Planning To Change The 3 Guages In Center Cluster To Mechanical In R34 Gtt

[maddowse]

hi guys im planning to change the three guages in the center cluster to mechanical guages

they will arrive this week (1 digital boost (psi) 1 digital voltage meter and 1 digital oil temp guage)

im going to attemps to replace that standard cluster with these because i dont want A piller guages ,

if someone has already done this i would love a link to there tutorial as i can find one , but i will take photos as im installing and if sucsessfull i will post a tutarial , and show you how it turned out , the only part i think i need is an oil sensor adapter does anyone know were i get one of will autobarn stock them ? but give it a week or two and ill let you know how i went .

[Duncan]

just to check - you don't mean mechanical gauge as in....the oil line runs right to the back of the gauge right? I think that would be a very bad idea inside the cabin. If you mean the type that has an electric sender at the motor sending a signal to the gauge....forget I mentioned

[scotty014]

getting rid of the stock gauges is good, i did it and fitted defi's in there and they look soooooo much better than the stock ones, hear is a pic:

[maddowse]

when i mean mechanical i was wron in the definition , sorry. yeah i ment there is a sender for the oil temp and the guage is connected via a wire .

sotty014 i noticed you ran in to the problem i just ran into . the 52mm guage is just that little bit smaller !!!

i was thinking of setting them in there like yours but i might set them back a bit . how did you mount ?

im going to try useing hot glue around the back of the guage and an L bracket on the back of it holing the guage sturdy .

but good job there i hope my guages turn out to look as good

[scotty014]

unfortunately i cant take the credit for installing those gauges, my mechanic at EAS performance did it. the defi gauges that i have on are the racer gauges they usually have a black part around them but it wouldnt fit. he squeezed them in then used silicon to hold them in place, he said it was very fiddly to do, but the end result was awesome.

[maddowse]

yeah i just tryed the hot glue but it diddnt hold so i recon ill use a silicon as well . lol its all trial and error from here on .

but ill get it done and show photos if any ones interested ???

if no one shows interest ill skip the tutorial and just post the finnished pic

[bunyip22]

Well maddowse, I would be interested in seeing your tutorial and finished product.

Anything you learn on the way can only help others.

I am in the 'planning' stages of what to do with my stock R34 GTT and some mild chages in the interior sound good to me.

I do like the look of scotty014's gauges

[scotty014]

Well maddowse, I would be interested in seeing your tutorial and finished product.

Anything you learn on the way can only help others.

I am in the 'planning' stages of what to do with my stock R34 GTT and some mild chages in the interior sound good to me.

I do like the look of scotty014's gauges

thanks mate . my wallet wasnt too impressed after buying those gauges though lol.

id also still be interested to see how you go fitting the gauges.

[maddowse]

Well im headding down to bunnings in the morning to get sillicone to make a start. Just for starts the 3 guages cost me $95 all up including postage. Its gonna cost anothe $50 for the oil filter spacer (to use oil temp sender). But all in all wont cost too much

[maddowse]

OK hear goes for my tutorial , there are going to be two things missing which ill update one later.

1. oil temp sensor install (because I'm waiting till my cars ready for a service and ill do it then as i have to put in a oil filter adapter to install the sensor)

2. wiring (because i used the wire harness from my turbo timer because its never worked since i got the car so even if i showed you you would have to do it different)

OK to start i had to buy a new boost gauge from the one in the first post because the sensor was faulty , so i decided to skip the sensor version and went to autobahn and payed $60 for a "drift" mechanical gauge, it will be more accurate anyway.

before!!

step one

remove the air vents using a small screw driver to pop it out.

now remove this plug and put the vents aside some were.

next remove these two screws.

then lift and pull forward.

undo this plug and your center cluster should be free to take out the car.

now the center cluster is removed you want to take out the original gauges

just undo these two screws.

now you ready to start ,

i got this from bunnings because it wasn't too expensive but its made to hold sheet metal to trucks so its pretty strong, but still can be removed if needed.

use the silicone to stick the guages to the cluster surround, make sure you prop them up and put them in the right way .

now to wire it in all you need to do is make sure the red wires go to accessories (wire only get power when you turn the key)

and the black wires go to earth.

