I just ****ed up my instrument cluster by trying to put on a reverse glow overlay, I'm not the happiest. It still works fine, the gauges aren't properly aligned now (Speedometer off by approx 5 mph, fuel is only a rough guess, water temp is most messed up, it does no longer have a full range of motion, reads ~5% lower than it used to and doesn't go all the way up, battery gauge seems to be close enough, it's slightly off, oil pressure reads high, tach is still fine oddly enough) I know I can take the needles off to readjust them (I was supposed to take off all the needles, and align them all again, that would have been hours of work and it would be more messed up than it is now, so I took two off, the fuel and water temp, and was easily able to get it on) but the fuel needle no longer comes off, I was prying on it and almost pulled the servo that controls it out of the cluster, so I decided to just leave it.

Maybe I'm overdoing it, but I took the gauge overlay off because it did not line up right. Either way I'm going to return it to where I ordered it from, www.uprproducts.com. I didn't think I was that mechanically inept, I followed the directions to the word, but got awful results. Enough of the back story... lesson? Reverse glow/white face gauges suck.

I still want the white face look, which Mustang instrument clusters had the white face gauges? (I'm talking about the 99-04 range too, by the way) Do the Cobras or Mach 1's have white-face gauges? And does anyone have an extra instrument cluster around (not likely, but who knows) they would be willing to sell? I'm going to try eBay and www.car-part.com to find a white-face instrument cluster to replace my now broken one, too. Anyone have any other suggestions? Is it fixable (it doesn't really look like it, the water temp gauge lost range of motion) and what would you suggest if I buy a regular instument cluster again and attempt this again (I hope I don't have to).

 

sorry about your problems, i got something similar waiting to go on and have gave a little thought on how to fix this if it occurs

this is a common problem though


one solution which MIGHT/MIGHT NOT work for 99+ cars...there is a writeup on mustang world about a digital display for the cluster. there is a function which sweeps all the needles full, which might reset the needles for you. if not they will give you a digital readout of where the numbers should be so you can set them as close as possible by hand. i dont know if it will work


change out plug and play white face clusters cost 250+

 

dude thats YOUR opinion I honestly love my indiglo white face gauges.
i installed them myself too.

all my gauges work great.

sorry about your bad luck man.

 

I love the appearance of them, which is why I got them, the installation leaves a little to be lacking, but that's my own fault.

@ pdk:

I used that to see the range of motion on the gauges, I knew about it before attempting this, so I used that to try to align them a little better. I would pull all the gauges off and realign them all but I can't get the fuel one back off, it's stuck on there so strong that it pulls the servo out when I pry on it like I mentioned. It also has displays for all of the things on the instrument panel, speedometer, tach, battery, fuel, etc, but since only the speedo/tach are numbered, it's hard to match up the others.

How about this, any suggestions on how to get the needle off now?

I know Zincpony is asking essentially this same thing, he hasn't gotten a response yet, so I'll ask again here. Will buying salvaged Cobra gauges just plug in? I know its all electronically controlled, but does the instrument panel do the interpreting of the signal (Cobra cluster has 160mph speedo, GT has 150) or does the computer send a signal to the panel to move to a certain point? Essentially: would the speedo read right, or read high?

 

are you turning it and pulling up on it at the same time? it shouldnt be that hard coming off

 

Dito!


I got mine from UPR, and didn't take any of the needles off...

I would now try the digital readout to try and reset them. Just hold in the reset button, while starting the car, then press it once to go through the different readings...

 

That's what I -ordered- but wasn't what I got, I figured I would go through with it anyway, I really didn't want to remove the needles but it didn't seem like such a challenge. I ordered from UPR too.

I can give turning it a try, but I've tried to keep it still for the most part to make realigning it a little easier... It's on there pretty good.