[W126 Coupe] Strange instrument cluster behavior

[Dick Spellman]

Whew.  Marcus.  That wire you pulled off of the lug on the clock module 
is 12 volts hot at all times.  The spark you describe would have been 
making contact with the cluster backing which is a ground path.  So 
that's a dead short brief as it may have been. 

I'd go over everything one more time and see that the connections are 
correct.  And be careful with that hot 12VDC lead.  You may have toasted 
the cluster, not sure.

Dick

Markus Meyer wrote:

> Hi guys,

>  

> I have a question about the instrument cluster.  I was taking the 

> cluster out to see about painting the needles.  When taking the wire 

> off the clock it sparked because as I pulled it off I guess it touched 

> to the pin again.  Anyhow, after putting it all back together, the 

> temperature/gas gauges were maxed out and the oil pressure was 

> minimized.  And the dash lights would go out when I started the car, 

> go back on when I shut the car off.

>  

> Now this is what gets weird.  I then installed a known good working 

> cluster from another car.  Everything worked fine.  So now I was 

> totally confused.  So I then swapped just the speedo pod from the 

> original cluster to the second cluster where everything worked.  

> Again, the strange behavior!  Put the second speedo pod back in the 

> second cluster, everything fine.

>  

> So....what happened?  Why would the speedo cluster cause the 

> temp/gas/oil pressure/vacuum cluster to act funny?  Is there a fuse I 

> blew somewhere I can't find/see.

>  

> And I can't just use this second cluster as is because one is for a 6 

> cylinder and the other is for an 8 cylinder and the speedos and tachs 

> are calibrated differently.  I just want to make sure I didn't mess 

> something else up somewhere I'm not aware of...

>  

> Thanks,

>

> Markus Meyer

> mfm at meyerprobateproperties.com <mailto:mfm at meyerprobateproperties.com>

> www.meyerprobateproperties.com <http://www.meyerprobateproperties.com/>

> Meyer Probate & Properties, LLC

> 484-919-9762

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