Jim is at: evilshelbydodgeimp@xxxxxxxxx and is NOT on the list. Life ended for me when they phased out electro-luminescent dashes, so please don't write to me - I'll just advise that you take two fins and call back in the morning. The following comes from Jim: ------------------------------------------------ I have been working with digital clusters with my Dynasty. So far I have used: -1990-1993 analog cluster -1988 New Yorker digital cluster -1992 Imperial digital cluster -1994 AA lebaron digital cluster That being said I have made a discovery that those with 1992-1993 Imperials with the digital cluster may want to take note on. The old Mopar digital clusters were all flourscent lights, but when they released the newer cluster style "sweep" (vs the old "bar") they switched to LCD technology. Note this cluster is what I mean by "sweep": http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a163/evilshelbydodgeimp/Assorted/newdigital.jpg See how the oil/temp/fuel/volt gauges emulate an analog "sweep" in appearance? This is unlike the old 80s clusters which used a "bar" style appearance. Essentially they took two pannels of plexiglass and put a razor thin LCD inbetween them. They painted the general background of the display black. They then took a plastic film and painted it varrious colors for the displays (say the digits, bars, etc) that "light up" on the cluster's display. They then put a pilot lamp behind the assembly to "back light it" Essentially the LCDs go "black" for parts of a gauge or digit that are not supposed to show up/light up. Now for the bad: Razor thin lcds are horrible in auto applications- they decompose when exposed to high heat, and don't work when cold. By watching eBay I have noticed that the newer style digital clusters commonly have the speedo display, and sometimes the oil/fuel/volt/temp "sweep" gauges stay black (aka not light up). Basically what is going on is that these LCDs are literally decomposing by the heat and age, and staying black! I suspect this will eventually happen to all the 1992/1993 clusters as they age, eventually and may be a problem for restorations years down the road. The AA body cluster I pulled (same design electronically) has this problem and it came out of a 1994! http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a163/evilshelbydodgeimp/sdimp/digitalpart3.jpg That being said, if you have a 1992 or a 1993 you cant use a older digital cluster (since they are CCD dependant) however you can use a 1988 NYer cluster (old bar style) since no data bus required- would require adding abt 15 wires (taps into sensors which the newer clusters tap into via the ccd bus). Anyway if you come across a 1988 NYer cluster (must be a 1988) and you have a '92 or '93 cluster with this problem you may want to consider the swap to the older version to "restore" its apperance. http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a163/evilshelbydodgeimp/sdimp/DSCN0118.jpg Sadly you can not repair the LCD style displays by throwing new displays in the cluster since the display's/LCDs are literally attached to the ribbon which is attached to the PCB in a non-removiable fashion (aka no connectors like for the idiot lights). My guess is that they attached the ribbons to the LCDs before molding the two plexiglass pannels together. I suppose it *might* be possible to unsoder the other end of the ribbons from the cluster's PCB and then swap them that way, but that assumes you have a cluster of the same "style" that has a good display which you'd not mind taking apart. ----------------- http://www.imperialclub.com ----------------- This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm