I'm not terribly intimate with the gauge cluster yet so forgive me if this is a dumb question.... but what is Black Label engineering offering? The plans to 3D print the gauge mount adapters that attach the gauge to the clear lens piece? If so, does that make mounting the gauges a bolt in/no cutting modification? Wiring looks complicated but I'm sure there's documentation I could follow.

 

Anybody running gauge dial illumination via their headlights only (vs parking lights)? I prefer using my parking lights during the daytime so I don't need gauge illumination then. Therefore, I'm looking to piggyback the +12V signal for the headlights. If practical (and lucky enough), I'm hopeful to get it via the harness connector(s) at the back of the cluster since most of my other SH gauge connections come from there already.

I see that Pin 4G (R/W wire) originates from the Combination Switch, then terminates with the High Beam connection (Pin 4K, B wire); thus, illuminating the High Beam dummy light. Therefore, I'm wondering if 4G is the (+) signal I need.

I suspect it's a tight fit attempting to use a Fluke meter behind the cluster assy, so I'm hopeful someone might have already figured this out.

 

I took that write up and cleaned up some of the diagrams and added the pinouts for the connectors you will be using. Some of it became hard to read when printed out.

 

So here's how mine came out. Thanks again to Esser for starting the thread and to everyone who contributed and all the pics. I replaced just the factory oil pressure and water temp gauges, using SH oil temp and water temp.

I decided to go with David Hayes's method of dremelling the openings wider, rather than the original method of cutting in tabs and folding. I'm sure either way works just as well, just be mindful of where the opening ends up relative to the original gauge if you care how perfectly the SH gauges get centered. I was pretty happy with the position I cut, but I think i need to re-adjust my entire cluster relative to the gauge hood since I can see some of the gauges dont look centered (even the remaining OEM ones). Maybe I'll do that if I ever refinish the plastics.















I used the old oil and water warning lamp stand-offs as conduits for the gauge wiring. These also had to be cut down and then the openings at the back dremeled out for the SH connectors to fit through.

Since I had bought only two SH gauges, they did not ship with a power distribution harness or with the SH dimmer. So I just made a distribution harness out of the extension harnesses that came with each gauge. Tying into the RX-7 Red/Black wire for +12V illumination and into the Red/Green for the inverter ground makes the SH gauges follow the factory cluster dimming. It's not perfect though, since in certain dimmer positions the SH backlighting flickers quite a bit. The RX-7 dimmer position has to be trimmed just so, in order to avoid flickering.







It's an LS setup, so for the SH oil temp sender I used the GM factory oil level sensor located in the oil pan. Removed the factory sensor and replaced with an M20 x 1.5 to 1/8 npt adapter plug.



For NPT threads, do not bottom out the sensor in the thread. Finger tight + 1.5 rotations is more than enough to make a good seal. Use a decent thread sealant.





For the gauge design I tried as much as I could to match the factory look.



So far pretty happy with the result. Interested to see how they perform after I get it buttoned back up and running.






Cheers

 

Where did you put the temp sensors? Do you have dual oil coolers?
They look great..

 

Nah just a single cooler, centered and placed in front of the rad. Oil temp sensor is threaded in the LS oil pan and the coolant temp sensor is threaded into the back of the passenger side LS head, both are using metric to NPT adapter fittings.

 

As far as I can tell, 1E is the B/L wire in the c1-01 I2 8 pin connector. It's the chassis ground for the cluster. I don't see why you can't still use this as the main cluster ground as it doesn't seem to be connected to the dimmer as previously speculated. ECU tach signal to the cluster is pin 3F, Y/L.

 

Been a while since I have been on and glad to see all this extra information and new gauge setups. Looking good guys!

 

Hey Guys
Bumping this thread back up as I have a question on the speed signal. I'm likely doing this conversion over the winter as I have all the gauges etc. However I have a Haltech that uses the conditioned signal from the now stock cluster to tell the ECU what speed I'm going etc. I'll be going to the GPS speedo so will loose that. Can I just change that input (SPI) to get signal right from the speed sensor in the transmission? If so anyone have the specs on how to set that up? Or is the better option to send the gauge back and have the speed output added since it's a known output of 4100 ppm (I think). Thanks for your help.

Mike H

 

I would have the speed output added. That is what I did. The digital signal can be used by cruise control and by the ECU.

 

This thread has been great. For anyone is ordering speedhuts... I wasn't happy with the white lighting. It uses that luminescence glow panel behind the gauges and the lighting had a greenish tint. I talked to them and they upgraded my gauges to LEDS. Apparently the Holley EFI gauges they make use LEDS and they have plans to move all of their gauges over to LED in the future. As for the install I ended up taking mine a step further because I did not like how the clear lens wouldn't snap in all the way. I dremeled the holes out so the gauges could be recessed flush. Then I temporarily tacked them in from the front using hot glue.



The tack was only so I could glue them in from the back side.



Then I removed the tack.



I filled in the seams around the edges with the RTV. I then wiped off the excess rtv with a paper towel and some wax and greese remover.




I still have some wiring to take care of, but I think I'll be happy with it.

 

that came out very nice!!!

 

Super clean work and some nice tips. Would have helped with my install for sure. Post up some pics when you complete the work.

 

Do you have any pictures lit up?

 

I just finished it today. I tried taking a few pictures of it lit up with my phone, but it doesn't do them justice. The first picture kind of makes them look purplish (they aren't), and the 2nd picture makes them look glaring bright (they aren't). I made a video documenting the install. The video does capture them better than actual pictures, but they still look better in person.





Here's my video throughout the process.

 

You must play FSX. lol. I thought I was looking at a multi engine flight engineer panel for a second. So cool !!!

 

Sorry for bumping this old thread, but I tried to contact him about the status of the models and didn't get a response. I'm in the process of trying to recreate them on my own from the pictures he posted. Essentially, they looked like 3D printed mounts that follow the same profile of the gauge bezels, but mount on the backside of the lens.

I drilled out the solvent welded/heat staked spots of the rings and just finished converting my traces to a DXF. The original speedo and tach bezel IDs are ovals, so I adjusted them to match the Speedhut gauge diameters.

The first pieces are from some scrap acrylic I had laying around. The outer profiles need some tweaks so that they sit correctly against the back of the lens.

 

Looks good. Keep us up on how this works. I maybe interested in a set if it works out well for you.

 

Update on the Black Label Engineering style adapters. In order to center the gauges with the bezels, I may need to dremel some material away from the factory outer lens. I have all of the outlines adjusted so that they sit flush against the inside, but the gauge body themselves are larger than the space available.

For anyone who has done the install, did you run into issues with the largest OD of the gauges crashing into certain areas of the lens? Specifically, these 2 areas (and probably the oil pressure gauge area):

Left side of the speedometer:


Top of tach:


I can make these fit without cutting anything on the lens, but my OCD will continually notice that the tach sits low and the speedometer sits slightly right.