So I've decided to trash my stock cluster (digital speedo w/buttstuffog gauges) and go with Lunar series gauges from Autometer. I've already have a piece of aluminum trimed up to fit on a stock Turbo Coupe cluster. As far as that goes I'm feeling pretty confident. What really scares me is getting everything wired up correctly. I've never really done much automotive wiring so I don't want to screw this up. I know some of you guys have some pretty sweet setups so let me have it...what am I getting into here? I know that the new gauges will have their own sending units, etc. but what parts of my stock wiring can I reuse if any? I am going to put in Speedo, Tach, oil press., amps, and water temp. along with a fuel gauge. These suckers are expensive so I'm gonna take my time a try to do it right but I figured getting a little advice wouldn't hurt either. Thanks ahead of time.
i know their are at least 4 people hear with a coustom gauge cluster setup. hopefully one of them will chime in. all i can say is your probley going to need an EVTM.
Here, this will scare the outta you...
(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/cluster01.jpg)
(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/cluster02.jpg)
(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/cluster03.jpg)
(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/cluster04.jpg)
(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/cluster05.jpg)
(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/cluster06.jpg)
Dang Eric! Is that something you just did to your car??
LOL Yes Derik, last spring. It was, um, how do you say, loads of fun. ;)
gulp...well the end result sure is spectacular. Its that first pic that I don't like the looks of. Geez maybe I should just keep my stock cluster and put in some gauges were my equilizer is and never hook them up. Oh they'll look cool when the cars not running ;). So Eric, how many hours do you have in just wiring. I still want to do this but I need more info before I get started.
It's not that bad really. I took the most logical approach I could think of and went with that. Time-wise, I had maybe 3-4 hours into the whole thing, over a few nights.
What you need for all the new gauges: ground, 12v+ power (ignition switched), and 12v+ for the lighting.
Each gauge also has its own unique sending unit wire (except the voltmeter).
What I did was make one main junction block for the wiring common to all gauges. That's what's in the first picture above, over on the right side of the column there. I have two ground wires (black in color--more on that later), one ignition switched 12v+ wire (yellow), and one lights 12v+ wire (blue) in that block, on the bottom part of it. Those are the factory wires from the cluster.
There are two ground circuits because I separated the gauge grounds from the light grounds. I probably didn't need to, but it didn't require much extra work, and it freed up the junction block from having a thick bundle of black wires in one spot.
OK, now out of the top of the junction block I fashioned up some pigtails with bullet-type quick disconnects. This is so I can remove the cluster easier.
In the bottom (6th) photo you can see the wiring very clearly. Don't let that intimidate you...it's very simple. The main power wires (yellow) on the left side are chained together. The right side ones are also chained together. Then both of those are joined in the bullet connector, which goes to the junction block. That's just one circuit, but you get the idea. All the gauge grounds are chained like that; all the lights 12v+ are chained (white wires); and all the lights 12v- are chained. I just made everything all neat so that the wiring didn't get caught on anything, that's all.
I used the factory wiring for the sending units, in some cases lengthening them, and marked them off with the green tape.
The factory turn signal/high beam/brake light/seat belt light wiring was forced into a bulb holder by me. It was not easy but I got them to work...dammit. They untwist just like the factory cluster.
So...in a nutshell...to remove or install the cluster now, it's almost like factory, except there are a bunch of small harnesses, not one or two big ones. But everything is on a quick-disconnect system and everything is labeled clearly. It works for me. I simply couldn't find an easier way to wire in the gauges together like that.
For a different way of doing it, see here: http://jr.rustecat.com/articles/cluster/
Click on the Installation section to see the wiring setup.
All I can say is, "wow!" It turned out great! I'm wanting to upgrade my gauges while I have my interior apart, but I don't think my wallet is going to let me do anything like that! lol
... again, very nice! :bowdown:
Eric, your gauges set the standard as far as i'm concerned. incredible :cheers:
Not to sound like a dick or anything, but howcome you guys didn't buy those premade aluminum or stainless Turbo Coupe bezels on ebay and go from there? Or are the holes the wrong sizes?
