International instrument cluster

[Dead pirate]

Got this second bus almost ready to start but the cluster is done.
Anyone with a spare? Help

 

[cadillackid]

it doesnt work at all? thats a communicating J1708 Cluster.. there are a lot of these on most of the 'E' busses from 97 / 98 on up.. this cluster is specific to the Diamond Logic Computer.. which was used mid 97+.. you can tell if you have the right oine because the oil pressure gauge is a 90 degree and not a 270 degree sweep, and the temp gauge maxxes at 280. and not 230. all the gauges except air and fuel-level on that cluster are readable with a scan tool like scangauge D or bluefire

-Christopher

 

[Dead pirate]

It wasn't even in the dashboard. It's smashed and missing parts. It's a hot mess. I need to know what's going on before i fire this rebuild up. It's my last big hurdle.

 

[BlackJohn]

Is the harness there pirate, in good shape? That would give you temp, volts, oil pressure, maybe air pressure. Just missing tach, speedo and fuel but that would let you start it up with some instruments possibly.
Just a thought until you find a good one.
Nice work you have done getting it ready, hope she purrs!


John

 

[cadillackid]

Do you have access to a scangauge D or bluebird? The senders all talk cto the ECM for the oil water volts RPM and MPH, that panel is data terminal on the J1708 bus..
you’ll need to hook the air gauge up on that or your air will just leak out instantly.
Christopher

 

[Dead pirate]

No. But i will check it out. That monitor dashboard setup you had was sweet. Is that what you are talking about here?

 

[Dead pirate]

Is the harness there pirate, in good shape? That would give you temp, volts, oil pressure, maybe air pressure. Just missing tach, speedo and fuel but that would let you start it up with some instruments possibly.
Just a thought until you find a good one.
Nice work you have done getting it ready, hope she purrs!


John

The harness is there but none of the actual gauges are in it. I would only have air pressure. The board isn't in it.

 

[BlackJohn]

The harness is there but none of the actual gauges are in it. I would only have air pressure. The board isn't in it.

Ok, gottcha, well that doesn't leave many options for you. Someone must have something out there, keep digging and we can also.
Best of luck,


John

 

[Dead pirate]

Thanks. I'm sure one will turn up. They aren't that rare. They come unsoldered and need fixing often but someone has one.

 

[geminusprime]

The Scangauge is a smaller 2 line LCD screen that displays 4 gauges (in digital form), and attaches to your ECM connector. I had a touchy instrument cluster that liked to go dead (bad solder), and I got the Scnagauge as a backup but now use it mostly instead of my dash cluster.

Also tracks gas mileage and gives you a lot of details you wouldn't get on the regular cluster, such as horsepower output, load, and other cool stuff.

This is the one I got, scangauge 2.

 

[Dead pirate]

The cheaper version. Nice. I wonder if i could patch it to a different display. It would be enough to cold start the engine. Thanks. I'll check it out

 

[cadillackid]

you need the scanGauge D, I thought the scangauge 2 was only for OBD2.. and these busses use the J1708 6 or 9 pin deutsch connector which the scangauge D is msde for.. you can look under the dash for a grey or green connector and count the pins on it to get the correct scangauge..


my Dash set up is more elabotrate.. it uses a mixture of a commercial device (VMS-PC by silverleaf), a homebrew box and a windows tablet.. the scangauges are much more economical and will get you the data.



the Bluefire is a newer device that will beam data to your smartphone or tablet.. it came out since I built mine and looks really promising.. its also cheaper than what I have if you have a tablet or phone to use with it.



this is the 9 pin version of it (newer version that supports iOS as well as windows / android.



https://www.amazon.com/BlueFire-Blu...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CCFJ6HFH91SAYKT7G9AQ


this is the 6 pin version that works with everything..

https://www.amazon.com/BlueFire-And...=BlueFire+LLC&qid=1552459153&s=gateway&sr=8-3


there are slightly cheaper older versions of these devices that wont work with apple iOS if you are using android that might be an option.. but as with all electronics I usually opt for the latest..


this is the scangauge D that works with our busses..

https://www.scangauge.com/products/scangauge-d/


-Christopher


P.S. and if yopu want to go the same route as I did, I can give you pointers, but the above solutions should get you what you need at a fraction of the cost i have in mine..

 

[Yukon Cornelius-SKO]

you need the scanGauge D, I thought the scangauge 2 was only for OBD2.. and these busses use the J1708 6 or 9 pin deutsch connector which the scangauge D is msde for.. you can look under the dash for a grey or green connector and count the pins on it to get the correct scangauge..


my Dash set up is more elabotrate.. it uses a mixture of a commercial device (VMS-PC by silverleaf), a homebrew box and a windows tablet.. the scangauges are much more economical and will get you the data.



the Bluefire is a newer device that will beam data to your smartphone or tablet.. it came out since I built mine and looks really promising.. its also cheaper than what I have if you have a tablet or phone to use with it.



this is the 9 pin version of it (newer version that supports iOS as well as windows / android.



https://www.amazon.com/BlueFire-Blu...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CCFJ6HFH91SAYKT7G9AQ


this is the 6 pin version that works with everything..

https://www.amazon.com/BlueFire-And...=BlueFire+LLC&qid=1552459153&s=gateway&sr=8-3


there are slightly cheaper older versions of these devices that wont work with apple iOS if you are using android that might be an option.. but as with all electronics I usually opt for the latest..


this is the scangauge D that works with our busses..

https://www.scangauge.com/products/scangauge-d/


-Christopher


P.S. and if yopu want to go the same route as I did, I can give you pointers, but the above solutions should get you what you need at a fraction of the cost i have in mine..

Looks like a sweet middle ground setup for sure

 

[Dead pirate]

Very nice. Thanks. I'm Gonna research those today and settle on one. Providing that i did everything correctly and the darn thing runs. Hehe
Thanks again for the help and advice. I'm keep y'all posted

 

[cadillackid]

Positive energy for making this run good!! if your engine has a heater circulator booster pump you can use this to help prime out your cooling system before starting the engine.. it circulkates coolant through the engine and heater cores.. of course the Tstat will be closed so it wont circulate through the radiator.. but you can run this with the bottle cap off and keep adding coolant and hopefully bleeding air at the heater bleeder valves.. the idea being that you get the block filled without air pockets that could heat up very quickly when started..

-Christopher

 

[Dead pirate]

Very nice. Thanks. I can always count on you for those reminders and tips. It's all gone very well. So far so good.

 

[PeteinSF]

I found some surplus Surface (Windows 10) Tablets for my 2006 (with a 2004 DT466E)


For the adapter do I need this https://bluefire-llc.com/store/6-pin-j1708-adapters or https://bluefire-llc.com/store/9-pin-j1939j1708-adapters?


Any other cable goodies needed?

 

[cadillackid]

im looking for surplus Surface 3's. if anyone can find any..



look at your connector and be sure to order the bluefire that fits the connector type you have.. by 06. many were switching to the 9 pin..



-Christopher

 

[Dirtdoctor]

The back of it is a circuit board- they crack and then stop working. I know a mechanic that found the break and soldiered a jumper wire over the break. Wrecking yards are full of those clusters.

 

[Rovobay]

Christopher, thanks for posting the links to the BlueFire item on amazon. I think I like this route as the scangauge D just appears to be too small for my liking. I have an Edge CTS monitor in my truck and love it. switch power settings on the fly (via EFIlive) and can monitor a variety of things via a touch screen (4.3").