OT: help with a 1996 Grand Am instrument cluster

Being a Ford person, I'm unfamiliar with pontiac cars and am hoping someone here has some experience to share. The alt.autos.pontiac newsgroup was no help at all. The instrument cluster in an aquaintances car went bad. It's a 1996 Grand Am. We replaced it with a cluster from a salvage yard car. There is no reason to believe this cluster is bad. Now the car starts and runs for about one or two seconds, but will not stay running. We put the old cluster back in, and the car starts and runs normally, but the cluster still does not work correctly. Is there something in the ignition circuit that passes thru the instrument cluster that would cause this, and is there any way to get it to work with the new cluster. Is it possible that the car will only work with the cluster it was built with?

thanks for any help Jim

If anyone is interested, this reply was given by a member of the pontiac newsgroup. the procedure worked perfectly. Hard info to find and definitely worth keeping.

Subject: Re: HELP:: Question about 1996 Grand Am instrument cluster. From: "jhones.family" snipped-for-privacy@insightbb.com Date: 8/10/03 12:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time Message-id:

This vehicle is equipped with a passlock system in which the logic for the passlock is in the cluster

turn the ignition to the on position
try to start engine( engine wont start or stay running)
notice the security lamp should be flashing
leave key in the on position until it stops flashing (approx 10 min)

5 turn key to off position 6 turn back on again (DO NOT ATTEMPT TO START) 7 wait for security lamp to stop flashing again

repeat steps #5,#6,#7

9.turn ignition off and then back on and this time try to start engine. If everything is in working order you will have just performed the long version of PASSLOCK relearn procedure.

PS. Make sure Battery is strong as the vehicle will be sitting with the ignition in the on position for approx 30 minutes