Digital Dash Swap?

[NICE59FORDF100]

Someone say they needed an 89 cougar electronic dash pinout?

 

[arco777]

Awesome, should work for the 92 dash as well. Could you post a higher resolution version? Kinda hard to read the one above. Thanks

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Oh, i forgot yours is a 92 : well, heres the pinout for your 92 cluster specifically. Sorry for confusion!

View attachment 218518

View attachment 218519

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Hmmm, I just looked at that and I am curious what the DCL + and - are for?

 

[arco777]

Thanks a bunch, that'll help a lot.

From what I've read the DCL is closely related to the check engine light/malfunction indicator lamp. Those connections may operate the CEL built into the Cougar gauges but I'll be retaining the Explorer's stock CEL and wiring for it so I probably won't use it.

The quote below is from HardwareCentral Forums.

I am an (ex) Ford engineer in diagnostics. The Ford DCL vehicles universally supported diagnostic functions on the original "under hood" connector affectionately called "the doghouse connector" by engineers inside of ford because of its dog house shape. The single wire connector was called "the pigtail" and was not part of the main connector, but was usually physically located very near the doghouse connector. All DCL vehicles supported "blink codes". If all you want is to get the codes from your vehicle, all you need to do is to connect a wire to the pigtail connector to the ground (any good one on the vehicle will do) of the vehicle. After doing this, the vehicle will "blink" the engine light to you. Your vehicle supports 3 digit codes. You should see the light blink a digit quickly separated by a pause, then another blink set, then a pause, then a last digit of fast blinks. This is called the KOEO (Key On, Engine Off) test. After this set of codes, the "Continuous" or stored codes. You should be able to find a list of code descriptions on the web. If not, let me know and I should be able to dredge up a list for you. Then there is data reading. This is much much more complicated. On the doghouse connector there are a pair of pins called DCL+ and DCL-. As you have suggested in your previous post, these are UART based communication lines. In specific, an RS422/485 transceiver works just fine.That is most surely the simple part. I have worked with practically every vehicle protocol for vehicle communications. DCL is the most silly, mixed up one I have ever seen. (post continues with raw data format info)

 

[X6StringerX]

All of these old school digital clusters are taking me back, lol. One of my first vehicles was an '89 Oldsmobile Toronado Trofeo with a touchscreen and nav... the nav was basically a compass. In order to configure it, you had to drive around in a complete circle.

I also remember the late 80's Thunderbirds. My grandparents had two of them, both with digital clusters.

 

[geoph1986]

Someone say they needed an 89 cougar electronic dash pinout?

I needed the '89 Cougar wiring diagram. Could you post a clearer copy of those? Also, I have a pinout diagram for the '89 cluster, but it doesn't have the operating range listed, and the function description isn't as clear as the one you posted for the '92 cluster. Could you post an '89 cluster pinout (that's like the '92 one) also? If you can't, could you e-mail them to me? Let me know and I'll send you a PM with my e-mail address. Thanks in advance.

I had no idea that this thread would become so active, this is great. And all the input from everyone has been awesome. I love forums for the fact that ideas, info, and troubleshooting are greatly shared. Before the internet, people who wanted to figure this stuff out on their own had to spend hours upon hours on their own, hovering over their projects like a mad scientist. My nieces and nephews still don't realize that the internet is a great place to find information, they think that's it's pretty much for social network groups, and they've had the internet all their lives. I don't even think they've ever been to a public library to borrow a book.
Kids these days...pull up your pants!

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

geoph when i get home tonight i will send you as much info as i can. Problem is that alldata doesnt keep as much info in way of diagrams like the true ford service manual does. Like above, the chart for the 92 is not even available to look at for the 89. Typically, the newer the car, the more info provided to alldata. But like i said, when i get tonight ill look and see what else i can find
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[geoph1986]

geoph when i get home tonight i will send you as much info as i can.

Thanks. From what I can tell, from the limited amount of info I have, is that the '89 and '92 pinouts are slightly different.

 

[arco777]

Question - for the 4 buttons to control the functions, I don't see them listed on the 92 wiring diagram provided. :shifty_ey Where do those 4 wires go? Also what is the EIC switch (pin 3)?

 

[geoph1986]

Question - for the 4 buttons to control the functions, I don't see them listed on the 92 wiring diagram provided. :shifty_ey Where do those 4 wires go? Also what is the EIC switch (pin 3)?

