96 VFR no dash lights

Hello all,

New owner of a 96 VFR 750 w/ 25 k on the odometer. I have a slight problem with the guage cluster. All of the inducator lights work, but none of the lights for the tach, speedo or fuel / temp guages work. All of the guages read fine and the digital clock is also fine, just the illumination is the problem.

Checked the 10 A fuse and it was fine. Decided to take the windscreen off and discovered that the 3 bolt on attachments were snapped off from the circuit board. There are now three clean holes in the back of the circuit board and the previous owner had the cluster zip tied into place. I'm not too upset because I bought the bike for 2500 with a rebuilt title. The previous owner disclosed that the bike was stolen years ago and I assume that this was part of the damage. It does not look like the bike sustained any significant front end damage.

Wiggled connectors and swapped out bulbs to no avail. It seems suspicious to me that all of the indicator lamps work fine, yet the illumination is out. If the circuit board was indeed damaged you would think that at least one of the illumination bulbs might still work, but all are dead.

Is there a specific wire for only the illumination that is shorted out? I have not pulled the front fairing off, but from what I could see the harness looked intact and unharmed in any way. I'm thinking of keeping an eye out for a used cluster or buying a new read circuit board. Either way I would need to swap out the odo, tach etc from the existing unit to the replacement. Anyone done that before? Looks like it can be done.

If I could get the illumination to work I probably would just zip tie the thing back into place and call it a day. Thanks in advance for any info or insight.

 

Sounds like you all ready have a handle on it by what you did trying to figure it out. so IMO you are on the right path to find one used or new depending on whats what money wise. Give Service Honda a call 1800-828-5498 they have the best new prices out there IMO, then of course keep your eye out for one on ebay, they do show up now and then as in a complete dash pod.

 

Does your license plate lamp illuminate? That should be on the same circiut, I had a similar problem on my 86' but it was popping fuses because the license plate lamp was shorted. A factory wiring schematic would go a long way in helping you decipher your problem, see if your local "stealer" will copy one for you( or check the online manuals on this wonderful site) or get a factory service manual. Even the best schematic makes it very vauge to track down a circiut board problem though, @ least if you want to do it quickly. Best way to track down a problem is to start @ the beginning or the end of a circiut & work your way to the other end. If you start somewhere in the middle things tend to get F'd up along the way especially if patience isn't a strong suit for you.

 

Sounds like a bad ground on one of the 10P connectors.

I have a JPG of the meter wiring diagram, would probably help out significantly in your quest.

PM me your e-mail addy, and I'll send the picture to you.

-Matt

 

I am looking at the wiring diagram, and the illumination circuit is all on it's own (not part of the license plate circuit as mentioned above).

Off of the 10P connector, all dash illumination (speedo/tach/fuel/clock) is a Brown/White (+) wire, with Green (-) shared grounds. The warning lights are a separate circuit.

Also - my original theory of a bad ground is probably off, as the digital clock shares the same ground as the illumination. The Brown/White (+) wire (or the circuit board) is now the most likely culprit.

I highlighted the circuit on the picture I mentioned earlier - I will e-mail it as soon as you provide your addy.

-Matt

 

Hi,

My email is bmilnick@groundworksdesign.net. The license plate light is working fine.

Thanks for the response. It would be nice not to have to replace that board.

 

Just e-mailed the diagram.

Good luck!

 

Matt,

Thanks for the wiring diagram. I guess that i'll dig out the multi meter and pull the harness off. Then turn on the key and see if I get any power from that connector. From there you would have to strip open the harness and check the wire path back to the fuse panel.

Sounds like that wire is the problem. If the circuit board was damaged I would expect to get at least one of the panel lights to work.

I'm electrically challenged and need to get up to speed quickly with this VFR. Do you know what volts DC I should expect to see on the meter?

Brian

 

I would just check continuity on that wire to ground.

 

OK,

My apologies, I'm a complete idiot. I assume you check continuity at the harness between the brown / white and the green. If that checks then check it at the instrument panel itself.

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

:wink: Not to go overboard here, but make sure the key is "on".

 

All Fixed...

Thanks for all of the advice. Pulled her apart Friday night. Took the front fairing off and removed the instrument panel and found the problem. The damaged support posts had damaged the circuit board. The circuit board has metal embedded in the plastic and it was torn through in one spot.


Got out the soldering iron and carefully added two jumper wires to reconnect the damaged circuits. Seems to work well so far. Probably watch on ebay for a used replacement.

 

Don't know if you're bidding on these or not, but...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1995...015QQitemZ250214232982QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

Your repair should be sound, though, and since you'll never see it unless the bike is apart, you shouldn't really worry too much.

As a note, however, this cluster on eBay is getting really expensive, pretty quick. May be worth waiting for another cluster (maybe even a broken one with good, usable parts) to make one good cluster out of two lousy ones.