mshihrer

Ok, I've seen some pics of the white inserts with the red letters, but, I saw some guy on Cardomain.com that had theses guage inserts that were illuminated, he got them from Ebay.



So, I checked, sure enough, I found them for 30 dollars, plus shipping. Anyway, they showed up today, only 3 days after I ordered them, so, I thought, ok, install them! They are cool, silver backed, with blue numbers, and red for all the metric stuff and the redline, of course.



Well, first thing you have to do is pull your instrument cluster, not so easy. You WILL have to remove your steering wheel. Make sure you lock it and then remember where the wheel was before you remove it. The factory service manual says to also remove the turn signal/wiper switch thingee, but, I was able to get my cluster out without doing that.



TIP: The thing that holds the cluster in place is the speedometer cable.



You have to give alot of slack to be able to pull the guages out. I found a retainer inside the engine bay, and also under the car, typical Japanese bend-over clamp. Undo those, and you should have enough play in the speedo cable to get the cluster out.



Also, there are two really big plugs on the back of the cluster. When you can get to the point where you can reach behind it, there are two tabs holding these connectors. I found that if you pinch the two togeter, and pull slightly, the connectors came apart.



Once you have the guages out, you have to take the front glass part off. The glow guages are flexible, and just slip under the needles for all the guages. You have to remove some screws from the guages, slide the inserts into place OVER the exisiting inserts, and then reinstall the screws.



This all worked great until I got to the speedometer. The speedo has that little reset button, and there was NO way to put the insert in with that button in place, so, I removed the speedo. There are 4 screws holding it in in the back of the cluster. There is a little plastice linkage with a snap ring, remove that, and then remove the screw holding the bracket that holds the reset rod. Once you see it, it's no big deal. Slip in the insert, and reassemble the speedo.



Now, all that is left is routing the wires that come off the inserts. They don't give you much choice, they pretty much point to the top of the cluster. I just notched the back part of the cluster out, and then put the flat black part back on. I put a little dab of silicone over where the wires come out to keep the dust out. I couldn't wait to install them in the car, so I hooked them straight up to a 12v source and WOW! What a difference!



I had the black/orange guages originally, and they were ok, but now, the guages are just beautiful. If you want to make a really cool mod, for only 40 bucks or so, get these things, they are worth it!

drifter

Any pics of your guages?

I've got white faced dials, not illuminated though.



PS. I added line breaks to your post to make it easier to read.

BlownSE

Glowing gauges= RICE

mshihrer

[quote name='drifter' date='Apr 19 2005, 11:15 PM']Any pics of your guages?

I've got white faced dials, not illuminated though.



PS. I added line breaks to your post to make it easier to read.


[/quote]



I have pics, will post

mshihrer

[attachment=30462:attachment][quote name='drifter' date='Apr 19 2005, 11:15 PM']Any pics of your guages?

I've got white faced dials, not illuminated though.



PS. I added line breaks to your post to make it easier to read.


[/quote]

ok, here is a pic, nighttime, before I am going to install them back into the dash..it's hard to get good focus, best I can do. I hope, and I'm sure, the needles will illuminate by the lightbulbs..

mshihrer

[quote name='mshihrer' date='Apr 27 2005, 07:31 PM'][attachment=30462:attachment]

ok, here is a pic, nighttime, before I am going to install them back into the dash..it's hard to get good focus, best I can do. I hope, and I'm sure, the needles will illuminate by the lightbulbs..


[/quote]

ok, I got them back in the dash, hooked up the stock wires, and yep, the needles light up. they are orange, but I don't care. One thing I did before I bolted everything back up was start up the car to make sure my speedo and tach and all the other guages worked, and they did. Now, all I have left is to mount the dimmer and color switch, and tie it in to the parking lights. I have a little knockout on the dash next to the original dimmer switch, with nothing in it, I don't know what it's for, some option, I guess. Anyway, that's where the dimmer and color switch is going to go. I'm not into underdash mounts. I'm gonna have to cut the wires to the color switch to make it work, and resolder them, but should be no big deal.

Again, at night, this display is awesome, and very much worth all the trouble and the 40 bucks. Makes the guages look more modern.

mshihrer

goof

mshihrer

Heres a tip for cutting square holes in plastic. I learned this from my rc airplane days, excuse me if you already know this. Say you want to cut a small square or rectangular hole for a switch or whatever. If you have a propane torch, and an exacto knife with a blade to sacrifice, you can do this real easy. First mark out your square. Then drill a very small pilot hole at each corner. Then get your knife ready, and spark up your torch. Hold the tip of the exacto blade into the torch flame until it just starts to turn red (careful, too much heat will curl the balde). Then, use the hot knife to cut thru your plastic where you marked it, between the holes. You'll have to reheat the blade a few times, and then clean up the plastic because it tends to make a lip. but, you can make a square hole real easy this way. Hope this helps..

revdawson

Do you still have any information or instructions abut the dials you put in?