Digital dashes, compatible with a non digital Gen 1?

[jelloslug]

I cannot really say. It depends on what engine is in the doner car. If you know what the sensors for the SHO engine look like you want to get another ECT sensor (the one with the plastic 2 pin connector) not the gauge sensor (one wire connector).

 

[DJ SHO]

You might want to doulbe check a Ford serivce manual for the Cougar about that dash. I don't recall the Cougar/T-Bird's ever having a tach on teh digidashes. Something you might want to consider.

Ford has SO many digital dash designs over the years. From what I've seen, the Sable/Taurus was one of the very few that had a tach. Only other one's I've seen are the mercury villager/Nissan Quest (which by the way looks friggin awesome, and yes, I AM looking into this one), and the Ford windstar, but the Windstar only utilized a 6k rpm tach.

I'd double check that Cougar dash. I'm pretty sure it does not have a tach display like Mine and Mitch's Taurus/Sable model does.

 

[DJ SHO]

Well, I'm gonna have to can the Villager dash idea. The Ford service manual says it only reads to 105mph! Screw that!

 

[Devin]

From the pics, it looks exactly like Jelloslug's, but the tach only goes up to 6K. I'm not worried about that because I know when I get that high I'll be backing off soon anyway. I think that and the little ridge on the neck of it is the only difference. Next time I'm at it I'll take a picture and post it.

 

[Mark in PDX]

Ok,
I have found a digital speedo for an 89, which I have... Anyone ever converted theirs? I have seen a couple SHO's that came with the digital dash!!! But haven't found a wrecked one.. so am thinking that it should be pretty easy, but I want full utilization fo the fuel computer et all...
Help?
Mark

 

[jelloslug]

The digital dash was never a factory option for the SHO for any year. The procedure would be the same for an '89 as it is for the '90+ cars. You need the full wiring diagrams, the connectors for the digital cluster, the trim panel, the chime module, and the correct temperture sensor. You have to add the wire to the ECU for the fuel computer and splice in the new connectors. PM me for more in depth details.

 

[DJ SHO]

Mitch, what functions are your A pillar guages for?

 

[Diamond Jim]

I just bought a digital dash that I'm going to put in my wife's SHO and I have one strange question. Has anyone actually SEEN a GenII Taurus with the digital dash? Everyone I have talked to has only seen Sables. I would like to know where the switch module is SUPPOSED to mount on the Taurus. I have a hard time believing that they made a completely different mold for the digital dash Taurus since plastic injection molds cost around 3/4 Million to have made.

 

[ohioshodude]

i never believed it either but i've seen one. it was on ebay. so they do exist but are unbeleiveably rare.

 

[jelloslug]

Yes there were 2nd gen Taurus models with digital dashes. I have a pic of one somewhere. The digital cluster in Tauruses was only avalable on Flex Fuel cars (methanol powered cars) and I'm not sure what years they were in (I think they were 94-95 model years). They are über rare and very hard to find.

 

[Diamond Jim]

Digital Dash Pinouts

OK folks,

I just got the wiring harness for the dash that is going in the Wife's SHO. I noticed that there are no wires for the pins numbered 256-15 and 256-16. According to my prints they are DATA+ and DATA-. What's up with that? Are these signals needed to make all the functions work? They originate from the PCM pins 18 and 19 which are not used for that purpose on the SHO.

Any ideas what they were for?

Also, there must be SOME way to reprogram the EPROM that stores the Odometer reading, Possibly one of the other pins that isn't called out in the prints? Like 256-1 or 10?

Thanks,

 

[Piccolo]

Another Digital Option

Hey all! Been awhile, anyway...

I have seen on some older model Cop cars (Crown Vics) that have digital dashes. I don't know how well these would fit, but I bet they go over 120. Because a cop needs to report what speed he is going when chasing someone. I have been watching older year Cops on TV. Like 95 or so. So next time you are at a junk yard, check for crown vic digital clusters...

