Wacky GM gauges

Nice turntable!

My speakers deteriorated and needed repair a few years ago. I was ready to get rid of the whole shebang but found a local shop specializing in audio repair. Stopped in and discussed repairing them or just getting rid of them. The guy was a bit too anxious to buy them and was offering quite a bit more than I expected. So I decided to keep them and have them rebuild all the mids and woofers. Glad I did. They put a lot of loving care into making them like new, even new grille cloth and cabinet staining, oiling. Very reasonable price and like new again. They had tons of vintage gear there…

Until I find a good pair of AR 3’s at a reasonable price I’ll stick with my old speakers.

It is already a problem for many cars. My '93 Miata no longer has a working airbag because the board failed, and I have not been able to source a replacement for it.

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That car is going on 30 years old. Try and find electronics modules for any consumer good after 30 years. Not unexpected. That being said, I see numerous postings for used tested good airbag modules for your car under $150 on ebay…

The problem is that a used one is very likely to have the same problem capacitors on it. It may be working now, but is likely to fail in the not too distant future. I was just pointing out that it is already a problem sourcing replacement electronics for vehicles.

Well, I read on one chat board someone claiming a company was manufacturing replacements but they were 3x the price of used. I have no idea how accurate that is. I’d be willing to bet you could find some outfit that refurbishes old units. Finding replacement caps isn’t going to be technically difficult. That being said, what’s better, paying $150 to restore the functionality and worrying it could fail again or go completely without waiting until you find one recently manufactured?

So I went ahead and replaced all the stepper motors in the truck’s (2005 Sierra) instrument cluster today. I went ahead and replaced the bulbs also, and re-soldered some joints to get the gear display to work. To remove old solder, I heated it to molten, then just blew it out with “canned air”. Crude maybe, but worked like a charm. The old solder that blew out was so scattered and spread thin that I was able to easily clean it off of the circuit board with my thumbnail.

However, my eyes are now crossed from looking at solder joints and I hope I never have to see the insides of another instrument cluster :grin:

Good job! How long it take?

I redid my stepper motors, cluster in out and replace motors was about 2.5 hours.