had some success repairing these myself, depending on the type of failure and whether the needed parts can be sourced.

 

Kevin Dierkes

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Thanks for the reply and information.

 

I am trying to locate a schematic of the IPC - the indicator light issue logically would be the common power feed, as the sensors generate ground information. If I can identify the power input circuit I can trace that to the break in the circuit - either a component transistor or crack in the circuit. It could be as simple as a bad solder connection on the feed wire (if there is one). I won't dispose of any of them, and plan to limit my experiments to one so I do not damage any of the others. I'll pass on reports of success or failure, along with explanations of what I did or attempted. And should I abandon the effort, the IPCs are yours for postage.

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