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

[crossy's son]

Ok well this is a step by step thread on how to take apart your 91-94 OBS cluster (My cluster is a 91 tach cluster) and sand off the white and green layers of $HIT on the back of the gauge face so your new LED light will show up nice and bright in your cluster and we will also be scraping the orange tint off the needles so they show as well. So I am going with Red Led’s that have a one led pointing straight up and 4 going out to the sides from V-Led’s so the light will reflect around the inside of the cluster and get good illumination in the face. I have tried to supply as many pics as possible. I’ve only done this once so bear with me on the info . The text above each picture is what goes WITH the picture

I did this to a 91 cluster, your 92-94 cluster will be different a little bit, your 92-94 cluster the bulbs remove from the back of the circuit board and there easily visible without taking it apart (look at the back of the cluster you’ll see how they unscrew). 93-94 clusters some soldering may be required when putting in the new bulbs. Someone will chime in on this, im not sure what has to be done because my cluster is a 91 and it’s a one year only style. You still have to get the white stuff off of the back of the gauge face though.

PART 1- EASY STUFF

Heres the list of tools you will need-

6 LED 194 bulbs. you need 7 bulbs if your cluster is 92-94 years
A few different types of putty knifes for scraping glue
A Razor knife
400 Grit sandpaper or FINER (higher numbers)
A scraper blade (see pic)
A #15 Torx drive
A Dinner fork from your kitchen
A flat balde screwdriver wide and short
Gorilla super glue






1. Be sure you take a picture of your needle locations when the cluster is in the truck with the key ON. AND a pic of the cluster when the truck is running at idle.

2. Remove cluster from truck (do I have to explain? lol) and remove plastic clear lens from cluster.

3. Take each #15 torx screw out of the cluster holding the black surround on-




It will then look like this-

[crossy's son]

PART 2- DIGGIN IN this is where its get difficult



4. Now its time to remove your needles so the gauge face can come off later.

Basicly slide the fork under the needle so the gap between the prongs of the fork is on the shaft of the needle and slide it so the needle is to the back of the fork and rock it back and forth until it comes up and then pull it straight off by hand when its almost off. –




Your cluster should then look like this-




5. Now the gauges will come out of the circuit board (inside green or tan housing) by taking your screw driver and prying evenly underneath and all around the edges of the clear 1/8 thick clear “plate” that the gauges are stuck onto which will pull the pins on the back of all the gauges from the circuit board FORCE MAY BE APPLIED BY HAND at this part. (hard to explain all this, you’ll see when its apart) –

Its almost completely separated, disconnect speedometer wire and lay it aside and notice the white on the back of the Stuck on black gauge face on the front (you can see it through the clear plate thing)




Heres some shots of the piece you will be removing from the housing so you get an idea.







Then you’ll have the brains (muahahah) of the cluster exposed and you can see the 6 brain cells you’ll be replacing inside---- or the ‘’circuit board’’ and “bulbs” if your humor is dry



6. Now take your everything out in the garage and blow it out with your air nozzle on your compressor to get the dust out (if its dusty). DO NOT use too much pressure

[crossy's son]

PART 3- REMOVING GAUGE FACE FOR SANDING



7. Sanding the white and green stuff off the back of the gauges. This scares a lot of people but is farely straight forward once you understand the concept, atv freak’s thread helped me get the concept of what im actually scraping.. Which is to get rid of the white layer of film and green layer of crap under the white, on the back of the gauge face so the new color bulbs can come through the numbers etc. on the gauge faces. If you put in the LED’s and do not do this step then they will be VERY VERY dim and will look like crap. And I mean you’ll be disgusted, that kinda crappy

Armed with a putty knife done get the black gauge face off the clear part its glued too by simply putting the scraper (orange thing in pic) in between the black face and the clear part and wiggling until you free up all the glue,

WARNING—WARNING-- BE CAREFUL WHEN YOUR SHOVING AND PUSHING THE SCRAPER UNDER THE BLACK GAUGE FACE, YOU DON’T WANT TO RIP THE THIN PLASIC OR BEND THE GAUGE MOTOR NEEDLES!!!! Youll see what I mean

So then these two pieces are separated, scrape the glue residue off the clear piece and lay it in a safe place with no static. Lay it on wood or something--- (pics below)



Heres what It will look like before sanding—
This is what the light has to pass through :0

\

[crossy's son]

PART 3- SANDING WHITE $HIT

8. Now im going to let the pictures do the explaining here. Be sure when your sanding the back of the gauge face that the FRONT is laying face down on something soft or it will get scratched up from sliding around on a hard surface, or you could tape the whole thing to a table so it don’t move. Use 400 grit sand paper or finer. Just start sanding at the white stuff behind the gauge displays and when you get through the white, you’ll see green so sand at the green





Heres some pics of the light coming through it with SOME of the green chit sanded off. Just keep sanding and aiming at a light until the numbers/lines are white and not green and whatever bulb you put in the cluster, it will come through as that color of the bulb.





