Captain Obvious

Nice detail work on the parts. Sometimes it's the little things that really add enjoyment. Like you, I've found that the driver controls fit into that category. And along those lines, I finally snapped a pic of my headlight switch that I cleaned up next to one that has been sitting in a box. Here's the two switches so you can see the contrast of before and after. It's the little things:

It looks like there have been a couple different designs of that switch over the years. The pic from that older thread looks like brass. Yours looks like white plastic, and the one that CanTechZ posted looks like black plastic. I don't think you'll be able to find just that little piece available anywhere, so it's either make a new one or replace the whole switch. How does yours attach to the spring? Does it slip over the outside like CanTechZ's, or is there a small pin that goes inside the ID of the spring? Or is there so little left of the part that you just can't tell?

That's some nice stuff there. My PO painted all that black trim in the rear of my car with a gloss black. It just doesn't look right. It's low priority for me, but one of these days I'd really like to do something about it.

Matt, I notice the shade issues with LED's. My eyes have always disliked the bluish hue to the "white" LED's. I just have a hard time seeing with that kind of illumination. Seems like I lose contrast or something. For my dash lighting, I used all "warm white" LEDs (color temp around 3000K?) and they are much better. I tried them for the first time on the road earlier tonight and I really like the way the project turned out. I'm out of time right now, but I'll try to post details next time I'm logged in. I also had an eighties vintage GM and all the instrumentation was amber (red/orangish). It was neat for a while, but I also drove eithgies vintage Acura/Honda and they used white. I liked the white better than the amber.

I doubt the end of that spring portion was solder. It doesn't have to be conductive, and low friction is important. I suspect it was a little plastic nubbin. That's the technical term. Are you sure yours is worn? It looks like a weird shape, but that might be normal. Do you have another to compare it to?

Don't let me be a party pooper though. Some of the results I've had with different designs was not what I expected, so make sure you try what you have. I was getting hot spots with the tower design, but yours are much shorter have the top emitter farther from the gauge face. That might be all that it needs to even things out. Give it a shot!

Wheee, To each his own, but I've found those top broadcasting LED's created "hot-spots" of light and didn't do a great job of dispersing the light evenly inside the gauges. The farther from the edge, the better (like the clock), but I found the tach and speedo were problematic. It might just be me looking for "perfection" though. I sometimes see stuff that others don't. Can be a blessing or a curse. TomoHawk, That's a good idea with the marker for green. Hope it turns out as intended. I think I've nailed down my brightness changes and have all my gauges loaded up. I put my dash back in yesterday and have a couple loose ends to tie up today. Haven't been out on the road yet with streetlamps and oncoming traffic, but initial indications in the dark garage are promising. I'll post up some details after I've confirmed everything is done.

I'm just glad you said it so I didn't have to!

I wouldn't call SOL yet... Here's a link to the Model 2 manual: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0932/8664/files/Model_Two_Owner_s_Manual.pdf?10807432948100287839 On page 20, they list the same clock sub-menu and features as the Redondo. So according to the documentation, it's in there.

Have you got a pic of what you're talking about? This isn't a stock Z wheel, right?

Well I can help you out a little on the brightness of the paddlewheels as well. See the resistors? There are eight of them. Each one is 330 Ohms if memory serves? The way they are connected in circuit is weird though... Even though there are eight emitters and eight resistors, they aren't paired one for one. They actually use four parallel paths through the assembly with two emitters in series in each path and two resistors in parallel in each path to limit the current. But what makes it interesting is that the paired resistors in parallel are on opposite sides of the board. So if you remove four of the resistors (being careful not to remove the same position on both sides of the same board), you'll double the effective resistance in the leg, thereby reducing the brightness some. Kinda hard to do with just words, and I don't have any good pics of the paddlewheels. I'll try to snap some tomorrow to explain what I'm talking about.

TomoHawk, That's funny. I take a camera to the yard with me as well. Since I do so much "customization" with parts from different vehicles, it helps me remember where I got what. Site, I'm trying to do the math, but I keep getting a divide by zero error.

Step away from the keyboard there Jake. I think you need to dry out a little....

