Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Dash PCB-ectomy

My 2011 car is fit and well again after long awaited surgery to remove a failing dash pcb. Sorting the infamous pcb has been on my ‘to do’ list ever since the rear fog light decided to permanently stay on just before its MOT. When this multi-function item starts to play up the options are stark. When I enquired about a replacement about a year ago I was told they did still have some but £754 + vat. Also I believe the original manufacture Zonefollow now no longer exists. So the perfect excuse to attempt its removal and replace it with something a little more, ‘low tech’ and ‘future proof’.


The results so far. From the outside there’s only subtle changes. The vending machine switches have gone but still looking mostly original.


However from the inside it’s a little different. This is all that I removed.


And this is my new ‘plug and play’ replacement kit.

There were many way this could have been tackled. I’m sure the elec experts might have done it a little slicker. Meddling with electrickery is not really my thing but sometimes it’s fun to have a go…



My new switch assembly bolts to the back of the dash. The original 12 way Dashboard connector on the Chassis Harness that previously plugged into the pcb now connects here. I’ve also used a similar series 9 way connector to run off to my remote relay assembly. I’m using a heavy duty rotary switch to controls the blower motor and one of it’s low speed resistors, so two less relays. Also one less relay for the heated screen as the toggles can handle the load.



The remote relay assembly contains the remaining relays and the flasher unit. (I’ve added a spot relay too for a future project).The relays are all of a similar type as used everywhere else on the car and the flasher is a regular 3 pin Defender unit. It makes a nice loud click when flashing so hopefully won’t need a bleep thingy (which I forgot anyway ).



I wanted to keep the original factory Warning Light PCB as it’s quite elegant and the surface mount LED’s will be perfectly serviceable in the future. The down side with this is that the warning LED’s current limiting resistors have to be located somewhere so I incorporated them into a little interface cable. The cable connects the car’s original 15 way female Dashboard Sub Harness connector directly to the male 12 way header on the Warning Light pcb. The male header I’ve attached to a bit of Vero board, popped on the resistors and wacked it into a little printed housing.



I did have to knock up some stainless bodge bezels to hide the huge Ø23mm holes left over in the dash panel for mounting the previous switches. The toggles only need small Ø12mm holes and I didn’t want to remake the panel.



And the final rat's nest all stitched together. At least I can now easily fix things should anything conks out. There’s quite a bit packed in but not a problem as I can now remove the dash in about 3 minutes flat.



After a 30 mile trip in the sun today it’s all still working. So far so good. Fingers crossed from here on nothing falls apart. The bottom line is that I can quickly plug the old pcb back if needed but now that it’s out I plan to attempt a repair in slow time.

What could possibly go wrong…..