XJ900 Clock Buttons

The XJ-900 has a nifty clock on the dashboard that still keeps time, however the buttons to set it seem to be inoperable. Pressing them does nothing. Holding them for 10 seconds does nothing. Doesn't matter if the key is on or off...no response. Even tried holding both down. Also tried lifting the little rubber caps and shooting some contact cleaner in there, but that didn't do anything either. (it appears there is another seal underneath, and I didn't want to break anything, so I didn't pry at the caps too hard)

Saw an old post here where somebody said they just waited until 1:00 and pulled the battery, which I suppose is a fallback but not very convenient.

Has anyone ever tried to disassemble the dash and repair the buttons? Are they accessible? Hate to go through all the trouble of taking everything apart only to find out I still can't get to them.

 

Well, the "disconnect/reconnect" the battery trick doesn't seem to work. I went out a little before 1:00 to give it a shot, and the clock retained its time even after the battery was disconnected for a couple minutes. :-( It must have a capacitor in there that maintains enough charge to keep it going at least for a little while.

I left it disconnected. Maybe by the time I go back out there tonight it will have reset. If that works, then I'll leave it disconnected until tomorrow afternoon to try again.

 

Made another interesting discovery. When you disconnect power, it doesn't reset...it just stops "ticking". I left it disconnected all afternoon, and when I reconnected it, the time is the same as it was when I disconnected it. So, I guess the trick is make a note of what time it says, disconnect the battery, then go back at that time and reconnect.

 

Ok, strike that. I had made a note of the time being 9:08 when I disconnected earlier, and when I reconnected, I thought it said 9:08 again. But I don't think I had my glasses on, and I may have misread it. After another experiment tonight, it appears that it resets to 9:00 after a power interruption.

Sheesh. Why can't the stupid buttons just work?

 

Per the owner's manual:

The digital clock always shows the time regardless of the main switch position.

Adjustment:
1. Turn the main switch to the ON position.
2. The time (hour) setting can be done by pushing or holding the "H" switch.
3. The time (minute) setting can be done by pushing or holding the "M" switch.

 

Yeah, uh, no. Tried that. No Bueno. I think the buttons are probably oxidized or something. Once I figured out the 9:00 thing, at least I was able to get it on the right time by planning ahead.

 

This clock is possessed. Thought I had it figured out, but it was really just messin' with me. I had to disconnect the power while I was working on wiring the GPS, so of course that meant setting the clock again.

At a couple minutes before 9 I went out and disconnected the battery, then reconnected at the appropriate time...and it reset to 9:16. Say what? Tried it again. 9:16. And again. Still 9:16.

Ok, we'll wait around a few more minutes and set it at 9:16. Time comes, reconnect the power, it goes to 9:16. Great. 1 minute later, it changs to 9:10! Aaaahhh! After that it continues keeping time.

So, I had to wait another 12 hours until 9:00 rolled around to try again. First tried at 9, it went to 9:16. Then tried again at 9:09, it went to 9:16, then a minute later it reset itself back to 9:10. Perfect!

I hope I never have to disconnect the battery again.

 

There's probably a dead spider across two pins of a clock chip.

 

I had the dash off briefly while I was installing the GPS wiring...didn't think of it but I should have opened it up to see how it looks in there while I had it off. Maybe I could have gotten the buttons working.