2 problems need help with both!!

Here's some background 98 dohc coupe 152000 miles atx
Just put new spark plugs in my wires are in horrible condition waiting for new ones to come in the mail. Thr first problem is sometimes while driving my speedometer will drop to zero and my tach will lock at 1500. If I hit the face of the gauges a few times it kick back in. Maybe bad wiring?? Has anyone else had this problem?? The second problem is now accelerating from under 35 the engine loses power and sounds like its pinging or popping. At an idle or very light acceleration it sound and runs great. Then once I'm over 35 I can accelerate at any rate and its fine. I haven't really done anything with this yet because I'm not exactly sure where to start. Any suggestions??
Thanks for any help

Got this by googling it.
http://www.automotivehelper.com/topic134357.htm

http://forums.neons.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=47543&view=previous


this one has pics for the cluster fix




the other issue is probably due to the bad wires

Actully the pinging had started on x mas day driving to families. As the day went on and the couple days after it was running better and better. Now no noise pr power loss at all. Odd. But next chance I get to do some work I think I'm going to try and clean connections for cluster and see if it helps.

If your ignition wires are bad, being damp will make them more likely to misfire. The warmth of driving around would normally make them run -slightly- better, until the next time it sat out in cold/damp/rainy conditions.

Yea that makes perfect sense because if I remember right it was raining here all day on christmas.bought a good set online just waiting for them to get here. Thanks for the help guys

not to be rude but cleaning the contacts on the cluster wont help this is a common problem ive done 5 or 6 of them my self its very easy

I agree that cleaning contacts on the cluster wont help. You have to remelt the solder on the pins of the connectors. I used a very small soldering iron (30 watt I think), a fine solder with a rosin flux core, and re-flowed the solder at each pin, adding a touch more solder, mainly to get the flux on the cracks. The cracks were so small I couldnt see them until I got out my magnifying glass.


About bad ignition wires: I have some old pre-war cars, that spend months or years sitting idle (& indoors) in Virginia. As part of the 'starting' procedure, I spray WD-40 on all of the spark plug wires. It helps a lot, even if it hasnt been raining recently.
I had 59 Jaguar that required this treatment EVERY TIME I wanted to start it, if it was raining. Even with new plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor and points - it still wouldnt start in the morning without the WD-40 spray. The joys of a Joseph P.Lucas LTD ignition!

also wrapping the wires in electrical tape will help them last till you get new ones. Soldering the cluster is really not that bad and is only the real way to fix the problem there are some other "temporary fixes" but never last long.

if you don't trust using a soldering iron you could try this stuff haven't tried it my self but might be worth a look

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/b70c/

jason; thanks for the source info on the conductive glue. I have wished I had some of that on several occasions, where I wanted to improve conductivity through a joint where I couldnt use nearly as much heat as solder involves. Often the problem comes up with connectors in old cars.
I used some of it in college, well over 40 years ago - and it was expensive then too; I worked in a lab that used it, and we got ours from a government supply contract - and they wouldnt sell to private citizens, only to univ. labs!
Thanks again...

O I see. That page didn't come up right for me the other day but I see how to solder the points now. That's what ill end up doing and hopefully it fixes it. Still waiting for a day off work to do anything tho. I should not add solder tho? Just remelt it and let it cool. I should be fine soldering, I used to do a lot of it at an old job. But I can see where the glue could be useful.

O I see. That page didn't come up right for me the other day but I see how to solder the points now. That's what ill end up doing and hopefully it fixes it. Still waiting for a day off work to do anything tho. I should not add solder tho? Just remelt it and let it cool. I should be fine soldering, I used to do a lot of it at an old job. But I can see where the glue could be useful.

The risk with adding solder to the connections is that adding much might short from one pin to the other, at the circuit board. So just add as little as possible - to ensure you get a good solder joint. The old solder might be well oxidized on each side of the almost invisible cracks. You might have to flick a little solder away from the joint if it gets 'built up' too much. If you have done soldering before you will know what & how to do it. If I had some rosin powder handy I would not have needed to add the solder as I did.

Fixed it up about a week ago and its been fine ever since. Thanks guys the soldering worked great.

And thank you for giving us the feedback that you got it working.
Viva los Escorts!