 

[Diamond Jim]

Digital Dash Reprogramming

I think I have it figured out. The Data+ and Data- pins are a serial communications port. All I have to do is figure out what the baud rate, stop bits and parity are and I think I'm on my way.
I talked to a guy yesterday in Virginia that offered to reprogram my odometer for me for the slight cost of ... are you ready for this? $350!!! I said I would get back to him. (Yeah, right) Then he told me that a customer had brought in a Ford with a digital dash that was reading 299,999.9 and wouldn't go any farther. He seems to think that there is a limit of 300,000 miles on the odometer. Anyone else heard this? Since my wife's car already has 262,000 miles on it I don't think that I would want to program it to read actual miles if that is truly the case.
As far as the top speed goes here is my opinion on what is going on. The GenIII SHO has an analog speedometer that is controlled by a digital signal from either the VSS (according to my prints) or an ABS sensor (according to some GenIII guys) THe GenIII speedometer also drops out at a certain speed, I think it is around 125 or so. The digital dash is controlled by the VSS also and I think what is going on is that the pulse train is so fast at high speeds that the dashboard is subjected to "sensory overload" and cannot keep up. This might also be the reason that the tachometer will read to about 6800 and then jump to 7000.
I dismantled my parts dash yesterday just to see what all is inside and discovered that it is truly three different modules and a power supply board. It would be no big deal to swap in a different speedometer module IF there were one that actually read above 125. The downside is that there aren't any of the police dashboards that had a tachometer so that would be a major loss to me.

 

[jelloslug]

AFAIK the data+ and data- pins were only used of the '95s and/or flex fuel cars. The are not even listed in the diagram for the '90. I have a flex fuel cluster and did not hook them up and the dash worked fine. I would suspect that they do have somthing to do with reprograming the mileage. I have not looked into reprograming it any more than the places that will do it "for a nominal fee" . I have an extra dash that I can experiment on if you want to try to figure soming out.

 

[Diamond Jim]

I have a spare dash also. I'm going to try to hook it up to the serial port on my PC and see what happens. What have I got to lose?

 

[Diamond Jim]

I was just looking through the list of PCM pins for the 3.0 and 3.2 SHO's. It seems that even though the book says pin 34 on the SHO PCM is unused, it actually outputs the DOL signal that the dash needs for fuel calculations. Every other PCM except the SHO's have Pin 34 listed as DOL. The 3.2 SHO used pin 34 for IMRC and there is no DOL output.

Now the short and simple version...

You can't put a digital dash in an ATX and still have the fuel calculator work.

It also appears that the Data+ and Data- inputs are only used in FlexFuel cars for some reason so those aren't needed either.

 

[jelloslug]

There are 2 other unused pins on the 3.2 PCM. I have never found them labeled so it's possable that one of them if the fuel flow connection. Did you ever attach your digital cluster to your PC?

 

[Diamond Jim]

I haven't had the time to hook up the power on a bench to power up the dashboard. I was thinking of also hooking up the Flex Fuel PCM to the dash and reading the data lines with an oscilloscope.
I have trying to locate a 92-95 Taurus Digital bezel so I have all the pieces together before I start. I am also going to contact AMP Corp. (they make the digital dash connector) and see if I can purchase crimp on sockets for that 20 pin connector.
Since I'm putting this one in the wife's SHO and the way she feels is that "if it doesn't look factory, I don't want it on my car", I have my work cut out for me making an entirely new wiring harness for her car that incorporates all of the digital dash features into a SHO harness. It shouldn't be too hard to do since the two cars are so similar. I have looked at the factory wiring diagrams and iut looks like I can almost rip the wires from the Digital car that are missing from the SHO and slap them into the SHO harness. I think I only have to really splice about three wires total and since I'll have the harness uncovered I can put those couple splices in places that will never be seen.

 

[GMAN]

Digital Dash Question

Can you please tell me what year Taurus or Sables were these clusters in? I just found a digital cluster out of a 89 Taurus that looks nothing like this.

 

[Diamond Jim]

I think they were 1990 to 1995.

Did you buy the '89 cluster? If so, can you send me some pictures of it? I'd like to see if it can be adapted to a GENII without too many problems.

Jim