'86 Turbo Z digital dash odometer memory chip question.( Not working)

[Mdniteracr1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yellonoma To cool, thanks for that scan Dave. Hopefully somebody has kept a bad cluster, I would put up a wanted ad not for an odo chip, but rather a bad cluster that won't power up/display anymore.

Thanks for the advise!! Much appreciated. I may have found WoodrowZ with a back up cluster. I will check the chip first (play with it) and see if its sitting in there correctly.

[Mdniteracr1]

Pulled the odometer chip out and placed it back in, wiggled lightly, etc... Still not working. This chip was sitting higher and closest to the window. Easy to pull out. Hopefully this was the right chip that was checked lol .

If this was the correct one...HOLY SMOKES !! It is ridiculously easy for someone to switch chips for a lower mileage one and flip the car for more money. I'm guessing that's why in '87 they started to change the easiness on changing these chips (from what I read on here)

[woodrow Z]

So if that didn't work, but the odometer readout changed to whatever car the chip was in previously. Is it really the cause?

[yellonoma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mdniteracr1 Pulled the odometer chip out and placed it back in, wiggled lightly, etc... Still not working. This chip was sitting higher and closest to the window. Easy to pull out. Hopefully this was the right chip that was checked lol . If this was the correct one...HOLY SMOKES !! It is ridiculously easy for someone to switch chips for a lower mileage one and flip the car for more money. I'm guessing that's why in '87 they started to change the easiness on changing these chips (from what I read on here)

No different or easier than swapping clusters, I have a 48k one original to the car, and a 208k that's in it. I don't ever plan to get rid of the car though.

Didn't mean to trash the thread, but yes, you pulled the right chip... something is telling me, there may be a protective feature on pulling and changing that chip, because when the dealer did it back in the day, there was an astrisk illuminated in from of the first digit of the odo readout. It's a bit of a mystery but DodgeG24Man has quite a bit of info on this stuff where he observed alot of it working for a Chrysler Dealer in the 80's

[Mdniteracr1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yellonoma No different or easier than swapping clusters, I have a 48k one original to the car, and a 208k that's in it. I don't ever plan to get rid of the car though. Didn't mean to trash the thread, but yes, you pulled the right chip... something is telling me, there may be a protective feature on pulling and changing that chip, because when the dealer did it back in the day, there was an astrisk illuminated in from of the first digit of the odo readout. It's a bit of a mystery but DodgeG24Man has quite a bit of info on this stuff where he observed alot of it working for a Chrysler Dealer in the 80's

I don't even see where you trashed this thread lol . You didn't at all . Hmm, so if I get a diff. chip and put it in my car maybe it won't work. Let me read some threads by DodgeG24Man. It just might come down to finding a diff digital unit that works or somehow getting a unit repaired. Maybe somebody on here is handy at repairing these units. The mileage of 63k on my car that just got wiped out by chip did actually upset me . I wont lie. The thing is.. my engine is getting swamped out anyway soon so I shouldn't be too upset at this. I'm the type of guy that just wants every feature in my car to work. I hate starring at the stupid blanks where my mileage used to be lol . I love these cars !!!!

[Sid]

My 1984 had the dashes appear and after months of searching, found a chip, only to install it and right in front of my eyes go from mileage...back to the dashes. In my case, a short in the cluster, wiped out the chip. Make sure your cluster is problem free before putting in a chip so the same does not happen to you. As others have mentioned, it is easier to find a complete cluster than the chip. New replacement chips are not available to my knowledge. I know the company that made them, went out of business and Motorola bought one part of the company and the Chip, Electronics Section by a company in...Yeah we Know...China.

[DartGTS340]

When I swapped my wife's cluster(84) for a better one it's mileage was just dashes. Swapped her chip into it and brought her mileage over to the new cluster. At the time I didn't know anything about this. I just saw the socketed chip, gave it a try and it worked. It didn't trigger an asterisk or any other sign that it wasn't stock.

