[V8] IC flakiness....oh no! NOT again!

[Roger M. Woodbury]

I am wondering how difficult it would be to completely re-engineer the 
instrument cluster.  Perhaps rip it out entirely and replace with 
something else using after market gauges and forever forgettting about 
the trip computer?

At this time my '90 V8 is running just wonderfully.  The ONLY issues 
that I have with the car at all, are the headliner in the rear which has 
a minor case of "headliner droop", the sometimes annoying shudder on 
acceleration, and the intermittent speedometer.

I know what the fix is for the headliner and I fear the worse for the 
shudder.  Incidentally, my wrench thought it might be the axle joints, 
but I suspect it is something internally with either the transmission or 
the torsen differential.  At any rate, I deal with the shudder by being 
careful and gentle with the throttle on acceleration especially in first 
gear and when turning corners. The shudder doesn't appear unless the car 
is somewhat off level when booting it, or in first gear going up that 
sharp hill after turning on to Route 7.

Now the speedometer is almost more comical than annoying. Basically, 
sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Or sometimes it won't work 
at all for ten to fifteen miles then will work fine until shut-down, 
then not work at all again for ten to fifteen miles once restarted two 
hours later.

I believe the problem is electric and is not in the speedometer. I do 
not believe the problem to be heat related, as in once the circuit is 
warmed up sufficiently by heat inside the car, a bad cold joint closes 
and current is allowed to flow.  The reason I discount that is because 
daily temperatures here are in the mid-seventies to mid-eighties and 
there is no change in this car's flakey speedometer syndrome.

The signal sender from the transmission has been tested for signal and 
the signal was good, which sort of leads back to the speedometer or the 
cluster.  The speedometer was rebuilt and I suspect either a ground for 
the speedometer, or if there is one, an external power supply somewhere 
that sends power to the speedometer.

I'm not an electrical schematic genius reader, so going there to look at 
that will only lead me to a bottle of something strong.

I may take the car to the wrench next spring and let him trouble shoot 
the cluster and see if there is a fix.

Meanwhile the car is running wonderfully.  three or four days per week I 
take the car out at 3:45 for the thirty mile jaunt to my power lifting 
group in Winterport.  It's a rural drive over undulating, twisting two 
lane roads, most of which is on Route 139.  Now 139 has just been 
resurfaced, and completed within the past week. They don't even have the 
center lines stripped yet. When I turn onto Route 139, the V8 yells:  
'YUM, YUM!!" and leaps forward on the new, smooth surface.

I think when the trees start to change color in late September, I'm 
going to film the trip to Winterport....I'll invest in a new chip for my 
digital camera and take all thirty miles of it to post someplace so all 
you guys who drive in places where there are stoplights and traffic can 
see what me and my V8 have to "endure"!

Oh! The elves in Germany who screwed this thing together would be SOOOO 
proud!

Roger