Digital Dash Swap?

[NICE59FORDF100]

LOL, thats awesome! But does anyone know of who has put an explorer message center into a first gen? I have searched for days, but can't even find a picture of a second gen center console in a first gen, but I know its been done. Thanks!

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Also Geoph, I was looking at the electrical diagram for the cougar electronic cluster, and as far as the oil pressure gauge is concerned, it appears (electric-ly) identical to the explorer. The 20K ohm resistor is external to the cluster itself, not built into it. So if you bypass the resistor (just like the mod here in the forum) and use a real sender unit, the digital oil pressure gauge should be real, and not a dummy one.

 

[geoph1986]

Also Geoph, I was looking at the electrical diagram for the cougar electronic cluster, and as far as the oil pressure gauge is concerned, it appears (electric-ly) identical to the explorer. The 20K ohm resistor is external to the cluster itself, not built into it. So if you bypass the resistor (just like the mod here in the forum) and use a real sender unit, the digital oil pressure gauge should be real, and not a dummy one.

My research has shown that too, also the temperature should be same the same, along with the ohm range for the fuel sending unit. The Cougar shows something like 158 ohms full where the X is 170, but the are the same empty, and since I'm only concerned when the gas is low...it should be fine.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Geoph, do you have a pic of how the cougar cluster is roughly fitted to the explorer white housing?

 

[geoph1986]

I've gutted the Cougar cluster, and will pilfer this or that off of it's housing if I need it. If you look at the link for the blue mod, you'll see the 3 LED displays. Those will be mounted to the new cluster face from the backside, then I have to figure out how I will mount the LED circuit board, while still allowing the LED displays to be lit by the bulbs. The "brains" circuit board will have to be mounted on the exterior of the cluster, as there is just not going to be enough room for it inside. I was also thinking that the hole in the stock cluster cover (trip reset button), will be filled with the "reset" button for the message center. I will probably have some pics later today, I have to do some cutting and fitting, then I'll post what I have done at that point.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Geoph, thanks for trying to post some pics later today. Really interesting in seeing how it will fit. When I looked at the cougar cluster, my first thought was it might be too big to fit into the explorer housing. Is there anyway to basically cut off the lower portion of the cluster (all the indicator lights) and reuse the stock explorer ones?

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

OK, i am getting closer to confirming the 4.0 EEC-IV has an activated DOL. It appears the aerostars utilized a trip computer with the eec-iv. trying to find a wiring diagram right now (hard since alldata is not on my work computer). I'm 98% sure that the pin 34 on the 91-94 explorer eec-iv will work, but now I am just concerned if the ecm itself is programed to even output a computation-based signal to pin 34 since it is flashed for a vehilce it was never intended to be used for. Still searching....

 

[geoph1986]

Geoph, thanks for trying to post some pics later today. Really interesting in seeing how it will fit. When I looked at the cougar cluster, my first thought was it might be too big to fit into the explorer housing. Is there anyway to basically cut off the lower portion of the cluster (all the indicator lights) and reuse the stock explorer ones?

If I didn't want to retain factory plugs, then maybe, you'd have to cut the entire back off the Explorer housing, then the Cougar's would need the sides cut off, and maybe some off the back. I even thought about just cutting off the face of the Cougar cluster, but it is just too different for me to use. By keeping the Explorer housing basically complete, I have a max depth of about 1" to fit all this stuff into. For illumination, I'm going to try to use an old laptop backlight. I will try to mount it between the LED displays and the LED circuit board. There is a lot of trial and error right now getting everything to fit, but I'm convinced that if I take my time, and really plan it out, it should all go together fine. But now I have to play with a laptop for a bit before I can start cutting, and fitting. I really want this to look as stock as possible. If you look at the pics of the cluster in the Ranger link, you can see that it was more about getting it to work. The displays are on an angle, and you can see the inside of the Explorer's cluster housing. Trial and error all the way. As far as the ECM programming goes, I'm leaning to the "pin 34 is active" side of things. I've done tons of reading and searching, and reading. Hopefully I'm right, and if not, then the message center won't work but the rest will..we'll see.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Found this picture while looking at the cougar IP's:

This looks like it would fit in the housing once you remove everything down to the lcd's themselves...

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Sorry for all the posts, but I have another question: Have you thought about how to change the odometer to match your trucks current mileage?

 

[geoph1986]

Found this picture while looking at the cougar IP's:

What you don't see in the picture is that it's almost 2 1/2" deep from the led face to the back of the bulb socket.

This looks like it would fit in the housing once you remove everything down to the lcd's themselves...

That's what I've done/working with. But attached to the LED's are ribbon cables and a circuit board and the ribbon cables don't unplug. It's a pain working with 4 things attached to each other like it is.

Have you thought about how to change the odometer to match your trucks current mileage?

I thought about it, but if I can't find an easy way, I will record my current mileage, and the mileage on the digi-cluster, then do math when I need to know my actual mileage.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Yea, I couldn't tell how deep it was from the pic. I'm really itching to see some pics of yours though. Would be neat to have an actual write up on this. And ive spent the better part of this morning just researching everything I can about ford digital gauges and the message center intergration. It seems the taurus gauge is smaller, but like you said, you loose the oil pressure and voltage gauges. I'm torn right now between putting in just the normal message center from an explorer into my 92 with stock gauges, or utilize what your doing and intergrate the message center into the digital gauges, and just skip the explorer one all together.

 

[geoph1986]

If I could have found one, I would have used a cluster out of an early Ford Probe. There's a pic of one in one of the earliest posts. It looked to be a lot smaller, with all the same functions I was looking for.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Are you going to be trying to utilize the message and info center in that cluster as well?

 

[geoph1986]

Are you going to be trying to utilize the message and info center in that cluster as well?

I'll just be using the fuel economy part of it. I don't know if the Cougar cluster offers anything else. As promised here are some pics of the progress so far. It's not much, but definitely a step in the right direction.

The LED displays and their circuit board:

Cardboard template of the new cluster face sitting on the X's cluster housing. The holes are cut out only so I can see the displays.

You have to cut off the areas in red on the X's cluster housing. I may need to do more trimming a little later.

The LED displays taped into their rough position (back):

The LED displays taped into their rough position (front):

A quick rough fit of everything put together:

That's all I have right now. I got the laptop apart and removed the back light and controller, however it's a 5 volt not a 12 volt controller...another obstacle.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

that looks awesome! Quick question. How is the message center screen (the one on the far right) connect to everything else?
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[geoph1986]

that looks awesome! Quick question. How is the message center screen (the one on the far right) connect to everything else?
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The ribbon cable coming off the LED's connects to the "brain" circuit board, and that circuit board is what the black, 20 pin Cougar dash harness connects to. Also just a note, the "brain" board is 3 1/2" x 4", so I shouldn't have a problem finding a place on the back of the X's cluster housing to mount it.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Do you think the 6 gauges would operate correctly if someone were to try and remove the message screen from the cluster? You know the way the circuit ribbon is ran. I would assume all the data required for the message screen just piggy backs off the other gauges.
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[geoph1986]

Well, you would have to find a diagram of the whole set up, if you want to surgically dismantle if. If you just remove the far right LED display, you will have no fuel gauge.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

ah thats what i was needing to know. Well if i this mod, ill have to do something different. I want to try and intergrate the explorer message center screen into the ip, replacing the far right screen
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