Analog to Digital Dash Conversion

[Dan Roberts]

I recently acquired a factory digital dash for my 87 GN. It was not from a turbo car and it is a column shift cluster. I currently have an analog cluster. Does the digital dash have the circuitry for the Turbo lights, but not hooked up? Can this be used on a floor shift model? How hard is the conversion? Thanks!!

 

[TurboDave]

I recently acquired a factory digital dash for my 87 GN. It was not from a turbo car and it is a column shift cluster. I currently have an analog cluster. Does the digital dash have the circuitry for the Turbo lights, but not hooked up? Can this be used on a floor shift model? How hard is the conversion? Thanks!!

This is not something you want to tackle!! Besides the extra wiring and connector the digital dash has, the digital dash car's fuel sender is a different resistance rating, and you'd need to acquire the digital dash hobbs switch to run the boost lights.
You'd have been better off asking your questions, before spending the money on the dash.

 

[pacecarta]

ive done the conversion the other way (digital to analog )

the engine harness is same and has plug for hobbs switch, youll need the hobbs switch for the turbo lights to work
dash harness is different (note theres also different harness when optioned with security )
you could rewire dash harness for digital , the digital has a similar main push over plug to the analog dash but its pinned differently .. if you reference the plug pinouts in service manual you should be able to figure it out .
youll also need the second connector for the digital cluster , the digital has a unique edge board plug to the cluster that has fuel level on it as well as some power feeds for the lighting and dimming which will take some extra wiring to do

you can save yourself a lot of headach and research if you get a dash harness for a digital dash .
pull the dash, swap out the harness , reinstall dash install your digital dash cluster (hope it works as they can be problematic) , and then install the hobbs under the hood where your map sensor was and the analog fuel sender (90ohm full) will need to be swapped to a 120ohm full sender otherwise your digital cluster will only read 3/4 tank when full (around 12 gallons) .. empty will still be empty (0 ohms) so no worry about not knowing when its low

be aware that when removing an analog dash the analog tach /boost module provided power and ground for the MAP sensor . if you have alkycontrol (razor) alky injection or anything that needs the map sensor for engine operation (sd chip,maf pro, me-r, dfi, fast, xfi) you'll need to make sure the 3bar map sensor has 5vpower and ground because with the new dash harness the map connector will no longer have 5v power or ground , will not have a problem if you use the new alkycontrol map jumper harness which gets 5vpower and ground from the tps sensor connector.

 

[Dan Roberts]

Sounds like it will not be worth it. Might just turn around and resell it to get my money back. It was pretty cheap ($78.00 + shipping)

 

[Dennis Kirban]

kirban 2 cents worth even not considering the effort involved the digital dash lacks several features the analog dash has....actually looks barren and can be problematic.....

denniskirban@yahoo.com

be almost as bad as deciding to cut off a solid roof and installing T-Tops..........

or, I remember seeing a sports car that had a removeable hardtop and they had cut a pop up sunroof in the hardtop.......

 

[ttribejr]

Man, I have the digital dash and wish I had the analog dash. I researched it a bit and could not find a dash harness for my car. Supposedly you have to make sure all the options are the same. My GN has the twilight sentinel, etc.

If you feel like spending some money, HERE is a cool option from GNS. I have XFI and use the E-dash for all my gauges. My interior still looks bone stock.