[Marc]

When I worked in a Dodge dealer back in the '80's, and when we changed an electronic instrument cluster, we never swapped the chip. The remanufactured clusters started at zero with an asterisk to show that it was a replacement cluster. Then, in the box, there was a label that was affixed to the doorjam and we wrote in the mileage at the time of the change.

[yellonoma]

Thanks for clearing that up Marc

[Mdniteracr1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marc When I worked in a Dodge dealer back in the '80's, and when we changed an electronic instrument cluster, we never swapped the chip. The remanufactured clusters started at zero with an asterisk to show that it was a replacement cluster. Then, in the box, there was a label that was affixed to the doorjam and we wrote in the mileage at the time of the change.

Hey Buddy !! So the whole thing about the asterisk popping up is all based on a re-manufactured digital dash cluster that was starting at 0 miles fresh? Did the asterisk ever disappear or did it stay there permanently to show it was a re-manufactured unit.
I see what you are saying. You write the actual mileage on the label and place it on the doorjamb . Then whatever miles you start to use on the new cluster gets added to the mileage on the door jamb. Makes sense. EX- 63k on doorjamb plus lets say you rack up 1k miles on the re-manufactured cluster = 64k actual miles . Got it ! Never new how they worked out the Math when it came to changing clusters

[Marc]

Yep!

[dhugo1]

I have done a lot of research on these. Pretty sure they are serially programmed ER1451. I was going to build a programmer to read/write these but it got put on the back burner.

I've repaired a few of these dashes.

[Sid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dhugo1 I have done a lot of research on these. Pretty sure they are serially programmed ER1451. I was going to build a programmer to read/write these but it got put on the back burner. I've repaired a few of these dashes.

That is the chip. I also researched and wrote the company before it was split up and sold. As you say, it needs to be programmed. There was someone on the board a few years back, Military/Electronic Engineer if I remember correctly that was working on the programing aspect but, have never seen any more of his posts. Since my dash shorted and ruined the replacement chip, sadly when I tried that chip on another cluster I bought, the mileage did not come back. So, junkyards and ultimately got 3 replacement clusters in working condition and have them as spares.
If anyone ever figures out how to program these chips and puts them up for sale,,, I would be interested in purchasing a couple of them.

[Mdniteracr1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sid That is the chip. I also researched and wrote the company before it was split up and sold. As you say, it needs to be programmed. There was someone on the board a few years back, Military/Electronic Engineer if I remember correctly that was working on the programing aspect but, have never seen any more of his posts. Since my dash shorted and ruined the replacement chip, sadly when I tried that chip on another cluster I bought, the mileage did not come back. So, junkyards and ultimately got 3 replacement clusters in working condition and have them as spares. If anyone ever figures out how to program these chips and puts them up for sale,,, I would be interested in purchasing a couple of them.

Hey Sid. I may be slow here but crave knowledge lol . Can you just break down what you are referring to . Are you talking about creating a new replacement chip for the digital Odometer reading instead of hunting down a used chip from another used cluster? Or buying a used replacement chip and trying to program it to bring back the old mileage? Thanks buddy

[Sid]

I wish I could create one of the chips but No-Can-Do. I needed spares so went to junkyards and bought clusters. Found numerous of these during the Cash for Clunkers Program (what basically depleted our supply of 70's and 80's cars) and luckily found three good, working clusters and these are the ones I have for spares.

The one who was working on programming the chips was here on the forum a while back and said he had bought a lot of them on eBay and said he was close to getting the programming correct. I know other members told him they would buy the chip if he got it to work. It's been a while since I read his thread but it should not be hard to find. I did find the blank chips on a site but, they wanted over 100 dollars per chip. The Original Manufacturer of the Chip was General Instruments...hence the GI on the back of the chip.
I did find one of the threads that dealt with the chip http://www.turbododge.com/forums/f8/...requested.html