91-94 OBS gauge cluster LED conversion. HOW-TO

[cancritter]

Originally Posted by 88GMCtruck

Nice tech article. One note, if you are going to use blue LEDs you can just swap them in, as the green film makes them turn light blue (look below at my cluster).





Keep looking, I was lucky enough to find a junkyard in North Carolina that had one, $300 shipped to my door. And this cluster will go until it hits the housing as well, however that was before the truck was lifted.

......................................

Just up from swaping in blue leds for my ss cluster....its nowhere as bright as yours shows...did you sand the white part off back and leave green?
actully looks pretty dull...gona have to rip it out and sand :O(
ah well :O)

[msweenes548]

I've got a 1996 silverado. Anyone got a clue if i can put leds in without soldering?

[Shwa Kid]

Figured I'd chime in for the moonie fans... I got bored last night so I took my moonies apart and did some step by step pictures...
So step one: Remove the 4 screws around the perimeter of the housing, 4 hold the clear lens on, the side two also hold the black frame on. Should look like this:

Step two: remove the screws holding the individual gauges in, 3 for each side pair, 4 for the speedo. You can then remove the gauges, they are held in by the sockets they plug into. Pry carefully and evenly and they'll come out easily. Here's mine with 2 gauges removed.

After removing all of the gauges, it should look like this:

Here's a close up of the sockets they used, which is what holds the gauges in once the screws are removed.

And the speedo socket:

The 5 bulbs to replace are circled in the pic above, the others are indicator/warning lights. You can replace them with whatever you want, but be weary that the gauges have a green filter in front of them so you want a colour with a similar wavelength such as blue. I didn't actually do this swap yet as I want white and that will require modification of the filters to be clear, I don't have the parts for this yet but figured I'd write up a little how-to for you all. After pics were posted by Honrnsfan a couple pages back, look at them :P

[94383Z71]

I did all the sanding, etc, (i actually did the turn signals and such too)

but I didnt manage to record needle positions any help on that?

Also, my buddy broke off the needle that my speedo pointer mounts onto. Any way to fix this without putting in an all new cluster?

[bradschevy]

Originally Posted by 94383Z71

I did all the sanding, etc, (i actually did the turn signals and such too)

but I didnt manage to record needle positions any help on that?

Also, my buddy broke off the needle that my speedo pointer mounts onto. Any way to fix this without putting in an all new cluster?

You could try and put in a new stepper motor, Since he broke the shaft off? If you succeed with that I'm sure you can get close on the placements by plugging the cluster in the truck. Turn the ignition on, put oil at 0, temp at the lowest, tach at 0, mph at 0, volts at 12, and good luck with the gas gauge

[94383Z71]

yeah, I figured if I left the truck sit, and took out the battery, I could set it all at 0, and then figger out the gas thing. Prolly do it at the gas station after she clicks

yeah, he fuggeg p that pin. he has another cluster than would work, but I want mine so we may just rig her up

[bradschevy]

Hey, That works. Then you know exactly where full is. Heck I'd take his cluster, whats so special about yours? you can change the mileage if that's what you are worried about...

[crossy's son]

i commmented on your exhaust video on youtube^^^ lol it sounds so good.

[94383Z71]

Originally Posted by bradschevy

Hey, That works. Then you know exactly where full is. Heck I'd take his cluster, whats so special about yours? you can change the mileage if that's what you are worried about...

yeah, that's the thing. only the frame and some of the axle components even have those 242k miles

I'm gonna look at my 95 cluster and see if the stepper motors are the same, just because that way I wont have to drive all the way the eff out to his house

but I will be taking his spare needles and just clearing them

EDIT: as I scrolled up, I noticed that the needles may actually be the same from my spare cluster, which would be a godsend

[xlt]

Originally Posted by 94383Z71

but I didnt manage to record needle positions any help on that?

Bwahhhhahahaha....I just did the same thing an hour ago.
I just stuck the cluster in the socket, fired up the truck and put them on from there.
Figure you know where things usually run.
Of course I may run out of gas if the low fuel light is directly related to where the needle is.I also may have better oil preasure than I used to. Makes me feel better.

Anyway. I took the rough approach to this task.
Threw the unit in the freezer for a couple minutes and just peeled the face off.
Then I took the orbital sander with 200 grit paper and sanded it off.
Followed this by painting the bulbs with "PlastiKote- Anodizit-102 blue" rattle can paint. Heck, paint the Face piece you sanded if you want.
Matter of fact I think I'll head out to the shop and try that.
I'll let you all know how it goes.

[94383Z71]

Originally Posted by xlt

Bwahhhhahahaha....I just did the same thing an hour ago.
I just stuck the cluster in the socket, fired up the truck and put them on from there.
Figure you know where things usually run.
Of course I may run out of gas if the low fuel light is directly related to where the needle is.I also may have better oil preasure than I used to. Makes me feel better.

Anyway. I took the rough approach to this task.
Threw the unit in the freezer for a couple minutes and just peeled the face off.
Then I took the orbital sander with 200 grit paper and sanded it off.
Followed this by painting the bulbs with "PlastiKote- Anodizit-102 blue" rattle can paint. Heck, paint the Face piece you sanded if you want.
Matter of fact I think I'll head out to the shop and try that.
I'll let you all know how it goes.

Looking forward to seeing that. My sharpie lights did better that autozone ones

and my buddy DA'd his with 600

[xlt]

OK, pic of the face painted. I used some painters green to tape off the sticky stuff so it would stick back on without using any other glues. Worked great.
There's piece of that plastic packaging you have to cut open to get into it, painted with the same paint. I used that for the hvac.
I'll get a pic of the dash as it gets dark here.
Oh ya...forgot to get a pic of the frekin guages before I popped them off again.:idiot

[xlt]

Sad pic but best I could do with no flash. I cant hold still long enough for the shutter to snap with no light. lol
But you get the idea. It's all blue.

[94383Z71]

Honestly what you've got is EXACTLY what I want man. I've got an O2 gauge and TC lockup switch that are blue to tie that into. I honestly dont wanna spend 50 bucks in LEDs (doing MIL's too, and I dont even know those bulb #'s)

and this way I can maybe hack up a gauge face shield to use for the HVAC instead of buying that too

Now I have to figger out if I can make this spare HU light up blue not red

[88GMCtruck]

Originally Posted by cancritter

......................................

Just up from swaping in blue leds for my ss cluster....its nowhere as bright as yours shows...did you sand the white part off back and leave green?
actully looks pretty dull...gona have to rip it out and sand :O(
ah well :O)

Mine are just blue 4-LED bulbs, I didn't change the green in mine at all.

Originally Posted by xlt

OK, pic of the face painted. I used some painters green to tape off the sticky stuff so it would stick back on without using any other glues. Worked great.
There's piece of that plastic packaging you have to cut open to get into it, painted with the same paint. I used that for the hvac.
I'll get a pic of the dash as it gets dark here.
Oh ya...forgot to get a pic of the frekin guages before I popped them off again.:idiot

Originally Posted by xlt

Sad pic but best I could do with no flash. I cant hold still long enough for the shutter to snap with no light. lol
But you get the idea. It's all blue.

Looks good. I thought about removing the green and painting mine blue prior to buying the LEDs.

[xlt]

I'm pretty happy with it. Took all of 2 hours to do and cost was zero.
I just bought a set of picks and that plastic packaging painted blue is crystal clear to look through and thick enough to work with.
I didnt do all the cutouts though. I just cut off the little nipples and hot glued the piece in.
Using the sander made short work of the white and green paint.

[94383Z71]

how many coats did you use?

[xlt]

3 coats, but the paint is semi transparent.