I've never had an operational low fuel indication light, or at least have never seen it come on. I have done many tests,
tested, when having emptied the fuel tank whilst replacing my fuel pick up hose
removed the sender, taken it to bits, cleaned it, reassembled and then tested whilst out of the tank.
bridged the green/yellow and black wires in the loom side connector.
Nothing triggered the light to come on, so, to me this indicated that it was a faulty bulb.
I decided a few weeks back that I should upgrade the instrument cluster to LEDs and in doing so replace the supposedly faulty low fuel bulb to get it working (fuel sender performance permitting).
I purchased the LED upgrade kit from Deloreango.com, and had already upgraded the A/C panel bulbs, see posts,
The instrument cluster would have to wait until after the DeLorean Revival trip at the start of June.
Following my return I set about this job. This post covers
Binnacle Removal and Removal of the Brackets and the Cluster from the Casing
First of all there are some A/C related parts to remove in preparation for removing the binnacle.
Door Ducting
To remove this there are two screws to undo in order to remove the retaining bracket, or as I did, due to access issues, I removed the on nearest the front of the car and slid the ducting out.
With these parts removed I was now ready to undo, what should be, six nuts holding the binnacle in place. Various methods have been mooted online about how to reach these nuts on the underside of the dashboard, but for me, without much space in the garage, and no lift, I opted for pushing the drivers' seat all the way back, reclined the seat back as far as it would go, adjust the steering wheel as high up as it could go, then with shoes off, sit in the drivers seat, swivel in a clockwise direction, moving legs over the centre console, around, over the passenger seat head-rest, manoeuvring my back down on the the drivers' seat and shoulders and head under the steering wheel so that I would virtually be wedged between the steering wheel and the front of the seat with head in the foot-well, face looking up able to see the underside of the dash ready to work. Now if you're out of breath reading that long sentence, imaging how out of breath I was manoeuvring like this one or twice... A demonstration with yours truly can be seen below.
Needless to say, it's a good idea to identify the tools you'll need in advance and place them in a reachable location in the footwell.
There are four bolts and nuts out to the sides of the binnacle position and look similar to the following.
On the side nearest the centre console I however had one missing as I would later find out that the bolt from the binnacle had sheered off..
There are two further bolts/nuts affixed to a bracket immediately either side of the steering column. It was difficult to get a photo of these before removal however the photo below shows all the bolts from their brackets.
The green circled bolts are the easier ones to reach out to the sides of the binnacle position, the red circled area is where one should be but had sheered off. The amber circled bolts are the ones located tight, either side of the steering column.
Before removing the binnacle the speedometer cable needs detaching from lower in the footwell.
The yellow box in the footwell between the pedals and the hood release handle has the speedometer cable coming in to it from the angle drive, and out from the top it travels to the speedometer in the instrument cluster. the upper cable needs unscrewing and removing. As I did this I had a drip of oil/grease, however there's no need to worry about that.
With the speedo cable now unscrewed I needed to partially free the binnacle from the dashboard frame so I could get my hand behind to disconnect the white and the black connectors. The released white connector can be seen in the photo below.
Once I had released the connectors I was able to gently agitate the binnacle until it fully lifted and released from the dashboard frame, being careful of the trailing speedo cable. I set the binnacle down on my work area.
Identification of the Low Fuel Light Problem
With the binnacle removed and at the work station I set about getting the instrument cluster out. I turned the binnacle over to expose the back of the instrument cluster and the printed circuit and the various bulb holders when I found this,
No wonder I was unable to activate the low fuel indicator, there's no bulb, not even a bulb holder! Since receiving the car in December 2016 following restoration this has been the reason.
Bulb Replacement and Testing
I laid out the new LED's in their respective positions relative to the instrument cluster, but before I would be able to fit them had to unscrew the support brackets and release the cluster from the binnacle.
With the binnacle removed I could now start replacing the bulbs.
Whilst I waited for a new bulb holder to arrive from deloreango.com I set about replacing all other bulbs. Following a discussion on the clubs Telegram group I questioned if it was correct that the LEDs had to be inserted in the correct position relative to its' polarity for the printed circuit. It was, and since videos I had seen discussed what a pain it can be to figure this out, I asked if there was a way to determine this first, before plugging the cluster back in to the connectors at the dashboard. Well, there is a test that can be done. Firstly by looking at the printed circuit it can be identified that one side of each bulb holder goes to just one strand of contact that flows back to the connector port. The other side goes to another strand that can link to multiple bulb holders. The multiple side is the Positive and links back to just one connector terminal, whilst the single strand side is the Negative and links back to its own connector terminal. Therefore when inserting the bulbs in to the holders and locking them it is necessary to have the positive side of the holder making contact with the positive part of the circuit.
The issues I've seen others have via their YouTube videos is knowing which side of the bulb is the positive and which is negative. There are devices that can help you check this. In my case my multimeter has a setting that can assist.
In the photo below the multimeter is set as shown. Knowing that the red wire/prong is positive and the black is negative/neutral, you can touch the prongs on either contact of the bulb to see if the bulb lights up. If not then swap the prongs or turn the bulb around and try on the opposite connectors.
