First off, let me say that I love the car! It's my first ZX and I'm digging all the gadgets it has for an '83. I bought it about a week ago and I knew it was gonna be a project car, so I knew I'd run into some things. It has the digital gauges(I now know that they're not popular) and they kinda worked when I bought it. Meaning, the tach and temp worked, but the speedo cable was broken, so it just sat at 0! The fuel gauge didn't light up at all Now, the other night I went to crank it and the warning deal said a tail light was out and the gauges didn't light up at all...the backlights came on when I turned the lights on, but the gauges themselves won't show anything. Any ideas on what happened? I checked the fuse box on the passenger kick panel, but all seems well. I'm already looking into the analog gauge swap, but just wanna see what I can do to fix this now. Thanks for any info

 

XenonS130

Do the analog swap and you'll probably get rid of those other issues. Sounds like typical digital dash issues.

 

So, I go to crank the car up this morning and all the gauges come on again! WTF?!

 

What are the volts at when idling? Maybe your alternator is toast? (which would cause all kinds of crazy electrical probs).

 

Voltage is 14.15 at idle. And it idles around 1200rpm

 

I had a problem where sometimes my dash was blacked out then 5 min later it would pop back on. Turns out my ignition key sometimes sticks a little past the run postion car runs fine & stater is no longer engaged but no dash or radio (non factory radio not sure how it is wired) adnyway I move the key a smidge to the left & it all lights up again.

Also with the speedo is the odometer working????

 

Yep...mine does that too...but now, even when I jiggle the key, no go for the gauges. I know it's just a loose connection or it's grounding out, but I don't know where to start to find the problem. And the odometer doesn't work because my speedo cable is broken, but from what I've read, the odometer will work w/out the speedo coming on.

 

Figured I may as well post a pic while I'm at it...


anyone know if these wheels are popular? I'm wanting to go to a bigger wheel and just wanna know if I should keep these or maybe throw them up for sale/trade?

 

Yea they are called D-Slots. They are a popular 70's wheel. I think you could get them as a dealer option for the early Z's but I'm not 100% sure about that...

 

If you've got a bad tail light it will disable the gauge lights. You may have a bad filament in one of your tail lights that is making intermittent contact causing the gauge lights to come on and off.

Check and/or replace your tail lights.

If you have bad lights on your digital dash there's no practical way to fix them without "rebuilding" the circuit board and you'll want to be an experienced electronics technician before you try that with any hope of success.

The best option is the analog dash swap. It's pretty straight forward and it will give you a chance to get back there and clean up any other wiring from the aftermarket stereo that isn't well done if you're into that.

Is this your daily driver?

 

well, it all started when one of my tail lights went out. I fixed it, but now it just comes on when it wants and stays off most of the time. I made my own wiring harness for my cd player, so I don't think it's that, but hey, who knows