Tunning a DE-SWADJ3 to 5.4 volts

[jdavidsmi]

I was having trouble with the gauges and decided to replace the ICVR with a new DE-SWADJ3. I got everything put back together yesterday and ran into a problem. I cannot get the voltage of the new ICVR to adjust below 8.55 volts, not near the 5.4 needed. I rechecked all my steps againce the instructions but i cannot figure it out. Could i have a bad one? Was i too slow in adjusting it and messed it up?
Any Ideas or thoughts?

Side note; all the dash lights are LED's if that makes a difference.

[Gary Lewis]

I assume you are turning the adjustment screw.  Are you seeing any voltage change?  And, do you have some load on it?

If the screw doesn't make any difference when there's a load on the regulator then you must have a bad one.

[jdavidsmi]

When I turned on the key the volts was at 12.3. I started adjusting the little screw, and it slowly dropped to 8.55. I turned on the lights but there was no change.
I then turned everything off and recheck my ground,  and my volts meter clips making sure I had set it up correct .
turned the key back on and the adjustment screw will not back off anymore.  It will increase volts.  But not decrease.

[jdavidsmi]

I put in a help ticket last night to Dimension engineering.com to get there input. my feelings is a bad DE- swadjs. waiting there response.

David

[Gary Lewis]

I hope they get back w/you quickly.

However, I forgot to respond to your last post.  When I asked about "load" on the regulator I meant was it connected to the gauges?  Some regulators won't come down to their lower limits w/o some load on them.  And the only load that regulator would have would be the gauges themselves.  Not the lights in the instrument cluster, but the gauges.

[Gary Lewis]

Any news on this?

[jdavidsmi]

Yes thank goodness. I have a broken ribbon wire where the male 9volt terminal is mounted to the plastic sheet. and if things were wiggled just right current could flow.
After a few emails with the help desk at Dimension Engineering. they wanted me to return the DE-SWADJ3 to them to test. Once i had the instrument cluster out of the truck and started to remove the DE-SWADJ3, I notice the wire was loose, and then of course broken.

All of the ribbon wires have come loose from the plastic in this area, where the ICVR is mounted. I have just let it sit a couple of days until i figure out if I want to try and fix, get a new one or find one on crags list.

Once I remove the DE-SWADJ3 from the instrument cluster, I wired it to the battery and was able to adjust the voltage right on the money.  I think the adjustments should be made before the DE-SWADJ3 is installed would have made it a lot easier for me.

[Gary Lewis]

Glad you figured out what the problem is.  As for fixing it there are two options - repair or replace.  You can repair what you have by soldering a small wire to bridge the gaps in the copper traces.

But, if that doesn't work, then I have spare clusters with good printed circuits.  There are three different circuits - idiot lights, gauges w/o tach, and gauges w/tach.  So, do you have idiot lights or gauges?

[jdavidsmi]

I have just returned from the find and pull, and found one from a 83 that's in good shape, they actually had the truck on the forklift to go to the crusher.

Should I change the hold cluster or just the printed circuit? And how did you protect the printed circuit once it was not held in place by the ICVR? tape, hot glue?

David

[Gary Lewis]

I didn't think it needed support and just plugged the 9v connector in.  But, hot melt would work nicely.

And I think I'd swap the whole cluster.  Pulling the gauges can be a problem as the studs sometimes rotate and break the wires inside the gauges.

[1986F150Six]

Gary Lewis wrote

And I think I'd swap the whole cluster.  Pulling the gauges can be a problem as the studs sometimes rotate and break the wires inside the gauges.

...especially the ammeter!

[Gary Lewis]

Amen!  I've broken two of those rascals because the stud rotated.

[FuzzFace2]

Gary Lewis wrote

Amen!  I've broken two of those rascals because the stud rotated.

Put me down for 1 also
I was going to send it out to be re-wired for a volt gauge (rocket man) but he will not use it from what I seen on his site.

I thought the IVR was held to the body of the cluster with a screw?
Is the replacement you got not bolt that way? If so then hot glue works for me.
Dave ----

[jdavidsmi]

Got it cleaned up yesterday, forgot how long the vinegar smell last, Tricky to remove the blue caps so i could use the blue LED's, I will see how they look. And I got the needles painted .
Now that I have an extra Amp meter, think I will get it converted to a volt meter. I need to look for that post. and last find a good place to secure the new DE-SWADJ3. I'm kind of leaning toward the pocket behind the blank tack face.

David

[Gary Lewis]

What did you paint the needles with?  Meaning what paint did you use?

As for the ammeter, that's included in this page: Electrical/3G Conversion.  But it may not have everything you need to tell you how to wire up the voltmeter.  So, please let me know 'bout that.

[jdavidsmi]

When I did the first instrument cluster I asked Pete what paint he had used and he suggested Painters Orange in a tube.

And apply very very light, looks good in the day, but I have not seen it at night because of the issues I thought were with the DE-SWADJ3



David

[Gary Lewis]

They do look good.  But my Testors paint doesn't glow at night like they apparently did originally, so I'm going to try the HiPo stuff.

[ctubutis]

Gary Lewis wrote

They do look good.  But my Testors paint doesn't glow at night like they apparently did originally, so I'm going to try the HiPo stuff.

Let us know how that HiPo paint works for you, Gary, I'm interested in true, glow-in-the-dark orange paint. :)

[Gary Lewis]

Will do.  I'm going to re-write the page on needle painting to include Bill O'Neil's information about paint weight and fluorescence.  And, since he's sending me some of his new dash-specific LED's to test, I'm going to include info on lighting, how to clean the filters and why they are there, etc.

[jdavidsmi]

I put it all back in last evening and relined a couple of the Led's, to get all the lights working. I did not have the cover on so it's very bright

This was taken with the parking lights on, when i pulled the headlights on the dash lights went out. 3 or 4 times same results(slow learner) This is a new light switch installed last summer when I was looking for the short. So out comes the switch to test, and according to the 1981 EVTM tested just as it should.

When the headlights are on are the parking lights on also?

While I sort this out this is how i ended up mounting the DE, behind the blank tack cover


I left the old ICVR in place and hot glued the terminals on top of the old ones.