There are a couple of caveats here. Because the "small" Auto Meter gauges are bigger than the stockers, two indicators will be somewhat hard to see. We put the critical water temp and oil gauges in the upper, easy-to-see positions. Checking voltage or fuel will require slightly more effort. And then there's the high-bean LED. We put it dead center, in between our turn signal indicators. When we say this thing is bright, we mean that we may be the only driver on the road wearing sunglasses and showing high beams at the same time. But that's one of the cool things about this setup; each person can position the gauges and indicators to their own liking. And as with so many other things, it looks easy when an expert like Matt does it. But even the wiring-phobic among us can accomplish the job with careful work and attention to detail. The payoff is tremendous-both function and form are greatly improved. Check out the pics as we show you some details of this instrumentation transformation.
Removing the factory gauge...
Removing the factory gauge cluster is pretty easy. Our wiring pro, Matt Sims of Johns Customz & Performance, quickly removed the lower dash panel and dropped the steering column.
Doing so creates much better...
Doing so creates much better access. Matt then removed the factory panel (secured by Torx bolts), undid the two cluster retaining bolts, and pulled the cluster out.
Wonder why the cluster comes...
Wonder why the cluster comes out so readily? The cast-in connectors on the stock cluster plug into the cavity connectors in the dash. Pull these and the speedo cable free, and the old gauges come right out.
Installing the Ultra-Lite...
Installing the Ultra-Lite gauges into the Covan's Classic panel is pretty easy, so we'll skip most of that procedure. You will, however, want to make sure the gauges are straight before tightening them down. After a test-fitting, Matt commenced with the wiring.
Each small gauge is fitted...
Each small gauge is fitted with blade terminals and a lamp socket. The speedo and tach pigtails are also plugged in. (Hint: The purple wire goes to the speedo.) The black ground wires from the lamp pigtails are the fastened to the center studs on the smaller gauges (1). You can connect more than one ground wire to a terminal, as Matt did here. He also plugged each gauge connector into the proper gauge. For example, the black/pink with black connector goes to the voltmeter (2).
Continuing with the gauge...
Continuing with the gauge connectors, the white (lamp power) wire from each gauge is plugged into a connector on each of the grey wires in the new harness (arrow). Note that Matt has organized the harness into bundles, and also the mounting brackets on the small gauges have been installed.