I know these are out dated, Rice, Old School etc.. But my daughter wants them to match the Boost and A/F gauges. (White) So I got an Ebay set of overlays.
I've searched online and tried on HT but my search isn't working atm for some reason.
We have a 97 EK, MT cluster so here's a few questions if any can help.
1. Anyone have any tips on getting the Fuel/Temp overlay on? (Dual Needles to deal with).
2. Leave the factory bulbs in or take them them all out.
3. The gauges I got don't have a dimmer, just an on off. (I planned on wiring them direct to the headlight switch bypassing the on/off switch).

My main concern is getting the overlay on the dual needle gauge without screwing up the gauges.

Thanks for your time.

Tzer

 

u dont remove the needles.. just unscrew those small phil. screws. and slide the thing over it and screw it back inplace.

 

Thanks john666
Sounds easy enough. I guess I'll find out more about it once I have it apart in my hands.
Just seems like what I've read was having to slide the gauges under the needles.Working with the duals is confusing me atm. Getting it to slide under one then the other.

 

make sure not to overtighten the screws as it can start to twist the coating on the gauge face, and i would take out all the bulbs. i had reverse gauges on my EG and it looks pretty bad at night. only downfall is you cant read your ODO. im pretty sure all the gauges on the EK have screws...if they dont, i used some rubber cement to hold the fuel/temp face in place. it works like a charm and if you ever decide to take it off, it's cake.

 

You need to set the fuel needle to full and I think the temp to full to have both needles slide through the holes. Remove the back bulbs so that it's just the gauges lit up, and not have the light shine upon the gauges.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wudini &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">make sure not to overtighten the screws as it can start to twist the coating on the gauge face, and i would take out all the bulbs. i had reverse gauges on my EG and it looks pretty bad at night. only downfall is you cant read your ODO. im pretty sure all the gauges on the EK have screws...if they dont, i used some rubber cement to hold the fuel/temp face in place. it works like a charm and if you ever decide to take it off, it's cake.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks for the tip on the screws & rubber cement. I'd thought about using some adhesive other then 2 way tape that some instructions mention. I've read about the ODO issues and some leave a couple bulbs in to light that area up.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BlueIntegraBoy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You need to set the fuel needle to full and I think the temp to full to have both needles slide through the holes. Remove the back bulbs so that it's just the gauges lit up, and not have the light shine upon the gauges.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I thought your not supposed to move or remove the needles? Maybe I'll just do the reverse and run the fuel tank low :D Thanks for the Idea.

 

Got them installed, took about 2 hours. looks good.

The fuel/temp guage overlay is a bitch. The fuel needle ended up moving but I put it back to about where it was. I hope they still work.

Anyway. I'm trying to connect them so they come on with the headlight switch and I ran into a problem.

When I connect the two wires for the on/off switch together they don't come back on when I turn the lights off then back on.

If I disconnect the wires and tap them together they turn on and stay on. They just wont stay in the fully on mode. Any Ideas anyone?

Damn I just thought of something. Beings the Power Inverter doesn't have power until the light switch is turned on it may be causing my problem. If I run constant power to the Power Inverter and tap the on/off wires to my light switch, That might solve the problem but I think that keeping power to the Power Inverter always would end up shortening it's life. Hmmmmmmmmm......

Thanks for reading.

Tzer

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tzer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Got them installed, took about 2 hours. looks good.

The fuel/temp guage overlay is a bitch. The fuel needle ended up moving but I put it back to about where it was. I hope they still work.

Anyway. I'm trying to connect them so they come on with the headlight switch and I ran into a problem.

When I connect the two wires for the on/off switch together they don't come back on when I turn the lights off then back on.

If I disconnect the wires and tap them together they turn on and stay on. They just wont stay in the fully on mode. Any Ideas anyone?

Damn I just thought of something. Beings the Power Inverter doesn't have power until the light switch is turned on it may be causing my problem. If I run constant power to the Power Inverter and tap the on/off wires to my light switch, That might solve the problem but I think that keeping power to the Power Inverter always would end up shortening it's life. Hmmmmmmmmm......

Thanks for reading.

Tzer</TD></TR></TABLE>

You should be able to tap it into the hot lead (then ground it out) on the wire that goes to the switch (from the power source..not from the guage cluster) and it should be fine.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syndacate &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

You should be able to tap it into the hot lead (then ground it out) on the wire that goes to the switch (from the power source..not from the guage cluster) and it should be fine.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm sorry I'm still not quite following you.
If I read that right. Your saying to power one of the switch leads and ground the other just like I did for the Power Inverter? So I can just tap into the same power and ground as the Inverter is and be set?

Sorry, I've never messed with LED's or Inverters.

But on a good note. I took a test drive and everything works sweet. Thanks everyone for your imput.

Tzer

 

I don't know, I think I'm just as confused as you are :-P.

There should be two wires going to the switch...one going to the guage cluster, and one going to the inverter. If you tap into the one going into the inverter I'm pretty sure that's hot always...but then I remembered something. With my civic, you can turn the headlights on regardless of weather the car is on or off, had to wire up a buzzer so I wouldn't forget...point being is that that switch is always hot regardless of weather the car is on or off...so don't listen to what I said, I forgot about that part. If you did that the gauges would always be on...always always be on...even when the car is off...

My bad, sorry... at me.

 

LOL no problem Syndacate.
Yes they will come on without ignition on and I do have the buzzer or dinger.

The Inverter has a power and ground, the line that goes to the gauges, a double line that plugs into an on/off switch. Thats why I figured I could loop the switch leads and be good to go. I'll get it figured out sooner or later.

Here's what they look like. This is with the factory bulbs still in as well. You still cant read the ODO LOL but with the centers lit up like they are you can still see the needles at least. It's to bad our needles don't light up :/
Now I need to find a blue condom for the autometer boost gauge.

Here's the result for anyone who's looking to get some overlays..



This is from the Ebay ad.




Modified by Tzer at 9:26 PM 9/29/2006