Dashboard Cluster?

[jacobszall]

Hey,

I'm looking for a 2003 Blue Bird All American dashboard cluster. I only see other years on eBay, like 2001 and 2005. I'm wondering if these will work with me bus? If not, I was wondering if any of you might know where I can find a dashboard cluster that will work?

 

[somewhereinusa]

Why not just build your own, wouldn't be that hard?

 

[EastCoastCB]

Would be a fun weekend DIY project.
You could go nuts with it and put in some cool custom gauges with a nice burl panel!

 

[jacobszall]

How would I do that?

 

[EastCoastCB]

cut something to fit the opening. Fill it with gauges.

 

[mad_wolf]

How would I do that?

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f10/how-to-fiberglass-10837.html

Nice how to fiberglass thread .

 

[EastCoastCB]

 

[somewhereinusa]

After all that, radio looks like an afterthought.

 

[Badger-SKO]

Is that last picture a car or the cockpit of a small airplane?

 

[somewhereinusa]

Looks like a Corvette, look at the door handle.

 

[Scooternj]

Is that last picture a car or the cockpit of a small airplane?

Both

 

[warewolff]

EastCoastCB, after loading up a dash with gauges how would you accomplish hooking them up? Assuming you were replacing all the stock gauges that the bus came with ... tach, speed, temp, etc. I'm going to have to tackle that this week.

 

[cadillackid]

warewolf: is your original dash cluster bad?

typically on the T-444E most of the gauges are on the CAN bus from the computer..

speed,rpm,volts,temp,oil P are on the CAN bus.. they use the sensors that the ECM uses to run the engine and the ECM communicates to the dash cluster to operate those gauges.

if you want to ditch the navistar cluster youll have to find ways to get signals for your new gauges..

the speed can likely be tapped into from the rear ofthe transmission.. that should be a 16 Pulse per Rev tone ring that you could drive an electric speedometer with .

the Tach is driven by the CPS sensor.. im not sure if you can T into that one effectively or not to drive an aftermarket tach.

volts is easy thats just battery voltage.

Temperature and oil pressure you can easily screw your own sensors into one of the spare ports. there is an extra port on top of the water pump which you could use for a coolant temp gauge.

i think theres a spare oil pressure port near the oil cooler that you can run a gauge off of.

all these values can also be read out via the computer interface connector and run to a tablet as well..

im not sure if you are going for the old school analogue gauge look.. (peterbilt / kenworth)...

the rest of the gauges on tyour navistar panel.

trans temp (if equipped) is a direct sensor on the pan of the transmission.. you can easily get a gauge that works with the existing sensor or another that screws into an NPT style fitting.

fuel gauge is also an easy change as well.. you'll have to measure max and minimum, ohms from he fuel tank sender to see what the range is and you can find a fuel gauge that will work.. most senders are 0-90 ohms.

air pressure is a full mechanical gauge.. theres an air line running into the cab and into the back of the cluster for air pressure...

that should take care of most of your gauges.. mine has an ammeter.. its a shunt type, i havent yet found the shunt for it.

-Christopher

 

[warewolff]

Thanks Chris. More involved than I thought. The original cluster is working but does not really fit where I want it to as I'm rebuilding my dashboard. I'm fine with reading the computer values on a tablet too. All of the High tech is fine. That's why I was commenting on the other thread as well. Looking for any option that isn't going to open a whole new bag of worms. Any input on how easy that would be and where I should start researching? I've seen a few rasberry pi dash builds but nothing for the J1708 type stuff. If I could just plug into a tablet and mount that into my dash I'd love that option.

 

[Mat7783]

Looks like an airplane cockpit ����

 

[sportyrick]

Corvette door handle like my brother in laws 1961, corvette steering wheel, Muncie shifter, GM seat belts, floor mat looks like crossed checkered flags, wing vent means 60's era and it has a chevy crank, deep floor wells, it's a 60's corvette for sure, just the wing vent tells you that. 67 Camero has wings, 68 didn't, they got rid of them in the late 60's.

 

[HamSkoolie]

With a couple of IPads and the computer data you can build a glass cockpit and pick your gauges and their sizes dependent upon your mood.