Hi all,

I have a 96 EL Falcon wagon.
I Noticed it had a slot in the dash for either a clock or a trip computer,
so i installed the trip computer.

I followed the guide called 'Adding a Trip Computer or Clock to an EF/EL Ford Falcon'
found here: {DESCRIPTION}.

I followed everything, used the existing clock plug,
I added a wire to Pin 1 of the Clock/Trip Computer Plug and connected it to Pin 14 of the Instrument Cluster Connector.
I added a wire to Pin 6 of the Clock/Trip Computer Plug and connected it to the Cigarette Lighter Illumination (Brown Wire).
I added a wire to Pin 7 of the Clock/Trip Computer Plug and connected it to the Illuminated Rear Window Demitstor Button (Dark Blue/ Red).
I cut pin 2 of the Clock/Trip Computer Plug as it is only used for the clock Ignition Power.
All pins were added to the plugs when needed to ensure a good connection.
All wires have been soldered together to ensure a good connection.

It works great,
except...

When i turn the head lights on with the engine running, the lcd screen constantly flickers.
If i turn the head lights on then the engine isn't running, the lcd screen is fine, same as it is when the head lights are not on.
If i have the engine running and the head lights off, the lcd screen is fine.

But once i flick the lights on with the engine running, it starts flickering again.
I'll try to add a little vid to show you what i mean.

Please help if you can.

Thanks.

Neon.



This vid will show you what i mean if any confusion.
thanks.

Last edited by neon2k6 on Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

do you know if it was doing this before you got your hands on it???

haha love the vid.

isnt there a resistor in the circuit board for the dimmer? maybe its buggered. not sure though.

Yeah,

It was working fine as it still does when i dont have the head lights on with the engine running at the same time.

The only problem was one the back lights on it were dead, and i changed it for a new one, and now they're all fine. I did try another back light from the cluster panel just to make sure it wasn't the lights, but the result was still the same.

I'm not sure alfy,
all i know is its perfect during the day cos i dont need the head lights.
but once night falls, and i flick the head lights on, the flickering drama begins.
None of my other electronics/lights are flickering, just it.

hmmm, suppose you could only try a few things first. change the globe and see if that makes a difference.

That was the first thing i did alfy.
no good.

ah my bad. it probably says it somewhere n the thread too blonde moment lol

Hey,

Problem resolved.

Noticed on this picture from that article, there is pin 5.


Pin 5 is the LCD Dimmer Signal.
But as instructed, we wired in Pin 7 - Park Lamps Dimmer Signal.

That is one too many Dimmer signals.
So we cut Pin 5 the original dimmer line so it is not conflicting with the new dimmer line.

And thats it, no more dimmer conflict and no more flickering.
Makes sense, hehe.

It all works great now.

Thanks for trying to help.
Now you'll know what to tell the next person who tries to hook one up.
CUT PIN 2 & PIN 5 TO AVOID ANY PROBLEMS,
hehe.

Cheers,
Neon.

Hey, guys. Sorry to revive an old thread.

I have taken notice of what has been said here and have cut Pin 5 and am running the parker lamps signal to Pin 7 only.

My only problem is, since I drive a '97 EL GLi Falcon, how do I add the missing trip computer data line wire to the Right Hand Side instrument cluster connector? Right now I have just jammed a wire in there but it doesn't seem to be connecting. Is there any particular female crimp connector that I could crimp to the wire and stuff in the connector? Or is there a certain way it must be done.

Thanks in advance for your help, guys. It is pretty urgent that I get this done as soon as possible, as I need to put my car back together before dark today. It's hard to mod the family wagon!

Cheers for that, mate. I wondered why there were two dimmer lines. Thanks for clearing that up, now the neighbours will have to teach themselves how to swear!

Thanks anyway, guys. I got it done. So I thought I would share in case anybody else was wondering the same thing.

All I did was strip about 15mm off of a bit of figure-8 cable, twisted the end of the wire so that there were no free strands and pushed it into the back of the Right Hand Side instrument cluster connector, so that the tip of the stripped wire poked out about 1mm from the female side of the connector. Then I taped the wire to the connector and pushed it back into the instrument cluster. It was a little bit harder to push in, but at least I know it is making good contact.

Also, because I have a GLi, I had a free power antenna connector that wasn't in use, so I just tapped the Brown and Blue/Red wire into the Orange coloured power antenna connector and then the power wires (Black, Yellow/Black) to the unused clock connector and the instrument data line (Light Blue) wire was then connected to the wire I tapped into the instrument cluster connector.

It works well now! Also, the blue LED mod I did to it just before installing it made all the difference. I'm stoked!