Just finished new digital dash. Machined panel out of 1/2" ally so I could sink the gauges in. The centre one is an AEM wideband sensor display, unfortunately only available in red.

One more bit ready for engine swap day!

the main engine ECU needs speedsignal too for quite a few things (eg. VTC solenoids, Rev limiter, AFR routines, Fuelcut routines).

 

I would do as John suggests and keep the circuit from the old speedo or weird things might start to happen ;)

 

Your right mate things do start to happen.

I have a full Decota digital set up in the Z. When it was fitted the link from the speedo to the ECU was not continued and all sorts of things went.

Think I have it sorted it now thanks to some time with Andy P. Just need to replace the conection to the ECU and all should be well again.

Most of the things the speedo controls won't be there in my case, as I'm dropping a V8 in it.

The only thing I'm concerned with is the steering weight, although it doesn't seem to work right anyway even before the dash swap.

Sometimes it's as light as a feather and others it goes dead heavy, mainly when doing slow speeds, which is when it should be light.

The only thing I'm concerned with is the steering weight, although it doesn't seem to work right anyway even before the dash swap.

Sometimes it's as light as a feather and others it goes dead heavy, mainly when doing slow speeds, which is when it should be light.

 

Usually caused by a faulty speed sensor on the gearbox or a dodgy Jap speed convertor if you have one of those...

Sorry for digging this old post up. But I've been considering changing my dash to a digital setup like this and was just wondering how you went with all the wiring up...seems like it would be very complicated?

 

Do you have a writeup of it?

 

It looks awesome... :)

 

Cheers

Rob.

i think i remember reading smewhere it to over 150 man hours to trace all tehwiring and get it all working right... not a quick job at all......

but well worth it IMO....

 

Neil

I figure it would be time consuming but well worth the effort. I have all my interior removed at the moment, which may make things a little easier but yeah...

 

Just wondering if there was a write up on it. I've had enough of the stock analog gauges...they keep breaking down and are so inaccurate...

 

I figure the best way now is to just replace everything, and this setup looks awesome... :)

 

Cheers

Rob.

dont think there is a wirte up... bes ask Kieth him self... he's always about....

Sorry for digging this old post up. But I've been considering changing my dash to a digital setup like this and was just wondering how you went with all the wiring up...seems like it would be very complicated?

 

Do you have a writeup of it?

 

It looks awesome... :)

 

Cheers

Rob.

 

Well you're talking to the new owner of that very same dash here, i'll do some fitting diagrams when i install it on the V8 this month :D

Very nice job! I like it a lot!!!

Well you're talking to the new owner of that very same dash here, i'll do some fitting diagrams when i install it on the V8 this month :D

 

That would be great if you could do that. It will save me a lot of time and trouble.

 

I really wouldn't know where to start with all the wiring...this is why I'm asking for some help. With most other things I'm generally ok with...this just looks like it will be difficult. :(

 

Cheers

Rob.

That would be great if you could do that. It will save me a lot of time and trouble.

 

I really wouldn't know where to start with all the wiring...this is why I'm asking for some help. With most other things I'm generally ok with...this just looks like it will be difficult. :(

 

Cheers

Rob.

 

it wont help you too much if your running the original vg30 engine as the digital dash in this thread has its signals sent from a v8... very few of the signal wires will be spliced into the oem loom. in fact prolly only the fuel level.

The problem with a wiring procedure write up is that when I did it, I was using a Chevy engine, so a lot of what I did isn't relevant. Same when Nick puts it in his.

At the end of the day most aftermarket gauges are the same, you supply each gauge with + and - 12v and then a signal from a matching sensor.

There are a couple of tricky areas, assuming you've managed to actually fit the gauges in place.

The first is having to cut up the plastic printed curcuit board on the back of the dash to make room for some of the gauges, whilst leaving certain parts of the curcuit intact so all the warning lights still work.

The second would be to sort out the signal from the original speedo to the variable power steering selonoid, to retain the variable assistance bit. I didn't bother with that as mine settled into an acceptable default load so I left it alone.

Cheers, Keith.

Did you use a different wiring harness for the V8?

 

I was thinking for each gauge you could tap into the existing wiring harness which goes to the original dash. I know the speedo signal effects the power steering etc, so I assumed you would have to somehow incorporate the OEM one with the new gauge.

 

But with things like the fuel level and temperature...do you need to run new wires to the fuel tank and water pipes? Or can you tap into the wiring harness...?

 

Cheers

Rob.

I suppose you could tap into the harness if you didn't want to run extra cables but I suspect that would turn a tricky job into a nightmare job. I tried to use the harness wires for the fuel gauge but even that wouldn't work and I ended up running new wires for everything in the end.

I couldn't use the original speedo to power the rack as I changed the gearbox too, so had no speedo signal sender.

I suppose you could tap into the harness if you didn't want to run extra cables but I suspect that would turn a tricky job into a nightmare job. I tried to use the harness wires for the fuel gauge but even that wouldn't work and I ended up running new wires for everything in the end.

I couldn't use the original speedo to power the rack as I changed the gearbox too, so had no speedo signal sender.

 

Yeah, it's probably easier to just run new wires I guess. Was it hard to connect the fuel and water ones? What about the Tacho...where did that plug in to?

 

Rob.

I suppose you could tap into the harness if you didn't want to run extra cables but I suspect that would turn a tricky job into a nightmare job. I tried to use the harness wires for the fuel gauge but even that wouldn't work and I ended up running new wires for everything in the end.

I couldn't use the original speedo to power the rack as I changed the gearbox too, so had no speedo signal sender.

 

Hello, my name is Jake and I work for Nordskog in California. We saw a few hits coming from the UK, so I figured I'd check it out. By the way, nice work on the instrument cluster, very clean.

 

If you have any questions about the gauges, I can help with that (jake at nordskogperformance dot net). When it comes to vehicle specific issues, well, honestly you know more about 300 Z's than I do.

 

Regarding the A/F gauges, we make a matching unit that works with Innovate Motorsport's LC-1 and LM-1 devices. We sell lambda versions to a company in Germany also. We're still working on a couple smaller retailers in the UK. http://www.lm-1.de/contents/en-us/image_viewer.html?lmd=39842.350694

 

And regarding the speedometer, we do have a way to get a speed signal that doesn't require messing with the transmission sensor or ECU, it uses GPS, and it updates 5x/second.

http://www.nordskogperformance.net/product.php?productid=19231&cat=0&page=1

 

It's setup for 8000 or 16000 pulses per mile, but the speedometer can be calibrated to convert that to kilometers.

 

Regards, Jake

surely for the speedo its just a case of tapping off the pulse wire and sending to the new gauge? im not convinced a 200 bucks gps unit is a sensible work round... especially the times when you lose a fix, and the times when youve just turned the car on and drive off with no speedo until the gps finds a fix?