on the oil temp gauge the green wire needs to be feed into the engine bay and connected to the supplied sensor which will be screwed into the oil filter adapter ,

and if you decide to go with a mechanical boost gauge like i did then you need to run a vacuum hose from the back of the gauge into the right side of the engine bay (through the fire wall).

then put the center console back together the same at you pulled it apart .

in the engine bay use the supplied T piece and install on the hose coming from the intake plenum .

and now it should look like this , keep in mind i had to buy a new guage because the other one was faulty .

after

any questions just ask

any criticism please keep it to your self

an easy hint for you to get the wires and vacuum hose through the fire wall i went to bunnings and got a meter of this stuff called spaghetti its red and its used to put screws into bricks. feed that through the firewall and tape the wires and hose to it and pull through.

[OKBANANA]

I did this with three Autometer 52mm gauges.

But I made a backing out of a peice of ply and applied that to the back of the gauge cluster, so I can remove the gauges in the future with ease.

I also spray painted the wood black. Looked mint.

[maddowse]

yeah these were all 52mm gauges (funny that the 52mm gauges from overseas are slightly smaller than the one i got from auto barn)

i was thinking of useing the brackets they supplyed and making a backing out of aluminium (the same as you did the ply)

but i dont have the right tools laying arround.

it was suprising how stron the black silicone is when it sets but with a small cut (when i had to change the center gauge) it was easy to remove and the left over silicone just peeled off . so to go back to standard wouldnt be that hard at all.

not as easy as changing over brackets but not too hard.

its nice to see others have done this !! i looked every were to see if i could even be done but in the end i just figured ill go for it and if it works it works , and im very happy it looks wicked at night, i have night shift again tonight so ill take a photo and post it tomorrow.

[GUN_METAL_GTR32]

i have apexi guages that i just got and ill be putting them in the centre area.

my friend works at sabbadin and he said that when 34's come in wanting to do there guages they make brackets inside the guage pod to hold them all still.

when mine are done ill get some pics im just waiting for my guage pod to get finished (its being made in carbon

[bunyip22]

Nice tutorial and job Maddowse

I'll save this one for when I do my gauges

Do you think you will try to grt another digital boost gauge to match the others or are you happy with the Drift boost gauge?

[maddowse]

Nice tutorial and job Maddowse

I'll save this one for when I do my gauges

Do you think you will try to grt another digital boost gauge to match the others or are you happy with the Drift boost gauge?

hi i rather the drift gauge there it gives it a bit of a focus point and been a mechanical boots gauge i trust it more then the cheap one i statred with , at night it looks wicked with the blue from the temp and voltage guages mixed with the purple and red from the center boost guage ,

[maddowse]

i have apexi guages that i just got and ill be putting them in the centre area.

my friend works at sabbadin and he said that when 34's come in wanting to do there guages they make brackets inside the guage pod to hold them all still.

when mine are done ill get some pics im just waiting for my guage pod to get finished (its being made in carbon

how did your gauges turn out ? how does the carbon look ?

[GUN_METAL_GTR32]

hay buddy

i havnt done them yet as i have been waiting on a couple of other parts to arrive so i can do everythin at once instead of lots of little things

i didnt end up getting them made in carbon just resprayed everything in gloss black i think they look really good. its still got a nice factory feel to it lol (to blend in with the cage, brides and carbon doors lol)

[maddowse]

hay buddy

i havnt done them yet as i have been waiting on a couple of other parts to arrive so i can do everythin at once instead of lots of little things

i didnt end up getting them made in carbon just resprayed everything in gloss black i think they look really good. its still got a nice factory feel to it lol (to blend in with the cage, brides and carbon doors lol)

thats wicked have you got a photo ?

[Matt R34]

getting rid of the stock gauges is good, i did it and fitted defi's in there and they look soooooo much better than the stock ones, hear is a pic:

These look amazing! What are they 52mm or 60mm? I'm looking at replacing mine aswell!

+1 for an amazing job.

[GUN_METAL_GTR32]

thats wicked have you got a photo ?

when its finished mate.

my cars been at the mechanics for about a month now and all the other parts for the interior are scattered between my garage, my friends work shop and the factory in china to make the custom carbon stuff

ill post u pics when its all done mate

cheers

julz