Pass on the intellitronix digital cluster!

[Markmartin01]

So over 4 days of wiring and work I have surmised that the intellitronix digital cluster for 88-91 as packaged does not work for 88-91. The speed wire requires a speed buffer box that didn't start until 92, the truck will not charge a battery as the original cluster charge light bulb is part of the circuitry to charge the battery, etc etc. It just doesn't work. I got my hands on the speed buffer box and wired it correctly but speedo still doesn't work. It's WAY too bright for night driving even with the 50% trigger tied to illumination. Just thought I'd save you guys some headache before you went down the road I did. Now to undo 4 days of harness hacking to get the original cluster back into working order so the truck is driveable again. Oh yeah, no turn signal indications either so the flashers go crazy. So much fail in one unit....

 

[DerekTheGreat]

Wow, that blows. Sorry to hear about your experience but thanks for the post, might help others who were considering the swap.

 

[Dropped88]

That sucks

So are you getting a refund or are you gonna sell it

 

[Markmartin01]

Sell it. My oldest bought it nearly a year ago and it just sit on the shelf until we got to it this weekend. It's for sale locally now with VSS buffer that I recalibrated for 3.73 and 33's. The thing is so far from compatible other than it fit in the original 88-91 cluster housing nicely.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

no turn signal indications either so the flashers go crazy. So much fail in one unit....

That's a shame! My Dakota Digital dash keeps the turn signal indicators and SES light, keeps the back of the cluster so the VSS signal still goes to the converter there. Then you calibrate the dash speedometer with the DD dash. Was yours supposed to keep the back of the cluster too?

 

[Markmartin01]

for 88-91, originally the VSS was converted by the cluster itself so without the speedo plugged into the circuit, it's completely useless open circuit. Maybe if I did some PCB stipping and some solder work and enough trial and error I "might" have been able to make it work. In the end, I just rewired the harness that I cut up to make the digital cluster work, plugged the old cluster back in, and everything went back to normal. If the truck were 92+ and originally equipped with the DRAC/VSS buffer I might have had better luck making it work.

 

[someotherguy]

I might be reading their website wrong, but they do mention some caveats for 88-91 on the speedometer input, based on how the truck is equipped.

It's good to know there are things to look out for though, keep someone else from making an expensive mistake on aftermarket cluster choice..

Richard

 

[Markmartin01]

I did see the note @someotherguy , but that's a note about LS use. There are also no turn signals as it states, doesn't specify anything on speedo issues, doesn't mention that the alternator regulator is excited by the "charge" bulb in the original cluster, and so on. There is also apparently a VERY small number of people that have tried this dash in this version of GMT400 because there is so little on the interwebs...basically nothing I could find on using this specific cluster. Had to look back over some 15 year old forums to find wiring diagrams and circuit designs to get it to kinda work. Just a terrible product, period.