Monday, October 26, 2015

NO BODY TOLD ME

Yesterday evening the instrument panel was tested and true to form, the dual panel meters did not light up. Monday after taking my wife to the doctor, I started trouble shooting the wiring and found that the bottom four wires on the female connector were backwards. No problem, just unsolder and put them back in correctly. A couple of the extra male prongs from the crimp d-sub connector were used on a 9 volt dc adapter to plug into the d-sub female connector on the new wiring harness but the panel meters still would not power up. Voltage readings were taken on the exposed metal on the top of the IDC connectors and there was no voltage, so on looking up the IDC  (insulation displacement contact, found that an insertion  tool is required. After looking around the garage I decided to try to use a male spade connector and was able to stand up the IDC connector and after aligning the spade up on the wire, was able to tap it with a hammer until you could actually feel the wire insert into the slot.


2.54 MM to IDC CONNECTOR

Great, time to try again, just wish the guy at Mouser would have told me you needed an insertion tool when he recommended the connector. This time, one meter lit up so the DC-DC converters were switched and sure enough, the other panel meter lit up and must have been damaged when the wires were desoldered. These DC-DC converters seem to be very delicate, so I order them by two so I will always have a spare.


ONE METER LIT

I really wanted to get the instrument panel back in the car this weekend but at least I am getting closer. 

Until next time,

Randy

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