How To: Swap Tachometer with Aftermarket Gauge

[TurfBurn]

First of all, you'll need to know how to do a little bit of soldering, handle some cutting, and realize that if you mess up you'll destroy a 500 dollar car part. With that being said. See the how to on removing your gauge cluster to get up to the point where this takes off.

You also need to purchase an aftermarket tach. I picked up a SunPro Powerline 3.5" gauge for doing this. I reocmmend this gauge because it's cheap, it fits perfectly, and both GotZoom and I have gotten this to work nicely.

To get the sunpro apart you just need to pry off the front ring with a butter knife. Then seperate the electronics out by removing the little access panel on the back and then using a butter knife to pry on the air core to push the electronics out. Then you are all set:

[TurfBurn]

Once you have the gauge cluster out completely you should more or less see this on the front and back:

[TurfBurn]

Next you need to go in and take off the needle of the stock tach. Just put a butter knife on either side, twist, and it'll pop off nicely. Once that is done, remove the two little black screw, and then remove the plastic facing. Save that as you'll need it for some things later. Then once that is off you can grab the air core and pull it off as well:

[TurfBurn]

Once you get the motor out you need to go through and make room for where the aftermarket tach is going to sit. So take a utility knife or a dremel tool and start cutting away the plastic. Get it so that it looks pretty much like this:

[TurfBurn]

the next critical step is to make more room yet for the aftermarket tach electronics. You need to relocate the capacitors to the rear of the circuit board, and you also need to remove the pins from where the motor was, and I also moved the LED's to the back as well so that they wouldn't light up the gauge funny because of a battery indicator or an open door indicator.

I did this instead of removing these components completely because the traces led to so many places and so many chips that appeared to be shared that I didn't want to risk causing the rest of the cluster to stop functioning or worse yet damage it. There is plenty of space behind the cluster when installed in the vehicle, so this was a quick and easy fix.

You'll see pics of the two big caps moved to the back with the LED's and a pic of the points that I believe are what you must desolder. But please verify those points, as I can't guarantee I identified them right in the picture:

[TurfBurn]

Now with the electronics all relocated you should have enough space for the aftermarket tach. Now you need to put the "light screens" back on so that the turn signal, brake light, etc all look properly. Just simply cut them off from the old tachometer face and super glue them on to the plastic of the gauge cluster. Also use the black trim face to make sure that you locate them properly and don't have any gaps that will leak light and so forth:

[TurfBurn]

You're nearly there at this point!

Next you have to modify the black gauge trim to accept the new tach. The new tach actually fits in from the front, and if you trim well will snap in place and not move at all. You can not install it flush underneath the black trim as there simply is not enough space no matter what. Thus it will stick out slightly further, but it is not obtrusive at all as you'll see in some later pictures here.

So here is my trimming job done with a utility knife on the black trim piece:

[TurfBurn]

At this point simply snap the sunpro gauge into the trimmed piece, and feed the wires through betwen the white plastic and the circuit board (I made a little "doggy door" for the wires to make it easier).

Then you'll need to trim out sections of the clear plastic from the rear of the circuit board to allow for the LED's and capacitors to stick through.

Also you can drill out the clear plastic to allow for the buttons on the sunpro. Unfortunately for me despite taping the plastic, and trying to drill carefully, the plastic shattered and I'll have to try and get a new one yet at some point here.

BTW, the "night" picture of the gauge is without the gauge using it's own internal illumination. That is backlighting picked up from the stock cluster lights.

Here are some pics of the finished product:

[igdrasil]

OMG, Thats a very nice JOB! i MEAN IT

[TurfBurn]

Thanks! :D

[mopiko]

Wow, amazing!

[igdrasil]

Do you live near Maryland?

[duMb KeoLa]

dude...fucken awesome how to! couple more quetions that i have are...

where and how much did you get the sunpro tach from? exact part number?

exactly what do you move from the front to the rear of the gauge cluster? from what it seems like its only the two big capacitors and the two led lights..but there are a lot more soldering points highlighted...

what color is the face of the sunpro gauge? do you have a direct link to it so we can see the features?

this is exactly what i want to do to my car...this is fucken pimp man! i wanna get rid of my big 5" tach and make the car more stealth with something like this...thanks for the how to!

