Hello
So like the title says, I decided to spruce up the dash a bit. The hockey stick gauges, although they looked kinda retro-neat, just kinda sucked as actual gauges. I got the cluster from a '94, and then I got one of these ***removed dead link*** . They're white gauge faces, with the speedometer numbers in Metric. For me, I don't care if it's in metric, and it was $18 plus shipping.
I decided to first do the face swap on the new cluster, which involved pulling the needles off, pulling off the old faces, adding new foam cutouts so the warning lights wouldn't bleed into each other, and then putting everything back together with the new white face. BAD IDEA! Despite my best efforts, I still got the needles messed up. With the cluster just in your hand, you can move the gauges super easily, so while I had the needles off, everything kinda went somewhere else. If I were to do this again, I would get the cluster installed, start the van, note where everything was, pull the cluster out and switch everything, then put the cluster back in and reinstall the needles again with the engine running. Otherwise, although everything looks good, once you turn on the key with it connected, you'll realize what a horrible horrible mistake you've made.
The speed needle was the trickiest. It turns out that when you turn on the key, the speedometer actually "primes" itself and moves the needle about 7-8 mph. But, with the needle resting on the peg, you normally don't see that motion. I found in order to get the speedometer needle back to proper position, I had to actually put it below the peg, then kinda bend it to move it to the proper side of the peg.
As for the actual cluster swap in the van, that was easy. The '94 cluster was a direct fit and direct connection, so it literally was just "plug and play." The surrounding dash trim is held in by five screws, two at the bottom, two right above where the top of the cluster is, and one behind the climate controller. The climate controller is held in by two screws at the bottom.
I had troubles getting everything disconnected from the climate controller, so I wound up just kind of twisting the panel around it to get it out of the way.
The connections for the Panel Dimmer switch and the Lights switch remove very easily, so I pulled those to allow me to move the dash.
Once I got the dash surround trim panel out of the way, it was literally just four screws holding in the cluster.
Once I got everything out, like I said, it's literally plug and play. The new cluster fits right into the spot vacated by the hockey stick gauges, and the connections match up perfectly. I just pushed the new cluster into place and bolted it back in.
The pointer for the gear indicator is just a thin cable that gets pulled by the steering column as you shift. In order to remove/install, move the shifter all the way to 1 and look on the left of the column. The little clip just pops off. As far as the pointer itself, mine was off (it was between N and oD in oD), so I found a random spot where there was a loop for me to use a bread tie. I then looped the bread tie around the cable for the pointer, and tied it tightly enough to take extra slack out of the cable. So now, my pointer is spot on. I suppose if one really were patient and wanted to experiment, one could try to simply install the new clip further up on the column. But, since it's stretched out and there's not a lot of clearance, I decided to just jury-rig it instead of futzing with the clip. Sorry, I didn't get a pic at that point.
Oh, and here's what they look like at night.
Of course, like I said before, once I got them in, I had to mess around with the needles about 20 times to get them right, and I think my speedometer might still be off my 1-2 mph. Moral of the story, kids, is that if you decide to do a face swap, make sure the thing is installed and powered up so you know where the needles go when you try to put them back!. But at the very least, it really is an easy swap (especially if you're just doing cluster to cluster), and I'm really happy with them, and no more goofy hockey-sticks!
So like the title says, I decided to spruce up the dash a bit. The hockey stick gauges, although they looked kinda retro-neat, just kinda sucked as actual gauges. I got the cluster from a '94, and then I got one of these ***removed dead link*** . They're white gauge faces, with the speedometer numbers in Metric. For me, I don't care if it's in metric, and it was $18 plus shipping.
I decided to first do the face swap on the new cluster, which involved pulling the needles off, pulling off the old faces, adding new foam cutouts so the warning lights wouldn't bleed into each other, and then putting everything back together with the new white face. BAD IDEA! Despite my best efforts, I still got the needles messed up. With the cluster just in your hand, you can move the gauges super easily, so while I had the needles off, everything kinda went somewhere else. If I were to do this again, I would get the cluster installed, start the van, note where everything was, pull the cluster out and switch everything, then put the cluster back in and reinstall the needles again with the engine running. Otherwise, although everything looks good, once you turn on the key with it connected, you'll realize what a horrible horrible mistake you've made.
The speed needle was the trickiest. It turns out that when you turn on the key, the speedometer actually "primes" itself and moves the needle about 7-8 mph. But, with the needle resting on the peg, you normally don't see that motion. I found in order to get the speedometer needle back to proper position, I had to actually put it below the peg, then kinda bend it to move it to the proper side of the peg.
As for the actual cluster swap in the van, that was easy. The '94 cluster was a direct fit and direct connection, so it literally was just "plug and play." The surrounding dash trim is held in by five screws, two at the bottom, two right above where the top of the cluster is, and one behind the climate controller. The climate controller is held in by two screws at the bottom.
I had troubles getting everything disconnected from the climate controller, so I wound up just kind of twisting the panel around it to get it out of the way.
The connections for the Panel Dimmer switch and the Lights switch remove very easily, so I pulled those to allow me to move the dash.
Once I got the dash surround trim panel out of the way, it was literally just four screws holding in the cluster.
Once I got everything out, like I said, it's literally plug and play. The new cluster fits right into the spot vacated by the hockey stick gauges, and the connections match up perfectly. I just pushed the new cluster into place and bolted it back in.
The pointer for the gear indicator is just a thin cable that gets pulled by the steering column as you shift. In order to remove/install, move the shifter all the way to 1 and look on the left of the column. The little clip just pops off. As far as the pointer itself, mine was off (it was between N and oD in oD), so I found a random spot where there was a loop for me to use a bread tie. I then looped the bread tie around the cable for the pointer, and tied it tightly enough to take extra slack out of the cable. So now, my pointer is spot on. I suppose if one really were patient and wanted to experiment, one could try to simply install the new clip further up on the column. But, since it's stretched out and there's not a lot of clearance, I decided to just jury-rig it instead of futzing with the clip. Sorry, I didn't get a pic at that point.
Oh, and here's what they look like at night.
Of course, like I said before, once I got them in, I had to mess around with the needles about 20 times to get them right, and I think my speedometer might still be off my 1-2 mph. Moral of the story, kids, is that if you decide to do a face swap, make sure the thing is installed and powered up so you know where the needles go when you try to put them back!. But at the very least, it really is an easy swap (especially if you're just doing cluster to cluster), and I'm really happy with them, and no more goofy hockey-sticks!