do you sell the el wire kit separate ? i don't see that option on your site
Aftermarket (even mechanical) gauges into STOCK cluster!!! (4 Viewers)
- Thread starter amaurer
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- #162
By request, send me a PM.
Oh...and found another port to use off the oil cooler, where you hook a test gauge in.
Just wanted to give a little input to anybody on the fence about this. Do it! The EL wire works awesome. I hot glued it in place soldered the wires into the back of the pins on the pc board and I can see my gauges at night again! Thanks again Drew.
Just finished installing the EL wire to my 40 and I am absolutely chuffed. What a change. One of the best mods I have done to my 40.
I used very thin double sided tape to hold the wire in place. No glue needed.
I also ran tighter bends on the outside of the small clusters. No dark corners.
Drew, thanks again for a great idea.
Have not fitted the new instruments yet, because the stock ones on the 40 are still working perfectly. I think I will fit them to the 43.
I used very thin double sided tape to hold the wire in place. No glue needed.
I also ran tighter bends on the outside of the small clusters. No dark corners.
Drew, thanks again for a great idea.
Have not fitted the new instruments yet, because the stock ones on the 40 are still working perfectly. I think I will fit them to the 43.
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Amaurer have you done the lime green wire on a stock cluser? I have looked at your website and the white looks good. I was curious though about the green (lime) though since the rest of my interior lights in my 40 are green. I haven't seen a pic of one in green and was curious how it would look. I have Autometer gauges that are backlight green mounted on top of my dashpad and the dashpad light is green. I thought that maybe green also would light up the gauges but wouldn't glare into your eyes. I use my 40 hunting so I don't want alot of white light in the cabin of my 40. I am looking a getting an EL kit from you and I also didn't know if you even offered it in green.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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- #167
I've never done the green, but its certainly possible. Colors available are:
Blue Green
Green
Lime
Pink
Purple
Red
Ultramarine
White
Yellow
I am putting together my cluster and noticed the speedometer dosn't have the cut out for the two electrical connectors in the back. Here is a pic of it. im not even sure what it goes to.
- Thread starter
- #169
Its a speed sensor for some emissions control doohickey. Many speedos have it, but I wasn't aware of it when I made the kit, as many speedos don't.
If you still have a 2F with functioning emissions doo dads, just bend the tabs down and hook them up (don't let them short against the gauge bracket).
If you've swapped the 2F or emissions whatsits out already, then just unscrew those terminals and discard the reed switch all together.
Hi Amaurer.
I am very interested in the El-wire kit, and a possible add-on to it. I have no light below the dash pad in my 1980 HJ45 and here in Denmark it gets dark in winter, very dark, very early! So I thought about adding a EL-wire below the dash pad, NOT as "disco-styling though!!! So I'm hesitant that it might be too bright. I only want it so I can find the knobs in the dark (no pun intended!)
I have read through the thread about dimming, but found no clear answer, do you just put a dimmer on the voltage going in to the driver? If so I might need two separate cirquits, one for the dash and one for below the dash pad...
And another thing, the light looks really good, no critique there at all, but it seems very white, have you any experience using yellow or orange to get a more "glow bulb" like appearance? I want to keep my truck as "old school" as possible...
Thanks!
Christian
I am very interested in the El-wire kit, and a possible add-on to it. I have no light below the dash pad in my 1980 HJ45 and here in Denmark it gets dark in winter, very dark, very early! So I thought about adding a EL-wire below the dash pad, NOT as "disco-styling though!!! So I'm hesitant that it might be too bright. I only want it so I can find the knobs in the dark (no pun intended!)
I have read through the thread about dimming, but found no clear answer, do you just put a dimmer on the voltage going in to the driver? If so I might need two separate cirquits, one for the dash and one for below the dash pad...
And another thing, the light looks really good, no critique there at all, but it seems very white, have you any experience using yellow or orange to get a more "glow bulb" like appearance? I want to keep my truck as "old school" as possible...
Thanks!
