A while back I had seen a guage replacement semi walkthrough where aftermarket guages were fit into the stock oil/water possibly fuel places on the dash. Thing is I believe this person was using the small digital guages (forget the maker of them), so the mounting did not interfear with the plastic circut board type film on the back of the guage cluster. What I am currious about is there a way to fit a normal 52mm apexi guage into the factory housing without screwing everything else up. I am looking only to keep the tach and speedo and replace the oil water and fuel guages but I'm afraid to hack into that plastic circut board film thing. I will be running the microtech LT10S ecu if that makes any difference or not. Was not sure if I could fold the plastic film back and have that work or not. Any hints, tips, or simple "that can't be done" would be much appreciated.
This is also on a FD if that helps out.

Thanks guys,
Jonathan

 

http://www.maxcooper.com/rx7/how-to/...ges/index.html

 

yeah thats the write up I was refering to, he went with the low profile digital guages so there was not issues with that back green plastic circut board thing, all he had to do was to drill a hole on the outside of it to run his wires. I know he did have to do some modification on his guages as far as triming them down some but I think the overall dept of those guages is considerbly less than what I am trying to use.
What I am looking to do is insert some apexi EII guages I have into the factory spots. I believe the depth of these guages would stick past the green board. The way that board looks, it all runs a looped circut or what have you (sorry my electrical experiance limits me on proper terms).
I'm wondering if anyone has done this before or since I would be replacing the three guages on that side could I just fold the green plastic to the side. Doing something like this would I have to connect the path where the factory clips would normally complete the circle?
Thanks again.
Jonathan

 

^^

 

I've done this - currently have a defi and a plx wideband
pics are here:
https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/pics-defi-wideband-installed-stock-instrument-cluster-553548/

 

Did you hard wire your factory guages or did you not cut up the flex circut? I am still waiting on the gauges I am going to use to come in. My concern was the flex circut and the gauges being too deep and not want to clear the flex.
Someone did point me to another forum that had a walkthru of hardwiring the tach and spedo and just doing away with the flex circut entirly. Just curious if thats what you did or if you just squeezed them in with the flex.
Thanks,
Jonathan

 

-didn't mess with the flex, they fit in fine, especially the defi 52mm, the PLX was a little long, but I still managed without toucing the flex circuit board on back. If you intend to use the stock clear plastic cover over them though, then they might not fit. I had to cut that up and remove the sections where I used the aftermarket gauges. You'd probably want to do that anyway since the aftermarket gauges have their own plastic covers.

 

still working on converting everything to green to match the defi's and thinking about going with plx's new multi function display lcd gauges also - this project has been on hold for quite awhile too since I've been incredibly busy with work for the last half year or so

 

So I assume you just plugged the factory guage plugs back in to keep the flex circut?
Thanks for your input, as I mentioned I'm still waiting on the guages to come in, I'm just trying to line things out to see what options are with either making them fit with the flex or going the hardwire of the tach and spedo route and ditching the flex.
-Jonathan

 

Yep - everything just plugs back in like before. If you ditch the flex you're probably gonna have to rewire more than just the tacho and speedo, as all the gauge lighting and idiot lights run through that as well, at least if I remember right