Actually, what I was picturing was that you would estimate the length with a piece of generic rubber tubing, and then take that piece of generic tubing with you to the junkyard to use as a length gauge. And where I come from, a trip to the junkyard is never "wasted". It's like fishing... A bad day at the junkyard is better than a good day at the office.

I didn't measure the length of the line. I just cut it long enough to get a good strain relieving loop in it. Should be able to simulate and estimate with a piece of tubing. Put a loop in it and hold it up against the assy to gauge the length?

Haha! I was probably about the same age. The good old days without steering locks. Hopefully Granny will come back with some troubleshooting info soon and stamp out our threadjack!!

Zed, Haha!! Nice story. Not that something like that happened to anyone here, right? I think maybe the first car I ever drove was a 72 or 74 Dart or Valiant. Don't remember. Those were the family cars. Don't think my Dad ever found out...

Well to be honest, not knowing which model you have, I may have made an assumption that is not true. I went to Retro's website and randomly opened up one of their owner's manuals. But you may not have that model and they may not have incorporated the same features in all their offerings. The one I was looking at was for the Redondo and I was looking at the User's Manual here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0932/8664/files/redondo_manual-low_res.pdf?17019323021407945183 On page 25, they talk about the clock features. The clock controls are in the Clock sub-menu. Hope I didn't get your hopes up for nothing, and I apologize if that's the case.

Good luck and let us know what you find. Don't run it too long at that high of a voltage. I'm no battery expert, but I believe you can damage them if you run too high for too long.

Happy anniversary!! I sure wish I was the original owner of mine. I've only been the original owner of two vehicles in my life ever, and I do still have one of them. It's my motorcycle that I bought in 1982. It's looking better than I am too!

I've not messed with the GM three wire upgrade, but I thought it was pretty bulletproof. I thought that the sense wire needed to be connected though.. If it's disconnected, the alternator will try to put out more voltage to increase the sense feedback? What happens if you run a jumper wire directly from the sense to alternator output lug? Does the voltage stay at 16.8 or does it drop down to a more reasonable level?

Yours being a 78 isn't the reason it has vacuum pots. It has vacuum pots because it has air conditioning. The non-AC cars don't use vacuum for any HVAC controls. Everything is mechanical with cables, no vacuum. It's not a year thing, it's a feature thing.

What he said. They look great, very bolstery. But that width is going to be tough to deal with. It's been done before, right?

rossiz, Weird that your clock isn't accurate. I'm sure it's crystal derived inside the device and that's usually about as accurate as a cheap local time source can be. While I was looking through the Retro documentation, I did see some stuff about the clock... I didn't see any way to "turn it off" completely, but it does appear to be configurable whether it's the "primary" display or if the current radio station is the primary display. It's also configurable whether it's displayed while the radio is off or not. The default is clock ON while the radio is off. So you can't get rid of it completely, but you can maybe minimize it's impact?

I'm sure you know this already, but you shouldn't need any diodes or capacitors. If you've got 12V between ground and the yellow "constant" yellow wire, that thing shouldn't be losing it's memory. And it shouldn't matter at all what is going on with the "IGN/ACC" red wire. You should be able to make and break the connection to the red wire at any time, as many times as you want. As long as you have a good constant source of 12V (or something not too far from it) between the black and the yellow, it should maintain memory. But you're right in that it just might be an issue with the radio design itself and for some reason it's not tolerant to a quick "turn on, back off, and back on again" kind of situation. I would have expected Retro to have tested for that, but I have seen that kind of weird corner case before causing undesired effects. Some things to consider... First, what type of meter are you using for your investigation? Most digital meters update way too slowly to catch short transient voltage changes. Your constant +12 might actually be dropping out and your meter might just not be fast enough to display it. Second, I took a look at the wiring diagram for 71, and originally there wasn't any "always hot" connection to the radio. The original radio had no volatile memory to be maintained, and the only power to the radio was a blue wire that went hot only in ACC. So if you've got a constant +12V source at your radio, it's something that you or a previous owner spliced into somewhere. You had said earlier in the thread that your constant +12 was a light blue wire that the previous radio was hooked to. I think that's a non-stock addition and you might want to look into that a little more. Where does the switched (ACC) 12V source come from? Is that connected to the blue wire that went to the original factory radio? Just some stuff to think about when you get back to town.