Installing series 1 instrument cluster into series II Fairlane. Advice? Has anyone done it before

[Fairlane Al]

Before anyone asks why I'm trying to do this, I'm trying to get a functional factory oil pressure gauge working instead of the pathetic AUII "gauge" that's no more useful than the idiot light. I understand that everyone says putting the wrong series cluster in is either not possible or too much work, but I subscribe to the theory of biting off more than you can chew and chewing like hell. As for the question of why don't I just put an aftermarket oil pressure gauge in if I want one so badly, I think that would ruin the look of the car, would present an image of something of a hoon/ricer I prefer not to have presented to passer by who may be looking at the car, and frankly I'd rather have the stock gauge work properly than install an aftermarket gauge, even if it is more difficult to get it working, just as I spent $300 having the stock CD player refurbished rather than paying $100 for an aftermarket unit that could very well do everything "better". I digress, but that is what my philosophy with these sorts of things.


I've test fitted a Series I XR6 cluster I picked up today in my [other, parts donor/guinea pig] Series II Fairlane. I also picked up a Series I Fairlane cluster just in case I needed it as well, but I'd prefer to use the XR cluster for the 240km speedo and the Tickford wings on it as well. Contrary to what I've heard, it does fundamentally work, the tacho, fuel, coolant and voltage gauge all show valid readings, I didn't move the car so I can't comment if the speedo works but I assume [hope] it will, the odometer works, it all for the most part with a few small issues, works. The only gauge that didn't show a reading is the oil pressure gauge which I am not entirely surprised about given it still has the old "switch" not the proper sender to drive the gauge. I'll install that tomorrow when I have more time and I'll see if my hunch about this all working is correct or not.

There's two other issues that I've come across. One, the radiator coolant level light stays on, I suspect this is because the series II doesn't run a coolant level sensor. I'm considering either physically removing that light from the cluster, or is it possible to retrofit the coolant sensor to a Series II and have it work? Either option works for me.

The other issue is I've noticed the steering wheel stereo controls no longer work. I recall reading somewhere that the AUI routes these controls through the cluster whereas the AUII routes them "directly" to the head unit. Is there any work around I can implement here to get these controls working again with the Series I cluster installed or will this likely be a no go?

Also the cluster being an XR cluster lacks features such as the individual door diagram as my Fairlane has. If I were to open up the cluster and swap the odometer display panel from the Series II Fairlane with the panel from the XR cluster am I going to end up with the functions of the Fairlane cluster carrying across or will I retain the XR cluster's functions re door display and trip computer? At the end of the day it's no big deal if I don't have the individual door display or a second DTE display, but it would be nice to keep what I have in the Fairlane currently anyway. I could use the Series 1 Fairlane cluster if that would help in any way?

If anyone has either attempted this, successfully or unsuccessfully, and has any information or pointers they can give I would be most appreciative. I will be sure to report back any findings I have for the benefit of anyone else looking to do this conversion. I can't be the only AUII owner unhappy with not having the proper oil gauge.

[MrEL]

Your dealing with 2 issues heres.
First the different series clusters and your putting a low series cluster in a high series car.
Why dont you just open the clusters and look at putting the series 1 oil guage and 240km speedo into your original cluster and fitting the tickford face?
It would save a whole heaps of wiring headaches.

[Uncle_Ken]

From what I know the Series 1 cluster are different to Series II and III. I agree with MrEL and would like for a cluster from a Series III

UK

[superroo]

I'll see if I can find it, but I've tried S1 XR cluster in a S1 Fairmont.
The issues I remember are: No oil pressure (swap switch for sender), no DTE/fuel economy display (no data out channel), and issues with door opening (Fairmont 5 inputs Vs. XR single).
Think there was something else too, but doesn't come to mind.

The two solutions to as I can see, use two clusters (1 hidden driving the missing info) or make a hybrid in order to get what you want.
I'm going to head down route 2 and make a hybrid in order to run the XR 1 mask and to get oil pressure

[BLU-220]

If you use the XR fascia your speedo will be out by 10% as i have done this twice to my
last 2 AU Fairmont's the only way to get the speedo to be correct you have to buy the black 23 tooth speedo cog
which is hard to get hold of as i'm looking for one now for my XR8

[superroo]

No, doing that will put the ECU speed off and muck up the auto shift points.

240km cluster will work in any car. 220 vs 240 is calibrated within the cluster.
Cluster complete though, not just the face

[Fairlane Al]

OK I think there's just a little bit of confusion here. The main objective is to get the oil pressure gauge working. To achieve this I brought 2 series 1 clusters, one is the XR cluster and the other is the Fairmont cluster. As much as I would like to have the XR cluster installed if it's too much hassle then I'm fine using the Fairmont cluster. Either way works for me as long as I get the oil gauge working.

I installed the oil pressure sender and fitted the clusters today.

With the Series 1 Fairmont cluster installed in the SII Fairlane, the faults found are the flashing radiator level light, the trip computer is entirely unfunctional and the radio keeps going to maximum volume by itself. The oil pressure gauge does work however as does the oil pressure light. Likewise the door open diagrams also work correctly. At least this proves that the oil pressure gauge can be made to work in Series II cars.

