D16SiHatch

An led gear indicator.. what's that you say? well stay tuned.

It's common to find an item such as this on a rally car (ex. Ken Block Gymkhana), and also on motorcycles, but not nearly as often in regular passenger cars. One new car though that has one of these from factory is the Nissan GT-R.

Functionally it's nice to have because if for example you're at the track or an autoX event you will have a visual reminder near the cluster (or wherever you prefer) of what gear you're in at all times. At very least, it's a pretty nifty and not terribly expensive add-on to any vehicle.

Features:
-5 or 6 speed vehicles
-Programmable high speed warning
-Programmable shift light
-Easy install: 4 wires

If interested you can find them at the Blue Monkey Motorsports website

http://bluemonkeymotorsports.com/products_gipro.html



Now onto the install!


Product packaging as i received it.




Start by removing these tabs with a stubby flathead screwdriver, there are 2. underneath each you will find a single philips head screw.




the next screw is located here to the left of the steering column




last screw is to the right of the column here




Once all screws are removed you will be able to remove the cluster cover from its dusty but comfy home. be careful not to pull it too far forward when removing the rear defrost, dimmer, and hazard plugs or risk pulling wires from their connectors. Once the cover is out of the way you'll see the bare cluster like so




Now locate the wires you will need. The vehicle speed wire is yel/red. the pink'ish wire coming off their is my electronic vss feed. NOTE: you don't need an electronic vss for the gear indicator to work. The stock cable speedo input is converted within the cluster into an electronic vss output which is sent to the ecu on this yel/red wire. Connect the gear indicator wire to this wire and you'll be good to go.




The next wire you'll need is the rpm lead wire which is light blue. ignore the other wire in the picture, it's for the tach sense on my alarm.




here is the indicators subharness. White goes to speed signal, Green to tachometer, red to switched 12v (the blk/yel wire), and black to ground.




Lastly, figure out where you are going to mount the display before you reassemble everything, you may have to reroute the subharness accordingly. Tuck your leftover wire behind the dash in an appropriate place and then reassemble.







Here's a quick vid i put together. front wheels are in the air, that's why it seems a little odd. it did however make it much easier and safer to take a video of the gear indicator in action lol.

1990hondacrx

lmao nice vents they match what gear your in. sorry but a good driver knows by the tone of the engine what rpms hes in and can judge his speed by that and shouldn't be checking what gear hes in kinda silly sorry

D16SiHatch

Really? Grow the hell up. They were painted before i bought the car and i honestly don't feel like wasting my time trying to repaint or find stock parts to replace them. It's just not that big of a deal.

The concept for this product was not made up by me. As i've already said, it's a useful tool in autox and rally events. I guess professional rally drivers are inexperienced compared to you since they have big led displays of what gear they're in on the dashboard. Clearly you've missed the point. If this product doesn't make sense for you, then don't buy it. simple as that

iskate2

nice write-up

crx_si-r

i have a question, or much rather a suggestion. couldn't you have used the switch panel on the left side of the cluster cover with the 2 switches? i know the sedans have 3 switches on 1 side (normally 1 will be blank) and installed it on that side? or move the hazard switch to the other side to make it look a bit more stock? instead of just having the wires wrap under the cover?

its not something i would do, but i can see how it would have helped when i taught my GF how to drive a stick shift car.

D16SiHatch

Must be different on the hatches then cause there are no open spots for another switch on the left or right side of the cluster. There is more open space on the left side though, i just liked it better on the right. Not sure what you mean about having the wires wrap under the cover though. Even if i had put it on the left side the wires still have to come out from underneath it. as it is now the wires are about as hidden as they could be i think. feel free to elaborate though as i feel maybe i'm missing what you're getting at exactly lol.

here's a pic of how its routed at the moment though. keep in mind i also wanted to have it mounted in the best position for it to be visible from my line of sight in the driver seat.

gkssn

what about when you downshift ? or skip a gear? will it know what gear your in at the moment? If so , do you have video of you doing that?

Tyson

you can do what you want with your car, and add whatever little "driving aids" you desire. but i think you ought to know that Ken Block and other "professional rally drivers" and motorcycle have sequential gear boxes. the GTR has a "manu-matic" type tranny too, not fully manual, but very high tech.

you dont.

no autoxers driving a civic is not going to know what gear he's in. neither is any road racer or whoever. but like i said, if you need the help, its all you.

i think it just needed to be pointed out since that was your justification.

D16SiHatch

I completely understand what you're saying, but here's the thing. It's important i point out that i received this item free of charge. I agreed to do a writeup on how to install one in an effort to help promote said product as a form of payment if you will. I was just trying to justify it in the most logical way i could. I would not likely buy this myself, but i was presented with a unique opportunity. I can see the benefits potentially, but like you i probably wouldn't purchase one. I however can appreciate a company wanting to get the word out and potentially get some customers from other markets.

D16SiHatch

when going from one gear to the next successive gear be it up from 2-3 or down from 5-4 for example, it very quickly can predict the next gear. Now if you were to jump from 2 to 4 it will still register the correct gear but it takes a fraction of a second longer because it is trying to predict the next most logical gear. i don't have a video of this though sorry.

efjones9

that is pretty cool. if i were to do it i would try to reto fit it into the cluster. that would be coo. props tho

masterEF

this is awesome!! gotta subscribe so i now what to get my rx7 for christmas!

Lerlo

Sorry for bumping an old thread. Thats a cool write up, was wondering how does it work? Does it calculate rpm vs speed to determine the gear you are in? If thats the case, it wouldnt know what gear you are in when you clutch in right?

Anyway, ignore the arseholes, nice writeup. cheers