ha ha ha ha ha! what to match my Blue Led's in my JVC MP3 player? lol

Yeah good idea Greg. To be honest they dont really bother me and seem ok, but perhaps somebody has upgraded them somewhere along the line. They certainly arent LED though.

Well, I'm at a bit of a crossroads. Tomorrow Ill have another chance to rip apart my dash but I must say Im a little hesitant incase I make it worse. Essentially a mountain out of a mole hill...mmmmm.....dont wanna be Dashless as I have a drive coming up this Sunday with Clarke, but then Im running out of time again as I fly out Tuesday night.

Should I or Should'nt I?

 

Like putting a tramp stamp on Grace Kelly!

Green LEDs yes, blue no, say I ! However 5W push fits with the green bulb covers removed are fantastic, and you do not have to worry about polarity. To remove the bulb covers you do have to remove the white plastic back from the cluster. As long as you do it on a table covered with a white sheet or cloth, the little screws, washers, etc you undo will be easily spotted. Also, you can clean up all the connections on the surface of the blue bendy circuit board where the instrument screw connectors go through it. The Great Palm's book is very good on all this, and it does make a very big difference to the instruments.

And, OB, where are we on the central locking? No slacking now !

Greg

 

Hi Greg

Grace Kelly, is an Icon just like the XJS, so Blue LED's will be out!

The only reason I mentioned it is that some 'guys' have switched over to using LED but did have a bit of a feeling you would give it the 'Thumbs Down'

As for the 'Central Locking' I decided to leave it as it is and lock each door with the Key, as its not too much of a problem and I want to use all my time in getting my other XJS back on the road for next Summer.

 

Alright so just after I drop the kids at school, imma tear apart my dash again.

So any advice next to Greg's about pulling apart the actual instrument panel once it is out of the car? So you just undo all the screws and "wella"? Anybody cracked these open before? Are the speedo's just a two wire instrument?

Ill post my results later today.

Cheers guys

 

Well, round 2 today. I got the dash out this time no worries and proceeded to take it apart on the workbench. About 6 or so screws to gain access to the separate gauges and all the individual lamps.

There were 3 nuts connecting the speedo gauge to the circuit board membrane. These in turn go through to the other side and have a wire soldered on that goes away to a small printed circuit board. A red, yellow and black wire.

Everything actually looked really good so I decided just to rework the solder joints, as this symptom is similar to issues I have had with dry solder joints working with other gear.

After this I moved the gauge itself almost to full scale a couple of times. She seemed pretty free and easy and nothing out of the ordinary. I gave her a pretty good eyeballing with my light to look for anything else like a broken wire or anything but she was all good. Inside the gauge itself there is very fine wire soldered and a little magnet. All looked good.

So I put her back together and went for a drive but...she is still playing up!

So what now? Is there anything else I could do or do i need to order a new speedo?

 

Pity, the only other thing I can suggest is to very carefully trace the positive and negative copper trace on the flexible circuit board from the speedo to their end points, and make sure there are no breaks. Particularly at the point where the joint to the multiplug is, and the feebly sprung copper contact on the plug itself.

If all these are Ok, then I think a second hand speedo is the answer. They are dirt cheap in the UK, and if you have any problem finding one post again.

greg

 

OB
No problem with white LEDs, I have them on my warning lights, but BLUE, not for me! Green LEDs, yes, but my experience is that white light and no green covers is excellent.

Greg

 

Morning Paul,

Bit late as usual, work is a mongrel.

I did that earth wire 10+ years ago, and cleaned the 2 multi pin plugs with Lemon juice, coz they were real SAD.

I also cleaned and tightened the floppy circuit screws/nuts/etc and replaced and cleaned the bulb fittings.

Nothing was playing up, just teh dull bulbs and the memory of those circuit screws reeking havoc, and that earth wire being a "must have".

As said, either a s/hand cluster, OR, google an instrument repair mob in you locale, and drop the whole panel in to him while your at sea, and pick it up when you get back. Tell him what you have done, and dont forget anything, and also the fix you have that works, as in the whack.

Leave it intact for Sunday, and rip it out after the run.

Just my suggestion.

 

thanks for the feedback guys. Heh nice to hear from ya Grant!

Yes i noticed she looked real clean inside. It's why I was surprised it was playing up. So I am assuming you dont have to get the whole cluster but can just buy the Speedo instrument or does it work out cheaper to swap out the cluster? Greg you mentioned they are dirt cheap in the UK. Grant you know if this is the case in Oz? (ie. somewhere like JagDaim in Melbourne)

I wasnt game to start pulling apart the speedo itself as there are very fine copper wires connected inside and I know they can be a bugger to re-solder.

BTW

I have emailed JagDaim a few times for a few different things but no response. Are they better to call the old fashioned way? (Telephone)

You know me, I do everything online

 

Paul,

Either JagDaim (Doug or Bill) or H&H Prestige (Phil) should have a whole cluster laying around.

I would NOT attempt the speedo only swap for the same reasons you gave.

The instrument repair guy will need the whole cluster.

The ones from teh UK will more than likely be MPH, and maybe MPH/KPH.

If you are sourcing a cluster make sure it is from a HE as the diff ratio is 2.88:1, and that is important. PreHE is 3.31, or 3.07, so be careful there. Real EARLY PreHE are cable drive speedos.

Good old telephone is the best way with both of them. I also have had very slow repsonse from emails.

 

Hi Greg

Thanks, I will get some 5 watt bulbs and swap them over.

 

Grace Kelly, is an Icon just like the XJS, so Blue LED's will be out!
Seriously. Paul if you want blue leds then put them in. If the car is such an icon it will survive. Its your car. Put in pink if you want.
I might put in red. Yep red.

 

lol i am fine with my lamps!

Heh thanks Grant for the advice. I might give them a call on Monday. Ether way now, I have had practice pulling out the dash and speedo so it shouldn't be too hard putting in a new one now lol!

 

Seriously wish I'd held on to all my brochures from the 80s & 90s. Once you've seen an XJS in a glamour shoot with the classic Alpine head units, you'd never consider straying from green - it's a match made in heaven with those beautiful square buttons.

But yeah, deep amber like BMWs would be a distant 2nd choice. Very easy on the night vision.

 

well I went for my Jaguar Forum cruise today https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...-125906/page2/ and guess what? The bloody Speedo gauge worked all day!

Ha ha ha....maybe she likes been driving faster than 70kms and hour once in a while?

Still gotta get it fixed though.

 

guys just a question whilst I am waiting for my Speedo to come in the mail and for me to get back home from overseas:

When I install the new speedo it will obviously have a different odometer reading than mine so how hard is it to set the numbers to what mine was reading so I can continue on from there?

This is what dodgey car salesmen doing in movies right except they wind them back to make the car seem less used?

 

if the replacement dash has lower numbers than its not too difficult to roll over the numbers to put more on

however ,

if you need to wind back , then ur buggered

there is no way that i could find to do this, as i had to replace my own speedo a while back and i pulled the old one to bits trying to figure out how to do it without destroying it, i wasn't successful so good luck if you manage it, and pm me how to do it

please don't post on forums on how you did it though , u never know who's looking


BB

 

Keep rolling the numbers forward until the right number comes round again?
Greg

 

ha ha thanks BB

So you can literally just roll the numbers forward with a small screw driver or something if it is a lower number than my current one?

I guess it doesnt really matter as I dont plan on sellin the Blue Goose anytime soon. As soon as I find out what numbers are on mine ill share my adventures.

Later

 

What is wrong with blue LEDs?
I only ask because I have a set of blue ones to fit.
I have a blue car with blue carpets; green would look stupid.