Interesting (maybe?) instrument panel on my 85 Bertone

[Fiataccompli]

I suppose opening up the cluster, how to do it should be sort of obvious?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jvandyke]

little black screws on the perimeter, from the back as I recall, separates the front plastic and lens from the PCB/gauges/lights.

 

[Fiataccompli]

Cool....saw those, but in the case of this one, the green spaghetti wiring, solder & outer wrap with electrical tape sort of halted me (and led to starting this thread because it was something different...)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jvandyke]

even so, it appears the hack job was all remounted to the white casing which I would think would come off the black front in the same method, black perimeter screws, all bets are off on a custom job of course but have at it.

and I see the wisdom in this mod, I like it

 

[Fiataccompli]

Yup....I'll dig in later. I picked up a cheap external tach I'll probably use to calibrate


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jvandyke]

I toyed with the idea of having a buddy with high end CNC, water jet stuff, cut me a panel to fit round the the face of the gauges, to cover the faux wood grain plastic, he could do it in stainless, aluminum, gold, whatever. It would like nice, might blind you when the sun hits it wrong but worth it....would cover up a hack up job like this nicely.

 

[lookforjoe]

Do you have any detail (close up pics) that show the seams in the face panel from the front? It looks good from a distance... I'm wondering whether it can be accomplished with a really clean set of seams.

I really like the idea of having the tach moved. It irks me everytime I drive 'spiritedly' that I can't see most of the tach. I don't need to see the bloody fuel gauge.

I'm torn between making the dash and gauge cluster from another car (Volvo) work, or doing work on what's there now...

 

[Fiataccompli]

Sure, I'm not sure if you mean close-ups of the front or back but here are a couple of both...

Those may also show why at first I was hesitant to open it up more to look into adjusting.(it is still a bit of an adjustment for me with these cars versus 124s wear for the latter, I have always had such a collection of spares that experimentation like this at huge factors of safety if I screwed something up)



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jvandyke]

looks like it was mudded and painted on the front to cover the seams

 

[Fiataccompli]

Actually I think it is a layer of contact paper, or something cut & glued to give it a smooth face. To the casual or hurried observer, you don't see it, but at detail you can see the edges and the seam (as photo'd) that probably drew up over time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fiataccompli]

So, this is what it looks like inside. Crude...and the location and type of LED certainly explains the terrible spotlight effect. Still looking into how I get to the inner works, namely the potentiometer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lookforjoe]

Thanks for the details - it does seem the faceplate is the tricky bit.

That led placement is unfortunate. It should be possible to carefully prise them off the casing and repostion them in the standard locations.

 

[Fiataccompli]

Are there LED options that diffuse better?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lookforjoe]

I painted mine with a little blue. I used modeller's paint. The stock rheostat / dimmer doesn't work with LED. I don't know anything about altering LED ratings, so the paint worked for me.

 

[jvandyke]

gauges normally unbolt from the back, little nuts on studs
you can maybe just move those LEDs off further away from the edge of the gauge maybe a cluster LED so it's less directional.
I put something like these in mine, although it was the stock locations
http://www.ebay.com/itm/110935547535

 

[Fiataccompli]

Well, I left the LEDs as is for now...I found little rubber cap diffusers that may really help to soften up the lighting, so I may try those.

I also have a fairly decently calibrated tach now, thanks to a handheld tach/dwell meter I forgot I owned and finding the potentiometer on the bottom of the tach. In fact, with the instrument panel already jacked up, I figured why not go ahead and cut out a hole for the adjustment & thus I've added that feature to mine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lookforjoe]

Did you take a pic of where to drill the access port for the tach adjustment? Would be handy to include when I make my cluster

 

[Mike C]

Not sure if I had put photos of this somewhere here in the past, but below are photos of the instrument panel from my 85 Bertone....as modified by a PO. Clearly, this person was committed to changing the layout. It appears to all work correctly (except....temp gauge is not connected in Lou of an external gauge...not sure if that is because of accuracy issues or what...and the reason it's out of the car is the tach is reading low). PO also installed LED lighting which is frightshow looking, but it does work & you can read the gauges.

So, I didnt know if this is a discussion or workshop topic because I removed it to look for obvious signs of something that would cause the tach to read low...obviously there are many...how about the needles? Are those stock & painted red/orange? When I first got the car I didn't notice the layout (had been a while since I'd had an X19), but I recall wondering why I felt like the tach was easier to see...ha!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi!
Could you tell me what’s the yellow wire coming from the back of the speedo? Where does it connect?
Thanks

 

[ng_randolph]

Hi!
Could you tell me what’s the yellow wire coming from the back of the speedo? Where does it connect?
Thanks

Late model X1/9s have a reed switch inside the speedometer head. The rotating magnet in the speedometer causes the reed switch to pulse 3200 times pr. mile. The yellow wire goes from the reed switch and down to the black box mounted inside the console, which counts the miles and turns on the O2 sensor light every 30k miles.

 

[kmead]

Late model X1/9s have a reed relay inside the speedometer head. The rotating magnet in the speedometer causes the reed relay to pulse 3200 times pr. mile. The yellow wire goes from the reed relay and down to the black box mounted inside the console, which counts the miles and turns on the O2 sensor light every 30k miles.

I always wondered how they accomplished that. Thanks!