How To - Install variable shift light '00 Civic

[gabebauman]

Fancy diy.

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[MonkeyPuzzle]

Originally Posted by aZnjCC

how does the adjustment knob work. how do you know what rpm ur adjusting to?

I have been planning on marking it with known RPMs, but so far, I have just been revving it up and adjusting it like that.

[MonkeyPuzzle]

Originally Posted by RACEPAK

sweet....

can i do it on a 97?

I cant see any reason why not, I believe that 97 cluster is very similar if not identical to the '00 cluster I did mine on.

[MonkeyPuzzle]

Originally Posted by br0nx finest

Pretty clean but I don't understand at night how you can't see your tach, is that LED that bright?

Yes, its that bright

Its more a contast thing, I keep my gauges dimmed pretty low at night, its just more that I am focusign on the dark road and then the bright light, so my eyes cannot adjust.

[MonkeyPuzzle]

Just had some questions about this DIY lately so though I would do a little update.

Lets see I did this last year and have since had only two problems.
1: I blew the bulb. I'm going to chalk this up to the cheap ebay shift light. I spend less than a dollar on a pack of 3 new automotive blubs of the right rating and replaced it.

2: I accidentally pulled by adjustment knob off and seperated the wires. Yeah this is my fault. This too was dead easy to fix with a couple of minutes with the soldering Iron.

In general, I love this mod. Its stealth, people are always impressed when they drive the car, and I actually find it useful fairly often.

[BlueIntegraBoy]

Any pics of the actual shift light before it was hacked up?

[B16b-EJ8]

subscribed

[MonkeyPuzzle]

Originally Posted by BlueIntegraBoy

Any pics of the actual shift light before it was hacked up?

indeed, this is the picture that was listed with teh light when I bought it on ebay


after opening it up there was a circuit board, that was umm, 1inch X 3inches.




Modified by MonkeyPuzzle at 3:57 PM 8/28/2008

[BLUE EH3]

how dou set it?

[MonkeyPuzzle]

Originally Posted by BLUE EH3

how dou set it?

with the knob...
specifically i just turn the knob slowly whilst driving a the RPM i want. A few times and i get it right. I keep meaning to make some markers but its not like i change it often.
"Set it and forget it"

[HondamanXxX]

I would like to see what the back of the cluster looks like and how you mounted the light back there. I am little confused.

Great DIY

[bmoua]

nice job...diy saved on my favs list

[Syndacate]

Nice, added it to the FAQ section.

[torqueless wonder]

did you pay like 48 bucks for that lite or wat. cause i sorta found the the same lite and thats wat they are asking for. can u email me like a more throughl way of installing this lite cause its kind of confusing cause the thing looks like a pill and i just want to kno how to install this thing before i actually take shit apart. second how the hell do take out the gauge cluster. anyone?

[MonkeyPuzzle]

Originally Posted by Syndacate

Nice, added it to the FAQ section.

nice :D I'm glad I could finally give back to H-T

Originally Posted by torqueless wonder

did you pay like 48 bucks for that lite or wat. cause i sorta found the the same lite and thats wat they are asking for. can u email me like a more throughl way of installing this lite cause its kind of confusing cause the thing looks like a pill and i just want to kno how to install this thing before i actually take shit apart. second how the hell do take out the gauge cluster. anyone?

Dont recall how much I paid, around $25 I think, not sure, it was a little while ago.

To remove your gauge cluster you need to first remove the black trim around it. Look up at the top of the trim you will see two holes, remove these screws. The bottom left and right corners are held in by clips. You will need to pull the black trim towards your evenly with some force to pull these clips. (I broke both mine but you cant tell the top screws hold it all in place pretty nice)
After that you are looking at the gauge cluster itself. 4 screws hold it in place around the cluster. Remove the screws then turn the cluster around and remove all the wiring harness plugs. Then the whole cluster will come out, you may need to turn it sideways and do a little dance to get it out through the steering wheel.

Sounds like I need to pull my cluster and take some pics for people of the back etc.

[MonkeyPuzzle]

A little updating after questions. I'm at work so these are just some stuff I jammed together from the internet, not pictures of my actual work.

This is not the back of my cluster, but looks the same. You just find an empty bulb hole and jam your LED in there. My LED was a near perfect fit, and some hot-glue (make sure it non-conductive) to hold it in place. IF your LED is smaller, you could just put it in the hole and seal it up, if its bigger well you may be outta luck.


And here is a cheap ms-paint wiring diagram. These are just pics grabbed from google.images, so this is not the correct PCB, Potentiometre, LED etc.
So three wires go from the gauge cluster wiring harness, red for 12V power, black for ground and green for the tachometre signal, these go to the PCB of the shift light.
From the shift light's PCB three wires go to the potentiometre. These wires were extended as needed so I could put the PCB and the knob away from each other and hide them better behind the dash.
Again from the shift light's PCB two wires go to the LED. These too were extended so that the PCB did not have to be near the gauge cluster.

[STREETWERKZ]

Originally Posted by gabebauman

Fancy diy.

putting this on my watched topics for later.

[MonkeyPuzzle]

ok I've update the thread with re-hosted pics, enjoy

big thanks to yoej8 who had saved these pics

[99_EM_one]

pretty cool! nice write up.

[Crisgo]

Originally Posted by 99_EM_one

pretty cool! nice write up.

Very nice info.

[vvboy]

where did you by this shift light at what web site ! want the one you got!