<e28> Lithium battery SI board

Subject: <e28> Lithium battery SI board
From: Kevin_Barcellos@domain.elided (Kevin Barcellos)
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 12:21:17 -0700

     After three months of searching I finally located and purchased an '87 
     535is.  One of the first projects I attempted on this car was a NiCad 
     battery replacement to cure an intermittent tach. mpg guage and a 
     constant SI light.  I followed the directions in the FAQ, but when I 
     opened up the cluster I was surprised to see two Sanyo Lithium 
     batteries, not Varta NiCads ( I understand from the FAQ that this is a 
     new version of the board.)  I couldn't get the board separated from 
     the backplane - it was attached in the middle with no obvious screws, 
     so I couldn't see the batteries well enough to ID them.
     
     Some questions:
     - Does anyone know the model number or voltage of these batteries?
     - Why couldn't I get the backplane detached from the board?
     - After removing the speedo it  I might have enough room to get at the 
     batteries - it looks like the tabs for the batteries are soldered on 
     the back of the board only, is this correct?  If so I should be able 
     to replace the batteries without removing anything but the speedo.
     
     TIA,
     
     Kevin Barcellos
     
     87 535is  96k