Anyway, I know from experience how much wiring is involved in gauges. When I put in my 3-gauge panel I couldn't believe the number of wires I had running off that thing. Doesn't help that each gauge has 4-5 wires going to it.
Those pre-made bezels are just for the factory gauges. The aftermarket ones have a different size. The two larger ones are 3-3/8", which is actually a bit smaller than the factory gauges. And the small aftermarket ones are 2-1/16", larger than the factory ones. Any way you slice it...something has to get modified somewhere.
Now what I did was keep the stock configuration, with the smaller gauges pretty much straight up and down like the factory cluster. That required cutting the bottom part of the black bezel to countersink the bottom two gauges. So far I'm the only one that did it this way. For Will's (weasle) and some other people's clusters, they stagger the smaller gauges to go with the curve of the steering wheel, and also to keep them completely contained underneath the cluster panel trim. That requires the smaller gauges to touch each other. It's a very, very tight fit but they will work.
I made a cluster pattern in a PDF file here:
http://www.coolcats.net/media/cluster.pdf
Feel free to use it as you wish. Again, it's based on 3-3/8" larger and 2-1/16" smaller aftermarket gauges.
Oh, and in case you're wondering about the file...when you do the aftermarket gauge thing as I did, you start with a Turbo Coupe cluster, but you have to make a new mounting panel to go over top of the TC cluster's black outer bezel. That's what this file is for. It's just a template for whatever material you're going to use (aluminum, plastic, carbon fiber, etc.). I used Auto Meter gauges but this also works for Cyberdyne/Nordskog gauges, and probably any other aftermarket gauge. And in case you're wondering, no, you cannot reuse the clear acrylic lense cover with aftermarket gauges...it simply won't fit anymore.
That's a really cool pattern! I might use that for an idea that came to me last night... it'll be similar to your's, but different!
I really think I'm gonna wuss out and just do the 3-gauge console over my radio instead. Kinda sucks I already have a TC cluster butchered up and a piece of aluminum cut but I plan to just do this later on. I've decided to save the money from buying the speedo (expensiiiive!), tach, and fuel gauge and devote that to other projects on the car. Go ahead and let me have it for wussing out! Thanks for the info Eric :bowdown: it will be used later on. Last night I cut up a piece of aluminum and made it to fit where my equilizer was. I'm trying to save cash and get everything together for a big project :evilgrin: on the car so every penny counts right now.
nice thread reguardless.....
The only thing that I'm concerned about with doing something like that is the fuel gauge. Do you need to swap the sender as well?
How about doing the panel in smoked plastic with a backlight of electroluminescent wire or leds?
See http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=3571&page=10 post #92
I’m probably wrong the guys on the site will know better. But can’t you just change your cluster to a stock 5.0 buttstuffog to get rid of the turbo gauge. When I changed my dash board I changed the cluster too, though everything was the same just the new one had a lot less miles on it and it was cleaner.
If all your wires match up than hopefully your tach is correct going from 4cyl to 8cyl.
Has anyone done that?
:dunno:
Innes...http://www.coolcats.net/media/base2tc.pdf ;)
It's been done many times before. There is nothing really wrong with the stock gauges, and for most people they'll do their job just fine for the life of the car.
However...when you get down to specifics...the stock gauges are not very accurate, especially on the higher end of the readings. Ford strangely used bimetal contacts for the smaller gauges our cars, which are extremely difficult to make accurate again if you bump them. And pretty much everyone agrees that the stock amp gauge is absolutely useless. The biggest advantage of the stock-type buttstuffog gauges is the tach and speedo...which sort of justifies the work to switch over to the buttstuffog cluster, but then you're stuck with at least one gauge that doesn't work, and three more that are fairly decent...if you don't bump them. ;)
So, going aftermarket gets you much better quality and accuracy, very important if you're racing. And you have a big variety of choices for size, looks, colors, graphics, etc. The down side is all the wiring you need to do. But for those of us that have done it, it's definitely worth the effort. Of course there is also the price involved...to get the basic 6 gauges (speedo, tach, fuel, oil pressure, water temp, voltmeter) you'll spend about $400 minimum. They usually do come with the correct sending units, though.
