INT: Reverse gauge install! (EX Models)

[alb_accord]

DISCLAIMER(spelling lol)
WHATEVER U DO,,, U DO IT ON UR OWN RISK. I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR UR FUCK UPS.
ok got that out of the way.

DON'T PULL OFF THE NEEDLES. U GONA FUCK IT UP.
This diy is for ex models with cruise control and sunroof(one srew there lol)

Many people like to have a different view of their instrument panel. it all comes to what someone likes. someone likes stock look. someone likes different lights and someone likes reverse gauges or the other kind of gauges lol.

gauge faces come in different colours. by day some ore white some are gold colour etc. many gauge faces go up to 140mph some just go to 130mph. the ones that i am doing go up to 130mph

REVERSE GAUGE INSTALL

TOOLS
star screw drivers all kind sizes.
small star and flat screw drivers
electrical dark tape
short thin 25-30 inch electric wire
oh i forgat u need the gauges. lol

STEP ONE
remove vent---with a flat screw drive,
remove cruise and sunroof swiches
remove gauge light deemer swich
remove rear defroser and emergency blinker swiches
remove uper steering colum cover--need a star screw driver.
remove the head unit from its place.
remove the head unit kit/housing lol
remove ashtray and the cigarette lighter and remove the two little lights that go into them.
remove the coin tray.

after u done with step one. u should see all the screws

STEP TWO.
there are 12 screws in the trim.
there are two in each vent.

two on top of the instrument panel housing

one where the cruise and sunroof swich go to

one where the instrument panel light swich/dimmer goes to

right under the green plug. lol
and one on the top of where the head unit kit goes in. just under the heater/ac board is.

THERE MIGHT BE ONE ON TOP OF WHERE THE ASHTRAY GOES IN but mine didn't have it.
its on the bottom its the bright thing over the place where the ashtray goes.

the above pic is the whole trim. that is how it should look when u take it off the car.

[jdmkid]

weres the rest of it

[alb_accord]

WORD OF ADVICE
when u take off the screws from the vents. please block the vents with a clothe or paper towel. so when u take off the bottom srews on them,, the screw don't fall and goes into the vents.
here is what i did.


STEP THREE
REMOVING THE GAUGE CLUSTER/INSTRUMENT PANEL
there are 4 screws that hold the gauge cluster into the car.
two on each side.

a bad pic but u can see the two shiny places where the srews go in on the top left of the page.
and another one, same pic used above.

on this one u can see the same shinny places on the top right side of the pic.

STEP THREE B
there are 3 green plugs that go into the gauge cluster. two on the bottom. left and right side.
and one on the very top of the gauge cluster.
now the two bottom ones are easy to remove. but for te top one u gona have to pull the top of the gauge cluster out a little bit and use a flat head screwdriver to remove it.
after u remove the srews and the plugs from the gauge cluster,, now u can get it off the car.
the gauge cluster should come out only if u bright the left side out first then the right side. just take ur time with it and try to move it around.

STEP FOUR.
REVERSE GAUGE INSTALL.
after u have the gauge cluster out just take it with u and sit on a table or somethig.
remove the the cover.
then with a pencil try to mark where the gas needle is. i heard many people had a lot of problems with the gas needle.
Then remove the 4 small screws that are located on the gauge faces.
Put the new gauge face on top of the existing stop gauge faces.
the holes on the reverse gauge faces are big enough to slip them over the needles.
do the same for the speed gauge too.
now for the gas gauge and the temperature gauge u gona have to put the needles 80% to the top like the gas tank is near full and like the car is about to overheat lol. then put the reverse gauge in while holding the needles steddy.
BE CAREFULL DON'T PULL OFF THE NEEDLES otherwise u fucked. lol
Now some people have many problems with the needle sticking. some don't.
AFTER u put the small srews on the gauges try to blow the needles of the RPM gauge and THE SPEED GAUGE. THEY SHOULD MOVE FREELY. if it gets stick mark the place where the back of the needle gets stuck.....
U CAN FIX this by two ways.
1. u use double side tape or M3 tape. u can find this everywhere.
2. or u can super glue the shit out of the gauge faces.
DO THIS AFTER U HAVE PUT THE SCREW IN THE GAUGES.
MAKE SURE THAT THE GAS NEEDLE AND THE TEMPERATURE NEEDLE WORK PROPERLY.
u can do this by blowing a lot of air with ur mouth at them. its hard to move them but they should move.
PUT the temp needle at the highest. it should fall without any problem.
Bllow the shit out of the gas gauge. and it should move without any problem.
BUT IF U ARE PARANOID LIKE ME. just put some tape/glue on the back of the gauge faces and u good to go.
LEAVE IT LIKE THAT FOR AT LEAST 30 MIN AND CHECK ALL THE NEEDLES AGAIN.
here is how it should look

sexy isn't it. the good thing is that if u have a white cb7 these gauges will look kind of nice. because they are white and u have a white car. lol

STEP FIVE
RUNNING THE WIRES.
There is one wire coming out of each reverse gauge.
in the back of the gauge cluster there are two light bulbs. remove them.
On one of the bulbs there are two wires coming from the top of the gauge cluster. on this one just remove the bulb itself but leave the dark base in....
take the wire from the rpm gauge and speed gauge then put them through the gauge cluster( u shoul see some space on the top of the stock gauge tower.
. insert these two wires threw the whole where the light bulb was.
then run the wires from the fuel/temp gauge from the second whole. now this is kind of difficult because u are leaveing the base of the light bulb on, so u can get the power that u need for the gauge faces.. here is how it should look in the back.


