So I peeled off the glass off and took the Speedhut glasses off of it. I didn't get a clear recess on some of the gauges location. To make sure I masked the Speedhut glasses and place them on the OEM glass where I would like the gauges to be. I placed the masked area to upward and I put double sided tape on the back o when I place the OEM glass back on the cluster they will stick to the fiberglass. I took off the OEM glass again and left the Speedhut glasses on the fiberglass. I painted the cluster and took the Speedhut glass off and it let me the marking where the gauges are going to be installed. This is it for today.

 

The stock speedometer does handle some other tasks, other than just indicating speed and distance.
These include:
a) converting and relaying the speed info to the cruise control unit
b) converting and relaying the speed info to the ECU (I believe the info is only used to bump the idle when rolling in neutral)
c) monitoring the coolant level sensor and controlling the low coolant light
d) communication with CPU No. 2 (This should be for the low coolant buzzer)
e) Indicates to the the ECU whether the car has traveled 20,000 miles or not (only important if your running a stock ECU and even then...)
f) relays ignition signal to the tach (Not important if you also replace the tach; as you are doing).

I realize that none of these are all that important, the car will run fine without any of these, but I am curious if/how you are addressing any of these.

 

 

I'm running a PFC and my coolant buzzer works just fine. Not sure if this is related to the 4 wires snipped on a USDM FD, mines an RHD one.

Learn something new every day though, I had no idea the speedo had anything to do with the coolant buzzer.... seems strange

 

The speedo is the brains of the cluster.

 

Well, I have a LHD with a PFC and my coolant buzzer works just fine, even with removing the 4 wires. Found that out a couple days ago :/

 

Thanks for your reply. I am watching this thread expectantly as this is perhaps the best gauge solution for the 7.

As for the coolant buzzer, I can say for sure that the buzzer does work for the USDM with the PFC, as I have had this unfortunate experience; so it should work for you.

I do also have a coolant level sensor just laying around, so I thought I would look at it and see what it does. What I found was that the coolant level sensor is the most expensive piece of insulated wire you will ever purchase. The sensor is, near as I can tell, just a bit of corrosion resistant metal attached to a wire; cast inside a plastic bolt. 67 ******* dollars! I feel dirty. Anyway, since the thing is insulated from ground it uses the conductance of the coolant to complete the circuit to ground.

Hope that helps, and keep up the good work.

 

I'm in the aviation field in the Navy and I have a bunch of electricians and electrical techs available to me. I'm pretty sure one of them can help me out making the OEM one work. Mine never worked but it is something that I really want. I plan on putting the warning light when the odometer reset buttons hole is at.


Well I'm done cutting the holes and fitting the gauges. I'm going to take a break from this and take my kids to the pool. when I come back I will take the cluster out of my car so I can use the good glass and start on the electrical wiring of this.

 

Almost done. Just got to adjust the gauges around a bit and finish the fuel gauge.

 

So while I was taking a break from the cluster I decided to swap the speedo on my original cluster from the guinea pig cluster to see if it worked. Well it didn't. So I swapped it back. When I looked at the ribbon that plugs to the speedo board closer it looked like it was torn.



I grabbed the extra one and swapped it. Didn't work. So I swapped the speedo again...hey guess what IT WORKS!!! Any one wants a finished Speedhut cluster for $1200? J/k :



So where is a picture of everything put together. I still need to drill the holes for the buttons on the gauges and attach the second circuit board for the fuel.

 

Wow! You work fast Rick. It took me at least a month to get where you are now when I did mine

Keep up the good work

Lane

 

I had instructions

 

subscribed

 

Well I'm done with this. Now is plugging all the sensors in which is pretty straight forward.

The part I was dreading the most was drilling the holes in the glass. As you can see, I put a crack on the speedo side. The flash makes it look 100x worst than what it actually it is. You have to look at it straight in to actually see it. I will get a new glass anyways so I can have pretty chrome rings again.

 

Great work, looks awesome!

 

Is there a way to tell Speedhut what color you want the gauges to illuminate?

I think I'm leaning towards the white font myself, but if they could glow red/orange, that would rock..

 

When you select the face color it tells you what color they illuminate when you hit night view on the bottom.

 

Yes they can do that, just go to the website, select a gauge and then scroll down. There are a huge amount of options.

 

Definitely going to do this down the road....white w/ red glow

It's a done deal. lol

Now....do I want the "Mazda" logo they have pre-loaded, or go with something like your "RX-7"....which I really like. ^.^

 

Gordon, the ring that Speedhut supplied are actually pretty nice and I really though about using them but I wanted an OEM look so I used the whole OEM glass with the rings. Halfspec had the instruction for me so it was very easy to do just need to take your time. I was thinking doing this for any one and charge but there is a lot of labor involved. The gauges can be installed in the factory gauges hole but need about 1/8 inch of the inner ring/hole trimmed (at least on the tach) but it sat too low for my liking but if I would have trimmed a little of the top I probably would have made it fit.


I only cut 3 wires from the factory wiring harness (fuel sender, tach signal and cigarette lighting) and I cut them to give me enough in case I want to reverse this.

Here they are installed in the car and lit up and running. The fuel gauge isn't as bright I was warned about so it isn't bad at all (it looks brighter in the pic than what it actually is). When the lights are on it dims. I haven't hooked up the oil pressure sensor and temp yet. I will do that this weekend when I change my oil and coolant. Got to get rid of the 50/50 mix I had for the Virginia winter and go with 75/25 water/coolant hot desert mix




So If I could go back and change anything of the way I did this I would do the following different.

1) Tried to make the gauges fit in the stock gauges opening. I tried this by trimming the inner part of the opening about 1/8 and made the tach fit but it sat too low. I bet if I would have played a bit with it, it would have worked.

2) Lay aluminum foil in the mold and pour the resin in then lay the fiberglass cloth on top. This would have ensure easier gauge placement and flat surface.

3) Make the hole for the button on the OEM glass with a "pencil" style soldering iron (I have a pistol style). This way I wouldn't have cracked the OEM glass.

4) Use another solution for the fuel gauge. Even though I do like it, I'm not thrilled about it. I sat in a BMW Z3 M coupe yesterday and I saw that it has 3 gauges under the radio. This gave me the idea to mount 2 gauges under the radio on a sunken in fashion to achieve this look. I could mount a fuel and volt gauge down there using a single din pocket and blending it in to the center/ac panel and ditching my Miata double din radio and using a Miata single din radio.

 

I was between the Mazda logo or the RX-7. since I'm trying to modernize my interior I went with the RX-7 because the Mazda logo looks to 90's IMO. If you really want to do this and you are in San Diego, I be glad to help you out.

 

Quick question about the milage odometer. Can you program it to match your cars milage?

 

Yes. You have to have Speedhut do it for you when you order them.

 

Damn you for doing this... just added another thing to my never ending FD to do list... I take my car apart more than I drive it...

Looks GREAT btw!

 

Wow, this is pure awesome!! I think I hate you for adding this onto my never ending list of **** that NEEDS done as well, LOL.