A couple of years ago I shared my "digital thunderbird cluster into my 93 F350 crewcab" project. I couldn't find the thread so those of you who don't remember this, well, can ponder what it looked like.

In a nutshell, I took the "guts" of a late 80s thunderbird cluster out of the original shell, and grafted them onto an aluminum plate which as a unit, I installed in place of my F350's boring analog cluster. I drove the truck around like this for about a year, however over time the lack of protection around the thunderbird cluster guts resulted in cracked LCD displays, and I was forced to remove that and reinstall the factory cluster.

A couple of weekends ago I was wandering through the local junkyard and spied a 1995 Windstar. I checked it out because I wanted the electric rear vent window mechanisms which were already gone unfortunately. As always I glance around any junk vehicle I look in for anything else "interesting" and discovered that the cluster was digital.

I remembered that the 95 Windstar cluster, while digital in presentation, was one of the last digital clusters that accept analog inputs, whereas most of the newer clusters (analog or digital) ride the network (CAN in Ford's case) and convert binary serial data to display instead.

So, I yanked it. Since I was there with my cousin who I just did a huge car favor for he offered to buy it for me which I didn't mind since I'm still unemployed.

Nothing beats a free toy.

After a couple of nights of comparing wiring diagrams of my 93 F350 and the 95 Windstar, I found that there were enough similarities that I could make this work fairly well without having to do that much digital trickery. More on this later.

I created a large, handwritten chart listing the F350 cluster wires, color codes and function and a value repsenting what the wire transmits. Some offer a resistance, some a voltage, some are grounded to illuminate an idiot light, and so on. Then I put on the same chart the 95 windstar wires, color codes, and what the wire transmits.

Cool, now I have a basic guide to slap the cluster into the truck. Time to make room for the cluster.

The first step is to remove the factory cluster, starting with the black plastic surround:
http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-01.JPG

The next step was basic placement of the Windstar cluster, to see how much wiggle room there is and so on. As luck would have it, the mounting ears line up with the F350's cluster mounts PERFECTLY. The Windstar cluster sits slightly deeper in the dash with a 5 degree backwards tilt (top back further) but other than that it's a mechanical bolt-in. I was expecting to have to hack and glue mounting ears after cutting off the originals so that was a nice surprise.

http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-02.JPG

The next step (for me at least) was to remove the thunderbird cluster wiring and connectors I added a few years ago, as they were unnecessary and in the way. The two white connectors, once in the center of the pic and one towards the right (and connected with a clump of red wires) were the removed items.

http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-03.JPG

After some soldering late at night with a flashlight in my mouth for visibility, I decided to power things up and see if the cluster at least lit up. No sense in soldering the rest of the wires if the darn thing doesn't work at all. Never know with junkyard items. But it lit up and looked quite purty. Sorry the picture is blurry, unfortunately I was leaning to the side traying to take the picture around the steering wheel.

http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-04.JPG

At this point I've completed most of the wiring and I was playing with the dashboard brightness control, to see if the cluster's brightness would follow the headlight ****'s movement. Sometimes things like this have to be electronically insulated or inverted, but not in this case. Another pleasant surprise, making the project that much easier.

http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-05.JPG

Here's another picture with the cluster at full brightness:

http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-06.JPG

More wiring was necessary to implement the side-mounted control that selects things on the digital cluster. This includes "select", "English/Metric" and "Reset". The lighted switches came off the windstar of course and will be a PITA to mount on my F350's surround but I wanted the wiring down while I had the whole thing apart. Once I verified that the cluster and the control switches worked appropriately, I wrapped all these wires in cloth-based electrical tape for durability and to give somewhat of an intentional appearance.

http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-07.JPG

Now we're getting to the fun stuff! Here's the F350's cluster/column surround and the Windstar switch. The mounting tabs of the switch are at 45 degree angles, towards and away from the face of the switch, and of course there's no obvious place to attach these mounting ears to since the windstar switch wasn't part of the F350 design

http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-08.JPG

But where there is a will ther eis a way. Using some scrap lexan I had lying around I made a shaped plastic support and screwed it to the 4x4 switch mounting posts and carefully cut out the necessary, oddly shaped hole to press the switch against the rectangular hole I cut into the F350's surround. The reason why I put the switch all the way to the left is I have a dimmable vacuum flourescent dot-matrix display that I pulled out of my tool chest and it will fit next to it perfectly, and will mount on the lexan as well with standoffs, facing the occupants of the vehicle. This display can be used for many things - display of mp3 songs, a compass, air suspension pressure readings, boost pressure readings, and so on. It requires standard RS232 serial data so sending it information is easy. Anyway that's a future project, but I wanted to make sure that display fit before I commited myself to locating the cluster switches where I did.

http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-09.JPG

Here is the partially assembled Windstar cluster mounted in the dashboard, wired correctly and fully functional, and my test fitting the F350 surround to make there is no interference. There was, so I had to reshape the plastic on the back of the F350 surround as well as the face of the windstar cluster. I tried where possible to shape the cluster more than the F350 surround, so I could put things back to stock if there was a need to do so.