Chuck: the fuel gauge works perfectly fine. I needed to make no changes whatsoever to the wiring to make an aftermarket gauge function. I was more worried about the speedo...fortunately since we have an all-electric signal, aftermarket electric speedos hook up perfectly fine and work very accurately. My speedo is set up to be calibrated to account for any tire/gear combination. It was about $200 for just the speedo...but it's really cool and does what it says.
Yeah I agree that the factory gauges suck...my amp gauge hasn't moved since I bought my car. Also, after I installed my white gauge faces, the oil pressure gauge got stuck and the tach didn't read properly anymore.
I agree with you 100% and looking at your aftermarket cluster it looks awesome (maybe a project of mine in the future). It just seemed that he was looking for an easier way out from doing all that wire work. that’s why I mentioned it.
My car started off with the base cluster. I put the stock-style buttstuffog cluster in a few years after buying the car. Now this car has a very good cooling system, so the temp gauge worked fine. The tach and FMS 140mph speedo worked fine. Fuel gauge never gave me a problem. Oil pressure gauge saved my bacon a few times, actually. But the amp gauge never worked...changed it three times too. So I was 5 for 6, but only because the car had never been abused and was always garaged (very important for a convertible). In other words, all of the components of the car (electrical, cooling, oil, etc.) were perfect to begin with. Anything less and the buttstuffog gauges still work fine, they just may not be as accurate.
After comparing notes with my mechanic, we determined that the stock Cougar/T-Bird buttstuffog speedo and tach have the same exponential margin of error as stock Mustang gauges. This was after a dyno run...the dyno operator took the car to 5800 rpms, but the gauge showed 6200. That's exactly what Mustangs do. Again, for anyone racing, being accurate is extremely important. But for street cars that will never see the track, or just for something better than the stock cluster, there's nothing wrong with the buttstuffog cluster.
I ended up putting a tach in the car over the weekend and keeping the stock cluster. I have the base digital cluster and always wanted a tach in the car...don't know why because its an automatic(but hopefully that will change). So I ended up putting it where the clock was up above the radio and eq. Looks pretty decent and I had to do some minor tpuppies of the mounting points for the clock for it to fit. Of course I had to cut the dash bezel as well (just closed my eyes and went for it ;) ). I went with a 3 3/8 Stewart-Warner tach. I'll get some pics up soon. Since my motor is currently stock I didn't see the need to put all new guages in it just yet. Thanks for the help guys.
Interesting. I have been going back and forth on what to do with my gauges also. I think I have decided to put in the tripple digital with the volt, oil, and temp, that fits in a standard radio slot. I think I saw someone with one installed around here before. Then later as funds permit put in an aftermarket digital tach, speedo, and fuel in place of the stock setup.
Looking forward to seeing your pics. Jason.
I'm going to go shopping for a new digital cam tonight so maybe I'll have some pics up soon.
I know its kinda 80's but I really do like my stock digital speedo. I always played with the thought of getting aftermarket digital guages like Nordskog or something.
eric i want them gauges in mine thast bad ass looking, and since i wanna mod the living shiznit out of my t-bird im gonna have to look into doing that
thats pretty cool I was going to ask if you could use any cluster for it until I looked at the spare I had. and then I saw the blinker and high beam spots. how hard would it be to make new holes for those in other spots?
My original plan was to add LED's for the high beam and turn signals. That's one solution if you can't or don't want to reuse the stock indicators. In my case I kinda liked things as they came from the factory, and just built the gauges around them.
I don't think a stock cluster would be a good base to try and shove aftermarket gauges into. Too much hacking of the plastic means no rigidity. Unfortunately it looks like sacrificing a factory buttstuffog cluster is the most direct route.
well I have the base and full digital its a shame to cut them up but the digital needs the plastic piece in the back that the circuit runs through replaced on it. Im not sure how different the base and full dig. is though
it
it would look kind of automatic-ish ( if thats a word) but if you moved the bottom lights somewhere else you could space the guages a little farther apart and add possibly the square edelbrock air fuel guage in there as well not sure how big that thing is though. I dont know it might make the cluster look to crowded doing that though too. and yeah I know I should have edited my last post but Ive been up all night you gotta excuse the screw ups lol