THIS IS WHEN ALL THE GREEN CRAP WAS SANDED OFF, at this point I was done this step, time for the needles.






You understand? Pm me if you don’t understand this part.

To Reinstall the gauge face just dab some gorilla glue around on the back of the gauge face and stick it down to the clear piece (plastic gauge plate) and make sure everything lines up PERFECTLY or the needle calibration to the gauge face will be different.

DO NOT USE EPOXY OR PLASTIC SURGERY GLUE, it may eat through

[crossy's son]

PART 4- CLEARING AND PAINTING NEEDLES


9. So now were gonna clear the needles and I chose to paint the back of mine white, if you clear the back of them and put them in like that then they will be transparent and you will be able to see through them at night and that would look retarded.

Just get a razor and scrape the white tapey stuff off the back of the needle, once you get through the white you’ll see orange, scrape off all the orange and then sand the needle smooth, do this for all 6 needles. BE CAREFUL don’t break them.

BEFORE-



AFTER THE SCRAPING-




Now tape off all the needle besides the back of the needle, this is very tedious/annoying/time consuming but important, because you don’t want paint to run down the sides of the needle because that would look retarded during the day seeing the side of your needle being white spotted. You can paint them ANY color you want and painting the entire needle is not necessary, they are transparent and whatever color is on the back is what color the needle will appear.



Heat up a can of white paint and lay one coat on the back, I used Regular white enamel

Heres after I painted them and peeled off the tape-

[crossy's son]

PART 5- LED’S GO IN



This is easy, pull the bulbs out and put the LED’s in there place??

92-94 clusters have one for the gear indicator as well so you will need 7 bulbs and not 6 like my 91 cluster needs.

Here’s the placement of the bulbs. Pull out firmly and push led’s in firmly and that is it






Pretty much reverse the steps of taking it apart now. Hook up your little speedo wire from the speedo to the circuit board and put the gauge face back down on the housing and push down firmly so its flush and make sure all the holes line up for the visor thing or whatever it is that the lens mounts too.

Put the cluster in the truck but do not put the dash back together until testing it to see if it the lights work

Turn the key on and take a look at your picture you took before you took it out of the truck to see placement of the needles and put them back exactly where they were (push down firmly) when the key was on and then start and check to make sure all the needles look like there in the right places.

I hope you guys liked it, it is a fun awesome upgrade and every OBS guy with a needle cluster should do it. I WILL POST PICS OF THE FINAL RESULT WHEN I GET IT IN THE TRUCK!!Tech articles maybe?

sorry about my grammar throughout, i need hooked on phonics


Love,
Brandon

[crossy's son]

Its raining cats and dogs outside so i wont be able to install the cluster tonight ..

and my friggin battery is dead in my truck so i cant even move it up to the garage. the poor little 400,000 mile low compression 350 does'nt want to turn over

[cordatta]

nice write up man. I plan on doing this to my 96 gauge set that I just put in with my dash swap. Made it look real easy reading all of that.

[g9m3c]

Very nice write up. Coming from someone who's done this before, this write up's pretty thorough. Once again, great job.








Now Brandon, how long will it be until you go all out for the Autometer swap?

[PHATSPEED7X]

[Adum]

I really want to see one done up with white leds!! this is a spring project for sure. . .

[Justv610]

Spring project, why so? you can take the cluster inside and work on it in the heat! Spring projects involve engine work, exterior work This is a winter project for me, probably start it in about a month.

Brandon, the writeup is very helpful, Now I can picture everything I will be doing, and for 15 years old man, great job! Im only 18, and dont think I can do a writeup that well. Anyway If I have questions while doing mine, Ill be sure to ask you.

Are you going to take the autometer gauge swap into consideration? I saw the one thread on it, and it looks awesome. Lot of $$$ involved tho.

[crossy's son]

Thanks guys,

You guys do realize i don't have any money and dont have a job. or else i would buy 250$ of autometer gauges and do a nice job.

I'll do that when i actually get my license and i have a steady job and can afford it later in life.

[Justv610]

Good point, didn't think about that one yet lol. I dont plan to do the gauge swap, but would like my speedo to exceed 85mph. Just going to keep it plain and simple, swap some bulbs

My engine work will be my major project.

[crossy's son]

I LOVE IT

[Chevyman247]

Good job!

[crossy's son]

Originally Posted by Chevyman247

Good job!

Thanks man, Friggin nice truck in your sig

[nickl011]

Did you reset your odometer?

[crossy's son]

No, it was that way when i bought it. My truck has 420 something thousand miles and i have the old moonie cluster to prove it.

I dont know if you guys know but i had moonies and i went to a tach dash and red LED's at the same time.

[g9m3c]

Be sure and get a good day shot of it as well. I bet those white needles look neat.