SI Board battery... Strike 1, I'm OUT! (long)

[325eXTATIC]

Hey all... Sad story to report...
While taking the Gauge Cluster out and taking the whole cluster apart to get access to the board is actually much easier than expected... My SI board itself is corroded beyond repair. Several traces have actually separated from the board itself and many of the solder points are coroded beyond being effective for connectivity.

So the realy question is now this...

I need to replace the main SI Board, does anyone have a line on where to buy a refurb or known good replacement board for an '86 eta? Are there any differences between the boards for the different models? I don't want to buy a whole cluster if I dont' have to... assuming a new board is cheaper than I could get a whole cluster for at least.

As far as the batteries go... All my research indicates that the SI board batteries on the 80's model e30's are NI-CAD's. And as for replacing them... I would say it is actually a better and easier idea to locate them away from the dash itself. The contacts on my batteries were actually punched into the batteries themselves, not soldered... So (at least for me) I had to remove the contacts from the board while still attached to the batteries. Removing the contacts from the batteries is impossible in my case. This leads me to conclude that if other people have similar situations... the easiest thing would be to do a 6 ft run of wire from the contacts on the board to somewhere safe and easy to access the batteries. I can see why people do it that way... it may only be every 4-6 years... but it is still a PITA!

Would have taken pictures, but my old camera is dead, and I am saving up for a new one!

Any questions, Ideas, suggestions for places to buy a new SI board? I am open to all comments etc!

THANKS!!!

Josh W.