The photo below is a mock up, since I hadn't captured the photos before re-attaching my binnacle to the car. This is using a bulb that happens to be faulty so it won't show it lighting up. It should also be said that my multimeter will put less than 12v so the LED will only dimly illuminate it.
Once you managed to illuminate the bulb, the side being touched by the red prong is the positive connector of the bulb, note this and insert it into the bulb holder, still noting which is the positive side. An alternative is to perform this test with the bulb already inserted into the bulb holder and touching the multimeters' prongs against the holders' contacts.
When inserting the bulb and holder into the instrument cluster line up the positive side with the positive part of the circuit and vice versa and lock the holder into place. This will ensure when fitting the instrument cluster you will only have to do this the once (unless there is another issue!!! - read on).
When the replacement bulb holder arrived I inserted the bulb and locked it into the hole ensuring it was positioned against the correct polarity.
Lens Removal
The next two jobs required me to remove the lens. This is a simple enough job. First the end of the trip reset shaft needed to be removed.
In the end of the shaft is a tiny screw that required a jewellers screwdriver or similar fine screwdriver to remove it.
With the screw removed the trip reset shaft knob, and the shaft spacer will slide off. With these parts put in a safe place I was then able to proceed with unscrewing the lens.
With all the screws removed the lens can be removed.
The original lens was not in a bad condition but two things always bugged me. One was the slight mistiness of the lens and the other were two stress or scratch marks that are hard to see in the picture but that exist just left of the trip reset shaft. Later in the blog I show how I replaced this lens with a clear, shiny new one.
Vault and Temp Gauge Decal Replacement
There had been a previous attempt to repair or freshen up the scale on the volt gauge. It has always bugged me and I've always wanted to correct it. This was the perfect opportunity.
Also I have always found the "260" on the scale of the Temp gauge has always appeared somewhat blurred. Naturally these are minor points to some but it niggled me. Fortunately, from DeLoreanGo.com the sell the instrument cluster decals and the volt gauge decal also comes with one for the Temp gauge.
In order to replace the decals it is first necessary to remove the needles. By grabbing the black disc that the needles are attached to at the spindle that inserts into the gauge, the needles simply pull off. However, as with mine, it can happen that they are extremely tough to get off. Much agitation was required but eventually both were removed. It is important to note the positions of the needles so you can ensure that they are re-fitted to exactly the same position.
I couldn't get any purchase on the decals already on the gauges so I decided to simply apply them on top of the existing. A side by side comparison of before and after is shown below.
I had put the needles back on, the Volt needle seemed spot on, however the Temp needle appears slightly off. I wasn't sure if that would affect anything. We would only tell once everything was all back together and I would go for a ride.
New Lens installation
With the decals on, next came time to replace the lens. The new lens can nicely covered in protective film.
And following removal of the film...
This was extremely simply to put on, just by srcrewing in the six screws that came out when removing the older lens.
With the new lens in place I next needed to re-attach the trip reset shaft components.
Re-installation of Binnacle and Testing
Before re-installing the binnacle and seeing if the fruits of my labour had paid off I did some cleaning. I firstly applied leather cleaner and protector to the binnacle,
Next I cleaned the frame on the dashboard where the binnacle is attached.
Now ready I set about re-attaching the binnacle. These steps are not photographically recorded since they are essentially the reverse of the removal process and requires the same contortions to join everything, including the A/C ducting back together.
Once I had it connected the white and black connectors, before screwing the binnacle back to the frame and reconnecting the A/C ducting, there was a lesson I learnt. I firstly tested the lights and noted that my Hand Brake indication light did not come on. I checked the handbrake, turned the ignition off and on a couple of times then decided I would have to remove the binnacle and check. I did this and found that whilst fumbling to with just my sense of touch, under the binnacle to plug in the white connector I had inadvertently "scrunched" the printed circuits connection tab going to the hand brake light pin. My printed circuit was not in the best state, and when I next have cause to delve into the instrument cluster I think I might as well replace it. I straightened it out and reconnected. Re-tested showed the handbrake light now working and were all the others (with the exception of the Lambda and Battery light and because I don't know a short cut to testing at least the Battery light I left it since my multimeter test had proven the bulb in the circuit to be working).
More importantly I retested the bridging of the fuel sender loom-side connector which resulted in successfully illuminating the low fuel indicator light.
I then continued to put everything back together and take the car out for a short drive.
During the drive one of the first things I noted, and knowing I had low fuel following my 210 mile drive back from Cheshire Oaks after the DeLorean Revival trip, the low fuel light came on as I accelerated away up a slight incline. It continued to flicker on and off each time I accelerated up hill which was the first time ever I had witnessed this and signalled to me the sender is also functioning in this regard, how accurately I don't know, but it at least registers this function.
What I did notice was that my volt gauge was registering a little high. I think this could be to do with my re-connecting of the needle on the gauge. Also the temp gauge appeared not to be registering. I don't know if again it has to do with not connecting the needle exactly, whether I've broken the needle connection or if the car was simply cold. I'll check the temp specifically when I go for a longer drive next week. As for the volt gauge needle I'll adjust it when I next have cause to remove the binnacle, instrument cluster and lens... and in the meantime make a note to myself that the reading probably should be a notch lower that its' reading.
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