[duMb KeoLa]

found the website...did you get it directly from there? and also, where did you hook up the rest of the wires for the tach? did you run a separate swich for the backlighting? any how-to on that? thanks man

[TurfBurn]

dude...fucken awesome how to! couple more quetions that i have are...

where and how much did you get the sunpro tach from? exact part number?

exactly what do you move from the front to the rear of the gauge cluster? from what it seems like its only the two big capacitors and the two led lights..but there are a lot more soldering points highlighted...

what color is the face of the sunpro gauge? do you have a direct link to it so we can see the features?

this is exactly what i want to do to my car...this is fucken pimp man! i wanna get rid of my big 5" tach and make the car more stealth with something like this...thanks for the how to!
I go tthe sunpro tach from Ebay.. but they sell them at autozone and a few other places to. It is the Sun-Pro 3-1/2" "performance white face tachometer" CP2012. I bought it for like 50 bucks from Ebay... so just a matter of searching around for it I guess.

You listed exactly what gets moved to the back... the other soldering points indicated are for removing the air motor assembly. So 3 capacitors (2 big, one small) and the 2 LED's.. the back picture with moved parts is not the "final" condition of hte back..

The gauge face is a bit whiter than the other gauges. Look at GoZoom's "1st Phase of my tach project" thread and you'll see a little better the difference.

[aftershock63]

Skills!

[duMb KeoLa]

okay..another question that i have is i noticed that you can set a rpm/switch point on the tach....how does it let you know when to do that? i didnt see any type of light that it has extra...so does the lights in the back flash or something?

thanks man

[TurfBurn]

actually there is an LED that is at the 0 marker... bright as hell when that thing lights up. But that's where the shift light is. Cleverly hidden as a clear "stop" for the needle down at 0 rpm's.

[Shane5425]

http://www.nordskogperformance.net/m9222.html

http://www.nordskogperformance.net/m9001.html

http://www.nordskogperformance.net/m9013.html

http://www.nordskogperformance.net/m9016.html

lets find a way to put these in the pannel, have a total digital guage cluster

[TurfBurn]

none of them showed up...

[Shane5425]

links work for me..

http://www.nordskogperformance.net/

thats the home page

[TurfBurn]

yeah they work today.. but sure didn't when I tried last night... odd.. but very cool gauges. As long as the sizes match swapping them in would actually be pretty simple I think... super simple if you don't car about your signal indicators and warning lights... I don't know how much is actually controlled through that cluster though... but I'd think you coul just pull your instrument cluster and build one with those gauges.

[Shane5425]

id go to a junk yard and get a guage cluster to try it on so i wouldnt mess up my original, id mainly want the tach and the speedometer

[Maxx Mazda]

Sorry, not trying to be a dick, but that looks like shit. Looks kinda cheap. Why did you replace the stock one?

[igdrasil]

Sorry, not trying to be a dick, but that looks like shit. Looks kinda cheap. Why did you replace the stock one?
because his car is completely programmable. Microtech!!!

And by the way, our tachs are one of the most unprecise things our car has.

when the MSD shift light shows 3000rpms, the tach says 3200, and the MPI says 3000 too.

[TurfBurn]

Sorry, not trying to be a dick, but that looks like shit. Looks kinda cheap. Why did you replace the stock one?It's not a perfect match and yeah it looks a little funky. But no where near as ugly to me as when people mount 5" monster tach's with a 1" monster shift light in the corner of there dash. Well at least that's how I look at it... but some people like that kinda thing... others think it is rice (I've just seen way to many high school kids with stoch integra's or the like with the monster autometer tach mounted on the dash or pillar)...

but like igradsil said, my car is fully programmable, from rev limit down to fuel at cold cranking... But the biggest reason as to why I did it is that the mazda gauge cluster doesn't like my microtech EMS and thus trying to get the tach to work with it would result in frying out the 500 dollar gauge cluster because of a shared microprocessor on the gauges. Thus, I got around that and have a working tach that is not completely gaudy by modifying and installing into the stock tachometer location.

[Wingman21]

Can you explain more how you removed the needle, because it could be helpfull for those who wanna install indiglo gauge :) !!! Where exactly did you insert the knife and what do you mean by twisting (huh) !?