Now u can get power from the two wires that come from the top of the gauge cluster...... the top is how it should look.
u can use that extra electric wire that u have because the one on the gauges is kind of short(well for the place where i put the swich).

JUST FOR ME
then i run the wires from the bottom of the part of the steering colum and bring it up to the side of it. here is how the swich looks on my car.


u like my pedal covers lol

anyways that was preaty much it.
WHAT HAPPEN AFTERWORDS.
I loved it. i had no problem what so ever. they look so niced. looked fucking great specially when its dark out side no lights or whatever. so beautiful. then i had the gas needle getting stuck. i open it up 3 times before i decided to use the M3 double sided tape. then another 4 times before i decided to use the glue. something happen and it the gas needle wasn't going more than 75% and up. so i took it off and cut a litle piece of the gauge near the needle. so now it looks like shit during the day. lol but is till good during the night.
I STILL LOVE THEM. IF U LIKE THE WAY THEY LOOK THEN I SUGGEST U DO THE WORK.

GOOD LUCK AND I HOPE I HELPED.

THANKS TO SOME PEOPLE
when i did this i posted here asking for some help on where to tap so i can get the power to the gauges. no one new for sure. some taped for power on the wires on the side of the gauge. but no one gave me a sure answer
but still i got about 3 pages of answer from members here within 3 hours. lol
a special thanks for some special people. <<<< this is like the kind of thread that cpmike started. all i got to say to him is " I FEEL WHAT U SAYING MAN"
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=15553

AND HERE IS ME. LOOKING FOR ANOTHER GAUGE CLUSTER JUST IN CASE I FUCKED UP THE ONE THAT I HAD.
LOL I LOVE PHILLY JUNK JARDS

[91AccordLX]

nice little diy..but you dont have to mark the gas gauge, it is electronically controlled so it moves on its own, i took my cluster out to paint it blue, and i messed with all the needles, including the gas one...and the needles are stiff, i odnt see how ANYONE could break them.

[alb_accord]

i have read many people have problem with the GAS needle after the reverse gauge instal. and they say that its not rubbing. just the gas gauge its not working properly.
and i say "be careful with the needles" becuse when u put the M3 tape or some glue u tend to pull the gauge faces way up. that makes the needle move and maybe come out of the cluster. and then bye bye cluster. lol it has happen before. on one or two members here and lots of members at HT. lol

[cb7wagonPL]

nice write up klevis yea PLEASE be careful with the needles. I didn't and had to get another cluster from the good old philly junk yards lol But ever since i put by gauge faces in my speedo has been acting up. Its fine untill 70MPH and after that is stops and then just jumps to 80 or whatever im doing. It happens sometimes and other times its fine. I might be rubbing in that spot or its the speed sensor.

[alb_accord]

no its rubbing. the thing is that the gauge faces become hot once u put ur lights on. but i had the same problem with the rpm needle after i took the gauge cluster out 3 times in a row. lol
in the end i had to use glue. but its worth it.
lol man u did see the where i cut the gauge near the fuel needle.

[cb7wagonPL]

no its rubbing. the thing is that the gauge faces become hot once u put ur lights on. but i had the same problem with the rpm needle after i took the gauge cluster out 3 times in a row. lol
in the end i had to use glue. but its worth it.
lol man u did see the where i cut the gauge near the fuel needle.

good point about them getting hot - never tought about that ill let it slide for now but ill fix it during spring break when it warmer. Ill rip apart most of the dash for painting

[timmy0tool]

good writeup. however this isn't only based for EX models. i understand it was done in an EX but the process is the same in other models. just an FYI for ya! our junkyards over here rarely have accords since many shops buy them for their parts before they can hit the yard. when i do find one, it has already been raped. lucky you !

[H22ACB7]

I had AC Autotechnic EL Reverse Glow Guages in my car for over a year, took them out recently though cuz i dont want any glowing stuff in my car anymore. I never had a single problem with them what so ever. No sticking or anything. So I think its the quality of the guage that determines whether or not they flex a lil and make your needles stick. That and the quality of the install the person performs. If you tweak the hell out of them, then yeah, theyll stick. Nice DIY, but its pretty easy either way.

[alb_accord]

thats the thing though. for the first 3 weeks they were fine. no sticking nothing whatsoever. it was so nice. then the gas needle was getting stuck while trying to fix that,,, then the rpm gauge began to get stuck at 3000rpm etc. lol but fixed it already.

[fookmehonda]

How come your gauges says 130 mph, but mine says 140 mph max? is that going to be fine or is it not going to work, i drive a 93 10th anniversy edition,

[Final 204]

hrm... don't u need to remove the center console to remove the dash trim? maybe i'm wrong here...

[alb_accord]

the gauges with 140mph will work. no problem what so ever. we just installed a set on my friends 92 ex. but the 140 its a bit lower then the 130. i was checking the numbers out and everything was in its place..

on my car i didn't have to remove th ecenter console.
but my friend was changind his shifter at the time and i had to take off a screww all away to the bottom.... i didn't have that screw on my 90 ex. but u can get to that screw if u remove the ashtray and everything in that place. its gona be a little hard to get but u can get to it.

[bagoon316]

my gauges are 140...i believe the 140 cluster is for a wagon...but wit the new guages i am like 5 mph off. If my gauges say 60 i am really doin 55. And its like taht all the way through...cuz i have gone passed many of the radar thing school zones and its always 5 off.