Regal Dash

[dsgrntld187]

Hey guys, I found an 89 Regal for sale (actually I've known it was for sale for a while, but I never showed much interest) that has the digital dash. Problem with the car is the fuel gauge and odometer don't work on the dash. Can these be fixed or do I need a new one, and is it possible to put a UB3 from a Cutlass in em? I don't want to not know how much gas is in my car..

Thanks,

-Spencer

[GP1138]

Hey guys, I found an 89 Regal for sale (actually I've known it was for sale for a while, but I never showed much interest) that has the digital dash. Problem with the car is the fuel gauge and odometer don't work on the dash. Can these be fixed or do I need a new one, and is it possible to put a UB3 from a Cutlass in em? I don't want to not know how much gas is in my car..

Thanks,

-Spencer

 

We'd have to know if the fuel gauge works, or if it's a fault with the cluster itself. I'm not sure I could diagnose it without knowing that.

[JoroCorona]

Sounds like its got a bad ground on the curcuit board. If a whole section isn't working.

[dsgrntld187]

The fuel gauge is intermittent, most of the time it doesn't work but occasionally it does.

[cutlsp]

that would be the ground to the fuel gauge :?

[DiscoStudd]

IIRC, the odometer problem stems from a broken "axle" inside the cluster. On those older Regal clusters, the stepper motor doesn't drive the odometer directly, but instead there's a plastic axle that runs from the stepper motor to the odometer. I've been told that it is very common for the plastic axle to break, rendering the odometer inoperative.

[dsgrntld187]

Even if its a digital cluster?

[DiscoStudd]

Well I'm speaking of the base Regal cluster with the 2 HUGE digits for the speedo readout. Those clusters used a "wheel" style odometer (analog sounds better, but that wouldn't be correct because all odometers are "digital," just not all are LED/LCD )

 

If it's the "UB3" style with full instrumentation, then what I said earlier doesn't apply.

[dsgrntld187]

I'll check tomorrow. It's been sitting behind the shop for a while now. It's in GREAT shape though, a great winter car for sure.

[Baddflash]

When you say they don't work, are they lighting up w/ no reading or not lighting at all? If they aren't lighting up then I would say the cluster is at fault, it most likely needs re-sodereding of the IC chip or another circuit.

 

Only problem with swapping it out is the speedometer being off, I don't know if anyone has figured out how to reset/adjust digital display odometers.

 

Sure a cutty dash would work but it'd be a lot of work when you already have a digidash. Although the cutty dash looks way cooler IMO.

[Lee]

I don't know about that. I think the Regal dash rules! Even better if Blue.

[dsgrntld187]

Okay, I looked at it better today. It's the Base cluster with the big numbers and the analog odometer. Fuel gauge lights up sometimes, but most of the time it just shows full. Is it possible to go to the Regal UB3? Is it even possible to find one? I like the look of that UB3 so much better than the Cutlass UB3 myself. Otherwise, how would I go about fixing this? New cluster?

[Baddflash]

Yes you can swap in the Regal UB3 but it will require re-wiring and possibly running some new wires ie ALDL.