With the Series 1 XR cluster, there's the same radiator level light, which is entirely expected given it's in a series II car and there's no sensor for it to get a reading from and again the high series trip computer is useless. The standard XR trip computer however, does in fact work and gives a valid reading. The steering wheel stereo controls again, simply don't work, and have no effect on the stereo. The stereo itself works as per normal.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I re installed my car's original Series II cluster, so the only different component was the oil pressure sender instead of the switch. Everything worked properly except the oil pressure gauge showed 0 and I had the oil light on.

All in all not a bad start if you ask me, I just need to figure out what to do from here. Something tells me I'll be making wiring diagrams from here on in.

Blu-220, is the speedo cog you speak of inside the instrument cluster itself or somewhere else? If I end up having no use for the XR cluster I'm happy to pass it on?

[Fairlane Al]

Originally Posted by superroo

No, doing that will put the ECU speed off and muck up the auto shift points.

240km cluster will work in any car. 220 vs 240 is calibrated within the cluster.
Cluster complete though, not just the face

Where exactly in the cluster though, would I have to swap the whole cluster over or if I was handy with a soldering iron could I swap the actual speedometer off the cluster circuit board?

[BLU-220]

Originally Posted by superroo

No, doing that will put the ECU speed off and muck up the auto shift points.

240km cluster will work in any car. 220 vs 240 is calibrated within the cluster.
Cluster complete though, not just the face

Yes, as the 240kph fascia is compressed compared to the 220kph one
everything works just the speedo will be out as in displayed speed
for example when doing say 100kph the needle will be on around 110kph on the 240kph

Originally Posted by Fairlane Al

OK I think there's just a little bit of confusion here. The main objective is to get the oil pressure gauge working.

That's ok i'm giving you heads up when you fit the XR fascia that the speedo reading will be out

Originally Posted by Fairlane Al

Blu-220, is the speedo cog you speak of inside the instrument cluster itself or somewhere else? If I end up having no use for the XR cluster I'm happy to pass it on?

The speedo cog is connected to the speedo transducer which is in the side of the gearbox see below for a picture the speedo cog is where the arrow is pointing to





cheers Dean

[Fairlane Al]

I understood that if I just fitted the fascia I would have a speedo error but if I put the whole cluster in, there is no error as I understand?

[Fairlane Al]

Nobody has any further information to offer? I've hit something of a dead end here, painfully close to achieving my objectives.

Basically the main sticking points are the trip computer and the steering wheel controls for the radio. Neither of which work in a Series II car with a Series I cluster fitted. Anything else I can easily see myself working around.

Would anyone be able to share with me a cluster, stereo and trip computer wiring diagram/pinouts for the connectors for a Series I and a Series II high series car, I'm thinking this will be the point I have to start hacking wires apart and figuring things out through good old fashioned trial and error. There goes the next few months of my life.

[MrEL]

Crack the clusters apart and fit the S1 oil pressure guage into your functioning S2 cluster.......

[Fairlane Al]

Will that definitely work, what about the oil pressure light?

[Fyrestorm]

Originally Posted by Fairlane Al

Nobody has any further information to offer? I've hit something of a dead end here, painfully close to achieving my objectives.

Basically the main sticking points are the trip computer and the steering wheel controls for the radio. Neither of which work in a Series II car with a Series I cluster fitted. Anything else I can easily see myself working around.

Would anyone be able to share with me a cluster, stereo and trip computer wiring diagram/pinouts for the connectors for a Series I and a Series II high series car, I'm thinking this will be the point I have to start hacking wires apart and figuring things out through good old fashioned trial and error. There goes the next few months of my life.

I REALLY need my computer working to respond properly, but the stereo wiring for the controls is a single wire from the steering wheel, split somewhere (I personally have not gone hunting for it.. Yet) and goes to your head unit and the dash cluster. It is a white wire with a red trace on it. The reason it goes to the dash is for the speed alert. (Hold in the seek button to turn it on, volume controls to set it at 5km/h increments)

I know that the fuel DTE is displayed on the high series climate control unit (rather then the dash cluster in the low series)

I'll dig through the diagrams I have kicking about and see what I can dig up.

[Fairlane Al]

All good when you have time, I doubt I'll be doing anything more with it for a few days at least.

[superroo]

So I've spent the past few nights with with a S1 XR cluster and a S2 Fairmont cluster apart comparing the circuit boards and I'm utterly confused

The best I can figure is that both oil pressure and speedo is run through the main processor chip and the calibration is done in there, rather than using an external components for it to work.

I haven't given up yet, but it seams than swapping components to make the cluster you want is not possible.
It's looking like I'll need to run two clusters to operate how I want.

[Fairlane Al]

That's how I'm thinking it works. The issues are with the cluster's own computer and their own limitations.

I reckon with access to some wiring diagrams and cluster pin outs I could figure out what wires need changing to run the trip computer and let the stereo controls run. I reckon simply disconnecting the wire from the steering wheel controls to the instrument cluster would be enough to get the controls working again.

[Fairlane Al]

Another thought I had was to swap dash wiring looms from a Series II to one out of a Series I car to get this working but that does seem a little drastic. If it works I'm willing to try it though. I don't think the clusters are that much different, there's just some differences with the connections and some pins may be different between the two models. I didn't expect this to work as well as it did after I did the changeover given that everything fundamentally worked and I just lost some ancillary functions.

[Fyrestorm]

I can advise against a loom swap, s1 doesn't have a door lock button on the dash, and the a/c is different, along with the plugs.