Transmission gear indicator not visible

[Rickoff]

18 hours ago, KevinRC said:

Oh so now 20 minutes.

Kevin - you'll notice that in my post of Wednesday October 26th I said, "about 15 minutes."  I can't say precisely how long it took to do the actual work, but I can say that, out of curiosity, I did zero and start my wristwatch's stopwatch feature at the moment when I went to my toolbox to grab my soldering gun, solder, and other tools that I knew I would need, and then stopped it after completing the job and putting my tools away.  It read just shy of 20 minutes, and that's why I concluded that the actual work took about 15 minutes, but definitely no more than 20.  It's all in how you look at the job, Kevin.  If one is only interested in how long it takes to remove, disassemble, repair, reassemble, and reinsert the cluster, then it took me about 15 minutes or so.  If you want to include the time to prepare by getting tools ready, and put them away afterwards, then the total time for the job would be closer to 20 minutes.  I suppose one could also add the time it would take to watch the two YouTube videos  which I suggested earlier, the first one being 2:39 and the second being 8:29, and perhaps also add in the time it would take to have booted up the computer, gone online and into YouTube, and then shut the computer down afterwards.  With everything figured in, it would come to maybe 30 to 35 minutes.  I don't know how you gauged the time it took to remove and replace your cluster, as you didn't explain that.  Of course, if you were figuring total time, you would also have to include phoning parts stores or doing an online search to find the cluster and either order it or drive somewhere to pick it up. 

 

No matter how you figured your time involved, I'd say that 30 minutes is quite reasonably efficient for the task at hand, especially if you never had to do a similar job before.  I just think it is too bad that you spent $170 for a new cluster when you still had to remove and replace the unit, which is where most of the repair time is involved.  Disassembling the cluster once it has been removed, reflowing the solder on the 7 resistors, and reassembling the unit, was actually quite easy and took just a few minutes.  One thing to watch out for, for folks wanting to do the reflow trick, and which is not stated in the videos, is that you should take a small screwdriver, or other small tool, and use it to press down each resistor to hold it in place while you are reflowing its solder joints.  Otherwise, when you lift your soldering iron away after melting the solder, the resistor will tend to move a bit and no longer be aligned properly.  Another thing to be careful with is in removing the gauge indicators.  If you grab and pull on them with your fingers or needle-nose pliers, or try to pry them off with a screwdriver, you are likely to break one or more.  I cannot remember now exactly what tool I used, but I believe it was one which had a v-notch so that the tool could be inserted below the indicator and brought up to touch the shaft which the indictor is mounted on.  Gently lifting straight up allowed the indicators to be removed easily and safely.  I may well have used my mini pry bar, which is similar to this one:  https://www.amazon.com/Vaughan-460-04-222-Mini-Bar-2-Inch/dp/B00G0ORV6Q/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2PKUFOOAKMAXB&keywords=Bon+Vaughan+460-04+Mini-Bar%2C+5+1%2F2-Inch+(37-742)&qid=1667069718&sprefix=bon+vaughan+460-04+mini-bar%2C+5+1%2F2-inch+37-742+%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-1

[KevinRC]

No worries, I was just hesitant to once the cluster was out and the further disassembly was what made me me pause.The videos that I watched, while very good, made me feel  a tad leery about taking it apart just to get to the re-flow aspect.  Other than that, I was ready to try it. But like I said, I bailed.

 

I might had tried it had I not had so many other issues to address.

 

Thank you.

 

[richard wysong]

Kevin did you have to have the replacement programmed or did it come pre programmed ?

[KevinRC]

I order it from carparts.com and gave them the mileage and then the manufacturer "Cardone" pre-programmed it.

 

Funny thing though, I had told the person at carparts.com that the mileage was 208,130 and it came programmed as 200,813. Oh well,, I gained (or lost) almost 8K.....