joel a friend of mine has an 88 vette and he still has the 5 pin in his. thought his connector was messed with now i'll check if i have the right cable as i couldn't read his with my scanner.

joel do you know if there is a special cable for the 5 pin connection or do you use the multi connection cable. if it is the multi connector do you have a diagram of what wires connect to what pin? thanks for any help. dave

just one other question (sorry). is the obd1 connection bi-directional? just wondering as that would mean you could reprogram the prom if need be.
eddie208752008-02-14 21:08:46

You cannot reprogram ANY prom chip(that I know of). They are "burned" chips. The later cars have programmable computers, though.

The ALDL connector on my '85 is the 12 pin. The connector for the OTC Monitor scanner is labeled "GM TPI". I use the GM1 connector when I use the Crap-on 2500 scanner on it.
The Crap-on, and the OTC scanners have the connectors for the 5 pin ALDL...at least mine do. Most newer scanners may not furnish them. You can use the old paper-clip method on the 5-pin connectors, and watch the "Check Engine" light blink for the codes. Seems like you jumpered the "A" and "B" terminals, but I can't remember...it's been many years since I've had to jumper one, since I bought my first scanner in '90.

As far as I know, only the OBDII systems are actually bi-directional, meaning you can control certain functions thru the scanner(idle speed, injector firing, EGR application,etc.), and also re-programs the PCM thru it.

I've been watching units on eBay for a couple of weeks now and prices seem to be all over the place.  Some folks are VERY proud of what they have and others seem to be rather reasonable.  Some units have more cartridges and adapters than others so I can see where that would influence the price to a certain degree.  I'm sure brand spanking new these units were/are very spendy but none of the items I've seen listed so far have mentioned when they were originally purchased.  So I'm curious to know - what is a fair price for one of these? 

i paid about $500 for mine last aug (about). the one i bought looked like it was brand new. it came with the cables for gm (obdI- obdII), ford,, chrysler. and a multiport cable. it also came with the cross refererence manual fo proms and a users manual and a software disk. i purchased separately the set of 4 books (one for each car maker. as an extra i also bought the small printer for it, as it gets hard to remember all the numbers (for me at least) plus i figured it would make it easier to keep a history to compare the differences. i would estimate a total cost of about $600. it also came with 2 domestic primary cart,2 domestic trouble shooting cart, 1 asian primay and 1 asian troubleshooting cart.

at the time i bought mine the cheaper ones on ebay looked like they went thru the war. they probably worked but looks sometimes were enough to keep me from bidding on them. i guess i am lucky that i could afford the extra.

i have had a lot of good experiences buying on ebay. you just have to check the feedback of the seller. i have found sometimes price is not all you go by. the pictures of the unit help and the way the seller describes it can tell you alot. i would take an average price of what they are selling for and go from there. some people overprice things as they think that is what they can get for them. i have seen people list them even now for over a $1000. what it cost new and what you can sell it for is two different stories.

i also want to thank joel (he's the man), as he saved me from buying another scanner that i technically didn't need. i was told by someone that i thought knew what he was talking about, that you could reprogram the prom with it. i can get around on a home computer with pretty good results but the car computers still got me going nuts. i am learning pretty good tho and glad that it bugged me enough about what i say are first generation computers to ask about the other scanner. it might have been nice to have for my escalade (2003) but at this time i dont need it and if i can get software for this scanner it will suffice it.

sorry for the book and hopes this helps. my advice is to get the best deal you can.

Yeah, really, what they are worth really depends on what all you get with them. New, my 2500 cost $2000, with everything they had available at the time(which was almost 20 years ago now). That included the most recent software, all of the connectors, and the manuals. The software updates were KILLING me, tho. About every two years, they would update the software to include the newer cars, both Domestic and Asian. EACH update would be a minimum of $600!!! Now, in the past 4-5 years, they have issued a reprogramable cartridge, so you keep the one main cartridge, and it gets it's update uploaded from their computer. The updates are still ridiculously high.... I stopped updating mine in '99...just couldn't afford it, as I have everything I need to support the vehicles I own. The shops now have scammers, so I use theirs. (Of course, as I mentioned earlier...ours walked off, so we're sorta stuck on the later cars for now.)

So...what's it worth? I've seen some 2500 scammers, with all of the latest software, and all of the accessories, sell for $1000 used. I haven't looked on e-may, so I couldn't take a guess as to what they are selling for there. $500 sounds like a GREAT deal, if you can get one for that, with the software you need, and connectors.
I may have to take a tour thru e-may, and see what is out there....Adams' Apple2008-02-17 09:24:00