http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-10.JPG

Okay, with everything in place, snapped and screwed down, I turned the key to "run" and lit the cluster up without the engine running. As expected, the cluster illuminated nicely, the air bag light blinked twice and turned off as it did with the factory F350 cluster, the battery indicator illuminated and the check engine indicator illuminated, both remaining lit as the engine wasn't running.

http://frederic.woodbridgedata.com/p...cluster-11.JPG

There are some things that do not work or work property at the moment, and they are as follows:

1. The mpg and mileage remaining displays do not display anything useful, because I have not inserted the windstar's fuel monitoring sensor into my fuel line nor have I wired up the tiny transmission controller box that this fuel consumption sensor sends information to. I have both, just haven't reverse engineered them enough yet to shove them in. The trip odometer works perfectly.

2. The tachometer is off by 3/4, because the Windstar has a V6, and my truck has a V8. So my F350 cluster harness is providing the Winstar cluster with one extra pulse per rotation than it's expecting. I haven't decided if it's worth my effort to fix this because I generally shift much lower than the tach's display limit anyway (6000 rpm, which would be 4500 actual RPMs on my F350). I usually shift way below 2000 rpm unless I'm towing something heavy, or towing anything up a steep hill. Even with aggressive shifting I haven't pegged the tach yet. I may change my mind later, and have already worked out a simple digital circuit to do the conversion. It's a "can I be bothered" thing.

Overall I am very pleased with the outcome, much moreso than the original attempt using a late 80's digital thunderbird cluster. Vacuum flourescent displays are much nicer, cleaner looking than LCD displays, I think anyway.

I did have to create one "inverter" out of a NPN transistor and two resistors, so that the cluster can signal the door/seatbelt chime that something is amiss. If the oil pressure or the temp gauge pegs, or the cluster simply malfunctions, it will cause the door/seatbelt buzzer thingy to beep wildly. I tested this by "floating" the oil level input as well as the temp sender input to see what would happen. BUZZZZZZ!

There are some other indicators I haven't wired up yet simply because my F350 doesn't provide them. One being "door ajar". I have to make an inverter for that as well and there's room on the perfboard I put the other inverter for it. One of these evenings I'll get to it.

I also had to use the aerostar PSOM module I used with the thunderbird cluster in the original project. This ensures that my much larger tires as compared to the windstar, allows the cluster to display the correct speed.

 

All I can say is WOW...job WELL done.

 

you really really need to get a paying job. you are having WAY to much fun.

 

Great write-up! All I can say is I think it looks great! I'll never part with my old-school stock gauges but I can't say that isn't very intuitive. Good job.

 

You're right Tom. I need a job NOW. Not next month, NOW.

Thanks for the feedback guys, always appreciated.

I used to be a huge fan of analog gauges until I bought a new 93 Lincoln Continental and from that point I've been hooked. I find that I can read the entire cluster with the lower part of my peripheral vision that much easier, probably because vacuum flourescent displays are notably brighter than black gauges with tiny white lettering and poorly lit red needles

My Lincoln has it, my Crown Vic has it, and now my truck has it. Maybe my lawnmower needs it

 

Awesome writeup, awesome job, and beautiful cluster. I wish I was daring enough to try it but I know I'd screw it up horribly

 

If one can read vehicle wiring diagrams, solder, and shape plastic with a tool of their choice it's about a 3-4 hour project start to finish. Making the cross reference chart required the most thought and the rest of it is merely following that chart like a monkey, making the appropriate connections.

It's really wasn't that difficult, at least with this combination.

 

I don't see how digital is much of an upgrade.

Besides that, I kinda like the analog because it gives the oldschool feel.

But, nice job and nice documentation though.

 

How about becoming an author?

A book titled "Fun Ford F-Series Projects". A compilation of all your varied & creative jobs for our favorite type of truck. A real life trouble-shooting guide could be Vol II.

You've got the tech & tech writing skills down cold, make some cash with it! I'll buy one.

Kinkos or some other same type of buisness can get you started.

 

that looks sick. i definitely like how you did it and how well documented it was. great job! just wish i had the confidence to do it on my truck but its a daily driver/work truck right now till i get my monte carlo a new radiator :/

 

Doing it to a daily driver is fun actually. Because if you don't finish it in time, you stick a resistor across the two alternator wires so the alternator charges the battery and you drive away!

 

Nice work! Sometimes I wish I was unemployed...

 

I will second the Write it up and sell it suggestion - Particularly HOW you did the chart to put things in the correct place -

Nice Job of writing too -

sell it for $5 as a pdf on ebay - or here ( new here - rules )

That mental map ( how to figure it out ) is the gift - many a shop teacher would
love to have that info to teach the kids.

Richard

 

i always enjoy to see the work of people that think outside the box good job

 

I do like the look! If I brought you my '92 F-150, did you have enough fun to do it again?