Changing Face Dials

[kidafa]

Hi All,

As lame as it sounds ive obtained a cluster with the same white dials as the ones sold here EBAY LINK Im not using the cluster as the seller didnt think it was working correctly....

Im wondering if any one has ever changed the Face's on their clusters yet? Ive seen some chat about it but not sure if any one has done it. What im wondering is how do I remove the needles to install the white faces and then reinstall the needles with out stuffing the calibration?

Cheers,

Chris

[darrinspencer]

Can be done, but you can stuff up pretty easy. You need to pull off the needles

I wrecked 2 R33 ones mucking around

You could ask an instrument repairer to do it. Should not cost too much

[kidafa]

Yeah i might take my cluster out and take it to an instrument cluster place next week when the olds are away and i can put my car in the shed for 3 weeks and work on it when ive got time

[rb26stagea]

Hi Chris,

There's a video in youtube of how to remove the cluster, but I can't remember if it shows removal of the needles. Also, when you actually fit them, I would recommend making sure your fuel tank is 100% full: you have to manually hold the needle on the fuel guage in the correct position when reconnecting the cluster. The first time mine was done, the workshop just assumed I had 1/2 tank, so set the needle halfway, even though the tank was full (a quick phone call would have avoided this!!): not knowing this, i drove the car around quite happily until I realised the error (when I had just under 1/3 tank of fuel, and the guage was way below empty): we tried resetting the needle, but it never worked properly again. Fuel guage was ruined, so I bought a new cluster.

Incidentally, the low fuel light was still accurate, irrespective of what the needle was reading...

[kidafa]

Thanks for that Micah,

Ive had the cluster out before when I changed some of the blown globes and the remaining halogens to LED's. I didnt mess with the gauges or anything.

Im not going to drive the car without the cluster so why will the fuel gauge matter? As long as it goes back on the car in same position as when i pulled it off yes?

[kidafa]

Know when i think about it as long as i can get fuel sorted...

With

GPS I can calibrate speed

Data scan can do water temp and rpm

hmmmm

[rb26stagea]

Thanks for that Micah,

Ive had the cluster out before when I changed some of the blown globes and the remaining halogens to LED's. I didnt mess with the gauges or anything.

Im not going to drive the car without the cluster so why will the fuel gauge matter? As long as it goes back on the car in same position as when i pulled it off yes?

That's exactly it: I just found it easier to position it at full, rather than trying to remember how far between the markings the needle was sitting when the cluster was removed. But then, I'm the paranoid type

[260tech]

That could be a bit of a mission.............."With

GPS I can calibrate speed"

In that my take on the exercise would be........ 1) The pointer will be pulled to start with, 2) the cluster will be connected but not secured, 3) the vehicle will be in motion at maybe 20~30kph to establish your "live zero point", 4) the driver will be in the driver seat driving/steering, 5) the work space is in the driver seat & behind the steering wheel. 6) the pointer (a fiddly little thing) will need to be tapped firmly onto spindle at the correct rate of knots in correct spot, no parallax error?

No doubt you have sussed it out somehow. Just wondering how you would achieve that, is all?

Good luck with it anyway.

Cheers GW