Fixing a 94 Caprice VFD Speedometer

[@jimnyari1517]

My '94 9C1 was doing the same thing. My wife took it to work, watched your video, Nd was bragging she fixed it, I'm like WTF?? We drove it to Pittsburgh from Niagara Falls....tapping on it the whole way, and it would fade out, or the left & right sides were dim and center was brightly lit.....that was a week ago, and it's been fine....weird, it fixed itself!

[@davidparker4737]

Hey man I really appreciate your video and advice. I took mines completely apart and redone the whole power supply and and tested it outside the car, with pin five and six and she works great now. Thanks 👍🏾👍🏾

[@jaykay18]

Excellent diagnosis, repair, and presentation of this video!

[@hakemon]

Thanks! I'm so happy it's finally fixed, at least for now. I may return and run some new traces to the daughter board as I'm also suspect with the traces themselves. But so far it hasn't had any issues.

[@jonshaner8575]

Thanks Mike, I had the exact same problem and your video helped me fix it,

[@Windennn]

This is the only tutorial I could find on this issue that adressed cracked soldering on the daughterboard pins and it worked wonders for me! Great and well made video!

[@hakemon]

I'm glad it helped you. I was upset for the same issue, no one was addressing an actual fix, but people were selling repaired clusters on eBay, but still, where's the knowledge? So I figured I'd diagnose it, and fix it myself, then share it so people can fix it themselves.

[@BaggsOnTheGo]

@@hakemon what does cracked pins look like?

[@AgentCraftwork]

I have the same issue with my 1995 Caprice Classic, I'm about to try this and see if it works. Thanks!

[@karlgant8376]

My entire center display goes black during the fall and winter, and comes back pretty well in the spring, and works all through the summer. I'm in Phoenix. This all makes sense, now.

[@dbc105]

Thanks for this, my 96 has the same issue.

[@wojciechgowacki5778]

Well I guess I know what I will be doing this weekend.

[@jamaljamal6169]

Anybody know how to install the gear shift cord that comes with the dash cluster?

[@gustavosalazar6316]

Great video, very informative. Could you fix mine?

[@opgwolf7370]

I have a question about my 94 caprice classic 9C1 if you have time to answer it

[@buckaneer55]

Thanks for making the video. Very very helpful.

[@GhettoWagon]

Mine, the miles or the trip odo just scramble. I need a Z28 cluster. Maybe next time ill heat gun it maybe a solder joint is shitty on it. I built up the solder joints contacts a little on mine, didn't help with the scrambling

[@hakemon]

The scrambling definitely is coming from the VFD module itself. There's surface mount parts under the VFD itself on the board, and I think something around there is causing issues. A lot of forums and sites say it's just the springs but I don't see how that's possible, as the odometer comes strictly from those IC's on its own board, and not the main cluster board, so the springs have nothing to do with the scrambling display. A heat gun might be a decent fix, which I may try if I ever come across a spare VFD module.

[@GhettoWagon]

if I hit the dash it always clears up. Or once it warms up for 3 minutes it clears up, thats why I think its a bad contact somewhere

[@hakemon]

Under the VFD itself, is the IC responsible for counting the pulses to run the odometer. Today with everything apart, I could purposely flex that area of the board and on-demand, cause the odometer to clear up, and go corrupt again. I think what's happening is that because these IC's are placed under the VFD, both heat up and no heat can properly escape, so it builds up and causes cracked solder to expand and contract. I'm pondering a reflow of the VFD to see what effect it has.

[@GhettoWagon]

Dammit.. Now I have to take it all apart. So the IC is on that secondary board?

[@hakemon]

Yes, there's a couple IC's under the VFD module itself, I'm suspecting the scrambling problem has to do with one of those IC's as one of them has to do with the odometer. I was hoping the haynes manual had information on it but of course not. If you find a way to properly reflow the solder let me know, mine has that coating on it which made it impossible to reflow. I tried a heat gun and an iron/gun, nothing could properly reflow without causing damage.

[@kristofferpence]

Ok so when I tapped, it came back on. After I cleaned the contacts, now it doesn’t work at all lol. So strange

[@BGKO1992]

Can someone help ? Im about to buy a 94 caprice, but the peeper sound before turning on the ignition key is silent. Any ideas ? Somehow, feels good listening to that peeper 🤣

[@stephendevery4220]

check the chime box.

[@mikeanderson1994]

Wait what use "overdrive during high speed pursuit" !! So if i want to drive normal i should put it in D only not over drive ??

[@hakemon]

Overdrive allows the 4th gear, regular drive restricts you to 3 gears.

[@vitjuha96]

@@hakemon hey Mike, so the overdrive is better for highway? Driving on "drive" and i noticed, that the RPM-s feel too high. So, if the gearbox would be able to shift to 4th, it would consume less fuel? The guy who sold me Caprice, told me, that overdrive is like sports mode on this gearbox.

[@hakemon]

@@vitjuha96 At highway speeds you should be using overdrive, it will save on your gas.

[@vitjuha96]

@@hakemon thanks, Mike, also can you tell me, how can i release handbrake (foot pedal)?

[@hakemon]

@@vitjuha96 With the brake release handle right above it?

[@friedteto]

You know our speedometer works but it doesn't count speed lol.

[@tanis954]

I tried it but half of the things I don't know what you're talkin about I rubbed it with alcohol is still not working do another video and show us step-by-step

[@hakemon]

Since you clearly didn't watch the entire video, I am going to chose to not follow up. Sorry. lol