Christian
1911
chupacabra
I posted this in the "what did you do to your Cruiser this week" thread, but should put it here too. I bought and installed the complete kit from Drew a couple of weeks ago, and I'm super pleased with the result - I have gauges that work and actually convey useful data, and I can see them all clearly at night! The picture was taken with a small point-and-shoot camera and does not do justice to the EL lighting, it is WAY brighter than it looks in the photo. One of the best and most useful mods I have ever made to my 40! Highly recommended.
- Thread starter
- #172
Christian - the EL wires can be dimmed with a variable resistor/potentiometer/volume control on the power supply wires. It will stay lit all the way down to 3 or 4 volts, where it will be quite dim.
As for your dash lighting, EL wire might not be a perfect choice. Because its a strip of lighting instead of a point source with a reflector, the light does not carry very well. If you want to light up a surface, the wire needs to be less than an inch away or its not going to do much good at all. This is why it works well in a cluster, where the wire is only 0.25" from the gauge faces. It might work, but no promises.
You are correct that the light is very white - it looks more like fluorescent than incandescent. I can get yellow wire, but thats going to be tooo yellow. You'd probably have to mix a stand of white with a strand of yellow or orange. I might be able to try this out for you sometime in November if people are hating the white look.
Nice install, glad you're happy.Thanks for your reply! It gave me all the infor I needed. I can see what you mean about it being unsutable for accent lighting. Some LEDs in the recess where the original light goes might be better.
As for hating the white light, no I don't, it looks really good! Your solutions are really impressive, it's just that my HJ45 is an on truck, with absolutely no frills at all, so clear white bright light will look a bit out of place you know
A possible solution could be to use some tinted lacquer... AFAIK it should not interfere with the EL-wire.
As for hating the white light, no I don't, it looks really good! Your solutions are really impressive, it's just that my HJ45 is an on truck, with absolutely no frills at all, so clear white bright light will look a bit out of place you know
A possible solution could be to use some tinted lacquer... AFAIK it should not interfere with the EL-wire.
- Thread starter
- #175
Completely forgot about the color, I'll try something out.
EL wire alone isn't on my page, just PM me.
24V is possible, again, just send me a PM.
Drew
- Thread starter
- #177
??? My website? Whenever you like?
Guages
I got lucky and my local O'Reillys was blowing out a lot of Autometer guages. Got mine for 75% off just need to save up for this wonderful kit.
I got lucky and my local O'Reillys was blowing out a lot of Autometer guages. Got mine for 75% off just need to save up for this wonderful kit.
I like your ideas, and have been to your website. Probably will buy some or all of your setup. However, I could find any mention of, nor could I find anywhere on the web, a 1.5 inch short sweep fuel gauge, as I am currently running an aftermarket sender and 2 1/16 in gauge in my cruiser.
Do you have a link or part number for the fuel gauge, or can I adapt my 2 1/16 to your setup?
Also, a 1.5 vacuum gauge.
Do you have a link or part number for the fuel gauge, or can I adapt my 2 1/16 to your setup?
Also, a 1.5 vacuum gauge.
- Thread starter
- #180
Dude, tell me about it - the selection of 1.5" gauges is s***. I can tell you with some certainty there is nothing available except for Volts/Oil/Water. Definitely no fuel or vacuum.
However 1.5" gauges aren't a requirement, really. Only the electric setup I'm selling is made with 1.5" gauges. The mechanical sets are made from 2 1/16" jobs (Autometer 2347 and 2348). Soo there is some flexibility - once a 2 1/16" gauge is prised from it's canister the mechanisms are usually quite small and the face is just a thin plastic sheet easily trimmed with scissors.
But... people always ask if they can swap in other gauges than the Big 3 I'm showing here and the answer is "not really". The mechanisms inside various gauges vary pretty wildly in terms of depth and the bolt/post pattern on the back. I put cutouts in the brackets to accomodate the gauge sets I've listed but there is no guarantee that a different type of gauge will fit the hole pattern, or even fit inside the cluster.