Thanks

[TurfBurn]

I took two butter knives and came in from either side of the needle so it looked kind of like a T with a very long top and short bottom... then I turned the knives on their axis opposite of one another. So if you were looking from the shank of each knife they were both being turned counter clockwise from their shank... (so your hands would be turning opposite directions of each other) and the motion is like the hollywood stab and twist... just without the stab.

That make sense?

[Wingman21]

I took two butter knives and came in from either side of the needle so it looked kind of like a T with a very long top and short bottom... then I turned the knives on their axis opposite of one another. So if you were looking from the shank of each knife they were both being turned counter clockwise from their shank... (so your hands would be turning opposite directions of each other) and the motion is like the hollywood stab and twist... just without the stab.

That make sense?
Yep make sense... just to be sure : The knifes have to be perpendicular with the needle, like a "T" as you said !? Also, why do we need knifes... you have to push clips underneath the middle circle !? Last thing, can it be done also with the Gas/Temp needles :) !!!?

Thanks

[TurfBurn]

I used butter knives because they are nice and flat and wide... the key being the flat and wide part.... yep you have it right, they end up perpendicular to the needle... and yes the other needles are the same so it should work just fine! when you get it up a wase out of the armature in the middle I'd use a marker to try and mark where the needle was pointing just in case something moves... so you are still somewhat accurate or whatever.

Later.

Steve

[Wingman21]

I used butter knives because they are nice and flat and wide... the key being the flat and wide part.... yep you have it right, they end up perpendicular to the needle... and yes the other needles are the same so it should work just fine! when you get it up a wase out of the armature in the middle I'd use a marker to try and mark where the needle was pointing just in case something moves... so you are still somewhat accurate or whatever.

Later.

SteveWhen the cluster power is off the needles come to the lower part if I remember right !!! Also, why do you have to twist the needle !? Is there clips that hold them or you have to align some pin with the two holes (up and low) in that picture :

http://www.protege5.com/vbb225/attachment.php?attachmentid=13416

Also, when you're twisting, is the needle actually moving or its only the piece underneath the center that is rotating !? Last thing, when you get the pin back on, how do you know if it is correctly alligned !? Is there only one way to put it back !?

Thanks again :)

[Iconoclast]

its kinda hard to see your tach lights

[TurfBurn]

its kinda hard to see your tach lights
I never hooked up the illumination that the tach has in it... that's just bleed over light from the stock setup... so yeah it's dark, but I can see enough of it at night... so I figured dimmer was better for now...

[TurfBurn]

When the cluster power is off the needles come to the lower part if I remember right !!! Also, why do you have to twist the needle !? Is there clips that hold them or you have to align some pin with the two holes (up and low) in that picture :

http://www.protege5.com/vbb225/attachment.php?attachmentid=13416

Also, when you're twisting, is the needle actually moving or its only the piece underneath the center that is rotating !? Last thing, when you get the pin back on, how do you know if it is correctly alligned !? Is there only one way to put it back !?

Thanks again :)
right.. they come back to the lower portion, but the then rest on the needle stops, I'm not sure but I had concern about whether or not the electronics were indexing where the needle is or not, so say you put it on where it would be at 5mph, it may still fall back to the needle stop, but it would always read about 5 mph low whenever it was showing a speed, it could do that, it may not... I'm not really sure to be honest, was just going with "better safe than sorry"

the twisting is only to pry the needles up, it is not actually a rotation for the needle... you are basically twisting the knife tip to make it leverage up under the needle, the T that you make with the needle and knives never moves or anything... the needles have a VERY thin metal shaft coming out of them about 1.5" long that goes down into the gauge cluster. You are just trying to get the needle pulled up with the shaft out of the little air motor thing underneath.

knowing you have it in the right direction is why I said to mark it with a marker. There is NOTHING to index off of, so I was nervous about that. I didn't pull any needles other than what I had to, so I never played around with that part... I'd ask some of the people who have done it already to see what their thoughts are... but I'm just cautious by nature when I do this kind of stuff.