EIC = Electronic Instrument Cluster

On my cluster the plug with the 4 buttons is wired into the 20 pin connector.
There are 4 wires total:
orange w/ gold dots
light blue w/ red stripe & gold dots
black w/gold dots
black w/ white stripe & gold dots

Hope this helps you. BTW have you done anything with your cluster yet?

 

[arco777]

I did originally notice matching color wires on the 20 pin connector, thought those were the ones to use until I saw the wiring pinout. They don't seem to match up to the descriptions on the pinout which throws me off, but if that's where they go I'm cool with it.

I have been messing with the Cougar cluster a little, taking it apart and brainstorming, but that's about all. I just got back from the PickNPull with an Explorer cluster to hack up. I'd like to use the white plastic shell of the Explorer cluster to hold all the Cougar stuff, so it would be an easy install. I'm just starting to tear the Explorer cluster apart now.

I made sure to get a 94 cluster so it has the 100,000 mile odometer. This donor cluster is as much for me to learn about the X cluster's workings and have spare parts for mods as it is for the shell parts. On top of the cluster there's an orange sticker that says "MILLION MILE ODOMETER - NEW YORK STATE ONLY". Interesting, wonder if my Explorer's cluster has that too or if it's uncommon.

EDIT: My wire colors for the buttons are different but maybe that's a year thing - Orange, Black/blue, Blue/red, and Gray/red.

 

[arco777]

I tore down the Explorer cluster. Extracting all the clips from the flexible circuit wasn't fun. Should be able to cut it up a little and install the Merc stuff without too much trouble. I can re-use all the Explorer lights on the bottom row, leaving only the hi-beam, seatbelt and park brake indicators necessary for the Merc dash. I can live without those if need be but I think they can be wired in easily enough.

Fortunately the Merc dash follows the same curve as the Explorer and width isn't an issue - this may be very easy. Even if I just mounted the Merc stuff in the center of the X's shell, I could easily cut a piece of lexan to fit the perimeter and paint it black. If I can get the hobby shop here to order me some sheets of lexan that will make this task a lot easier, I love working with that stuff.

 

[arco777]

I'd like to cut the LCD panels a little if possible, it would make for a cleaner install. How do I do this? I'd prefer to make a curved cut but I can do a straight one too. I was wondering if I could score a line and break a chunk off, or if it'd be better to file it down.

 

[geoph1986]

I'd like to cut the LCD panels a little if possible, it would make for a cleaner install. How do I do this? I'd prefer to make a curved cut but I can do a straight one too. I was wondering if I could score a line and break a chunk off, or if it'd be better to file it down.

If I knew for sure that cutting the panels would work, I would be up for that, but I'm choosing to take the fail safe route and leave the panels intact. If you do cut your panels, let me know if it still works. As far as using the merc cluster face (black piece), I thought that it was different enough, that it wouldn't make for a clean install into the X's cluster housing. Post pics of your progress so we can have a combined "how to" thread in the end.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

I needed the '89 Cougar wiring diagram. Could you post a clearer copy of those? Also, I have a pinout diagram for the '89 cluster, but it doesn't have the operating range listed, and the function description isn't as clear as the one you posted for the '92 cluster. Could you post an '89 cluster pinout (that's like the '92 one) also? If you can't, could you e-mail them to me? Let me know and I'll send you a PM with my e-mail address. Thanks in advance.

Ask and you shall receive. This is all that alldata has as far as pinouts and charts for the 89.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

The earliest I can find an operating chart that you are needing is for 92. Which is the same as the 94 I posted above a few posts ago. So I would assume for the most part, the 94 (or 92) chart will work for the 89...but don't hold me to it

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Just a side note on a completly different note, I wonder if the full size broncos came with this little feature. What's strange though is I found this listed under my 92 explorer in alldata...

 

[arco777]

I am having some minor troubles with the wiring; the two 92 Cougar connectors have some matching color wires and some don't match the colors they should be according to the pinout. Should I ignore the listed colors and just go by pin locations? Part of the confusion is the buttons, those pins in particular are weird because they are the wrong colors by the pinout diagram and have a different listed purpose than running buttons.

I read up on cutting glass and LCDs; cutting a glow-y part of an LCD isn't happening but cutting glass is possible. I just don't know for sure what the composition of these panels is, hopefully it's just glass around the actual LCD glow parts. If that's the case I could cut the panels under water with a scissors. What do you think the composition is like Geoph1986?

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

I would go by pin numbers instead of wire colors. Wire colors can change even during a certain model year. As long as the pin numbers match the function, I would go by that more than by the colors alone...