Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Aesthetics Reverse Glow guage installation questions....?????

I have a couple questions as the dash of my tour sits in pieces while parked in the driveway:
1. How do I get the guages to stay on??? I put them over the old ones, which is the point right?? No way to hold them on, any suggestions?
2. Where doest the power source come from for those? There's a bunch of wires coming into the back of the guages, but idk if it's the red and black like I think it is or another color?? Also, how do I go about splicing them???
ANY help is greatly appreciated!!!

Okay, I have reverse gauges here goes

1: To stick the guages.. a couple of methods have been used here. I personally used gorilla glue to hold mine down. But others have used a double sided tape.
[image]http://fototime.com/20929958F9B6309/standard.jpg[/image]
Here are my gauges laid out on the cluster. Now, for my application I used a bunch of pennies stacked in various places on the guage faces to hold them flat onto the original guage surface. You want to ensure that the overlays lay as flat as possible on the surface. If you use a glue, make sure you use the minimal amount. I used a little too much in areas and you can see some overlap, some areas where the glue seeped a little into the clear areas.
I do recommend you clean the original surface as clean as possible first.

2: Powering the units..... now everyone has a different idea here. Mine is a little unique in that I took apart the switch that controls the color & brightness. I couldn't find a place to mount the stock metal plate, so I cut it off and used a blank dash insert on my pre-98 dash.
[image]http://fototime.com/B68F1CF5C80DC74/standard.jpg[/image]
blurry as heck, but you see the insert?
[image]http://fototime.com/0F341EE6848D95F/standard.jpg'[/image]
There's the insert. I don't know if post 98's have them or not..


But to power my overlays I had two (2) wires a black and red.

The black is the ground and I just simply took a bolt off the steering wheel column and wrapped the wire around that (I actually had a plug pressed on the end, then fed the bolt through the hole in the plug and re-tightened)
For the red I used a female connector on the end of the wire and I placed it in the back of the dimmer switch plug.
[image]http://fototime.com/4490CDFEE511544/standard.jpg[/image]
The yellow plug is the dimmer switch plug (plugs into the back of the switch itself) I'm using a circuit tester here to find the wire in the plug that has power when the parking lights are on. You can see it's lit here. That way I know that when I put the wire into the back of the plug, when the lights are on, power will flow to the guages.
[image]http://fototime.com/D27E66908938511/standard.jpg[/image]
Okay, if you look at the wires going into the back of the plug, you can see the female connector I've crimped onto the end of the red power wire. Now on the back of the dimmer plug are openings where the wires themselves go into and are held in metal clamps. There's a gap there, where with a female plug you can put the guage power wire into. No crimping, splicing or anything is needed when you do this. If you choose a standard sized female plug it'll fit into that opening with enough tension that it holds. Mine works 100% with no problems...

I hope this helps. Please PM me if any problems at all.

Here's my final product.
[image]http://fototime.com/1E64EE3BFE66C6F/standard.jpg[/image]
[image]http://fototime.com/A8015F656CE513C/standard.jpg[/image]

Good luck!!!

are my pics showing up?

Your pics didn't show up at first, but the second one did with the modded insert. Thanx for the help. I didn't know if glue would wreck the backs of the guages or not. I'll let ya know if I have any other questions. Thanx

I can't see my images.

But,

here's the cluster


here's the dash insert I put my modified plug into



checking the plug for the right wire


here's the wire plugged into the correct slot on the dimmer plug.


The guages installed


The gauges working. You'll love them when you see them!

Gorilla glue is okay. It sorta is a glorified emlers glue. Since the overlays are a thick plastic you can peel or scrape the glue off the back with no hassle. But, don't plan on taking the overlays off. Once they're one they are ON.

Good luck!

Also, the clear plastic gauge cover snaps into postion. On mine, once I laid the overlays down I couldn't snap the cover back on. In fact I had to cut some snaps off..

But, since the clear cover is held firmly in place on the dashboard by the screws holding the cluster in place it didn't matter.

Oh, if you do glue... make SURE YOU DON'T LET ANY GLUE TOUCH THE GAUGES OR NEEDLES. The needles are electric and take hardly any torque to turn. If the glue hits the needles and prevents them from moving you'll have to take it apart and undo the interference. I found that out the hard way!

Well, i'm still workin on it now, but should have it finished up tonight. I hafta work at 6 tomorrow morning, so I don't have a choice! LOL. Anyways, thanx for all the tips. You have been most helpful. I really appreciate it!!!!

get em on and get some pics!

I have ELGlow gauges but I like yours so much more. Where did they come from? If I already asked you before, sorry. It's just that they look so damn good.