[Wingman21]

the twisting is only to pry the needles up, it is not actually a rotation for the needle... you are basically twisting the knife tip to make it leverage up under the needle, the T that you make with the needle and knives never moves or anything... the needles have a VERY thin metal shaft coming out of them about 1.5" long that goes down into the gauge cluster. You are just trying to get the needle pulled up with the shaft out of the little air motor thing underneath.
Then why can you use your fingers to pry the needles up (huh) !?

[TurfBurn]

I'm not following you...

[Wingman21]

You are just trying to get the needle pulled up with the shaft out of the little air motor thing underneath.
What I mean is if you're trying to get the needle pulled up, why do we need knifes to do that !? Could we just use our hand instead or the knifes actually help by pushing a clip or something else underneath the needle !?

Thanks (thumb)

[TurfBurn]

the needles are in there QUITE hard I guess.... and pulling up with your hands you are liable to bend or break something... that's where most people have broken them I guess. the knives just give a clean leverage point that doesn't damage then and helps get it up to where you can safely grab it and get it out. But there is no clip or anything else... I could take a picture of my extra needle (which I can send to anyone who needs one) so you can see more of what I'm talking about if you want.

Later.

Steve

[Wingman21]

the needles are in there QUITE hard I guess.... and pulling up with your hands you are liable to bend or break something... that's where most people have broken them I guess. the knives just give a clean leverage point that doesn't damage then and helps get it up to where you can safely grab it and get it out. But there is no clip or anything else... I could take a picture of my extra needle (which I can send to anyone who needs one) so you can see more of what I'm talking about if you want.

Later.

Steve
Ok... pic would be great actually :) !!!

Thanks by the way for all your explanation...(bowdown)

[NetGuy]

I wouldn't mind seeing any pictures related to the needle removal, if they're still out there.

Thanks...and nice mod btw.

[TurfBurn]

I don't have any pics of the actual removal... I'll see if I can come up with something though!

Steve

[Shane5425]

yeah , i would like to see the needle removal thing too, i think i just broke my gas and fuel needles.. the metal rod pushed further into the needle..

[TurfBurn]

*somewhere* I have a spare needle I can part with... it's the tach needle... so same size and one of the other needles I think. I'll have to see if I find it...

Later.

Steve

[Shane5425]

well i got my faces on , i read a forum by got wake that he uses 2 butter knifes, it worked on my tach and speed.. the metal ppieces broke inside the guage itself.. so there is no way of fixin the gas and temp without replacing, so i gonna call the junk yards tommorow..

[Brian MP5T]

That is some crazy Shit. Looks alot better than a F-ing MONster Tach!

[Pheonix]

if only i can do that with my temp gauge, no tach, and put a tripple gauge one in.
i was thinking about it but $300 for the gauge could buy me a cluster with a tach from the dealer.

[joka1]

allright before i get flamed too much i have a monster tach on my dash with a shift light (hey i take all the points i can get at shows) but now onto the reason i am typing...
my autometer tach is also 200 rpm's behind. wonder if that is a constant amoung all protege's?

[TurfBurn]

My tach is dead one, but it is driven off my Microtech EMS, so can't help you on if it is because of the protege or otherwise.

Later!

Steve

[Pheonix]

quick? on that note, i'm getting for my father and me, a defi HUD, it says to wire it into the ECU,
can i use the wires running into the gauge cluster?
those are a raw signal from the ECU right?

[boostdprotegelx]

old as donkey poo... but, i'm definatly wanting to swap out my guage for this one..

http://www.autometer.com/cat_gaugedetail.aspx?gid=2578&sid=4

what do you think about putting that one in?

[fkmp5]

without sounding ignorant, why would you want to replace the stock tach with an aftermarket tach? what do you gain?

[boostdprotegelx]

without sounding ignorant, why would you want to replace the stock tach with an aftermarket tach? what do you gain?
the stock tach is not accurate. newer tachs will be.

[boostdprotegelx]

here's a how to basically from autometer. let me know Turf, what you think about it. thanks.

[boostdprotegelx]

steve.. i just started looking at my subscribed threads, and realized you never got back to me on this... with the sunpro, or even this gauge i was looking into...would it fit?? and what did you hook the wires to?? i didn't see it. i could have missed it.. idk.

[Wagonbacker9]

idk that steve frequents here much anymore....

Turfburn: Last Activity: 03-28-2009 12:54 PM