DIY “OEM” locker indicator (1 Viewer)

[dbbowen]

Had a few people on Facebook ask me to do a write up here for this so here goes.

This is the overseas gauge cluster for some 60 series. I’m not sure which one it is. It is just an indicator light for your diff locks that goes where your seatbelt light is.

You can recreate it by hitting up Mo Faraz aka @63FST he makes the dry transfer decals and we made sure they’d fit the opening of the usdm cluster.

Get a couple of kits because you’ll use a few as sacrificial templates for where you’ll drill holes and also it’s easy to mess up applying them. He’s got 2 options to choose from.

First you’ll need to remove your cluster and the part that holds the brake indicator and seat belt indicator just pops out the back with 2 plastic clips. Be gentle because they’re pretty brittle.

Once you pop the rectangle part out take the black hood thing off and you can gently press the red lens for the seatbelt icon and it will pop right out.

After that you’ll want to sand it very evenly with 400 grit sand paper to get a uniform substrate and to get the old decal off. Wipe it with iso alcohol and determine which side is up. It can only go back in one way.


At this point, before painting put the red lens back into the housing and with a pencil trace the oval opening onto the red lens. Pop it back out and put your sacrificial decal on the lens. This will give you the exact spots where to drill your holes for the LED lights. pay super close attention to which way is up and which way is down. If you drill the holes and its upside down, youre out of luck.

In the pic there are 2 on mine. The first one was crooked.

 

[dbbowen]

After you drill the holes. Clean the lens up again and verify your LEDs will fit perfectly through the holes. I used 2mm red diffused LEDs.

uxcell 20Pcs 2mm Pre Wired LED,... Amazon product ASIN B07X5FJ67Y
I don’t remember the size exactly but I believe it was a 3/32 drill bit I used. The hole is very tight on the led which is good. It holds the light. In there.

Once you’re at this point. Just paint it with whatever you like to paint plastic with. I used SEM trim black, but you can use SEM colorcoat or even just spray paint. If you use trim black, youll need to do a ton of coats because it goes on thin. I only used it because i had 2 cans of it laying around. Colorcoat would be much better like landau black. Once the paint is dry place your final decal on. Use your holes to align your dots on the decal. Now is a really good time to hit it with a light coat of satin clear coat too. You really want to clear over these decals

For the LEDs. Push them into the holes until they are flush with the face and put heat shrink around what sticks out the back and shrink it down. This will block any extra light from bleeding out of the back of the dash as well as take up for any extra length.

If you got the LEDs I got, they are way too bright. You’ll want to solder some resistors or one larger resistor in line on the power side to dim it. I think I used a 3400 and 1k resistor. I suck at soldering. Don’t judge.

Once your lights are ready mark which one is the front and which one is the rear on the wires and press the LEDs into the hole. I just used jb weld super glue to hold them onto the back of the lens plate. The actual holes do most of the holding anyways if you get the tolerances right. I also used a dab of super glue in the corners of the screen itself to put it back into the cluster frame.

 

[dbbowen]

Once they’re in the frame piece. It should look like this and you can pop it back into your gauge cluster.

At this point it really just depends on how you have your lockers wired up. If you’re using the ARB harness and switches you could wire both positive wires to 12v and then each ground to the ground wire of your solenoid so when it flicks on it completes the circuit.

Or you could do the opposite and connect the grounds to a ground and the power to the power wire on the switch that turns on the switch light when the locker is engaged.



If you’re running Toyota Elockers or harrop e lockers I believe there’s a wire in those to activate an indicator light as well.


On my setup. I had @ChaserFJ60 3d print me a ac bezel thay uses 80 series switches. So the locker switch is the dial from an 80 and the compressor switch is a 80 defrost switch.

If you want to wire it up using these switches, Witts end has a good diagram on how to wire the arb lockers and compressor using the Dial locker switch. I used like 90% of this diagram here:

The main thing that is different is that on the top where you see the two light bulbs for the indicators, you cant do it like that. The lights will be on all the time. So youll wire the ground wire of the led for the rear to the yellow wire in the arb harness and the ground of the front led to the green wire in the ARB harness, but for the 12v youll run both of the positive wires from both leds into pin 31 on this diagram or anywhere on that red wire. That will only let them turn on if the compressor switch is on, but they wont light up until the dial switch sends it ground. If you wire it to literally any other 12v the lights will be on all the time.


As far as wiring the Compressor switch to the defrost switch, I just used the EWD from the 80 series to see where to put the wires, if you actually are going to do that, shoot me a pm and i can take my dash apart to see where the wires went. I wired it up months ago. I do remember that 2 of the pins are from your rheostat (dimmer) for the night time illumination, then it gets power and ground for the amber bulb when you press it in, then one wire goes to the compressor i believe. Id have to look again. If you are wanting to do this just pm me and ill put the pin outs on here.

 

[dbbowen]

When youre all done this is what youll end up with:

*My arbs are still in the boxes in my garage, so the solenoids are literally just shooting air into my engine bay. Thats why the air noise is so loud.

 

[63FST]

Whoah!!....I am loving the level of detail here -- For the record this was Brian's project+ he was instrumental in getting these made -- what a great job

Plus you make installing a factory style light look easy

I have a very limited amount of these ready for anyone else who may want to follow your wonderful DIY -- with your permission I can post a direct link but they are on my 60 series web page also.

Well done man!

-M

 

[BurntToast]

Really well done, huge fan of using modern tech with old school indication

 

[red66toy]

So awesome.

 

[Broski]

Nice job, great attention to detail.

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Whoah!!....I am loving the level of detail here -- For the record this was Brian's project+ he was instrumental in getting these made -- what a great job

Plus you make installing a factory style light look easy

I have a very limited amount of these ready for anyone else who may want to follow your wonderful DIY -- with your permission I can post a direct link but they are on my 60 series web page also.

Well done man!

-M

I will definitely take some decal sets. I’m sure @BigHighBlue and @roma042987 may be interested

 

[63FST]

I will definitely take some decal sets. I’m sure @BigHighBlue and @roma042987 may be interested

Awesome & thanks for mentioning to friends.....Just took a look at your build thread and that is one sweet 60 series you have

Let's chat however works best for you....I think many owners will find Brian's work a great project for their 60 so we can all thank him as well...

Mo

 

[dbbowen]

Whoah!!....I am loving the level of detail here -- For the record this was Brian's project+ he was instrumental in getting these made -- what a great job

Plus you make installing a factory style light look easy

I have a very limited amount of these ready for anyone else who may want to follow your wonderful DIY -- with your permission I can post a direct link but they are on my 60 series web page also.

Well done man!

-M

Thanks man, its really easy when the decals are pretty much perfect fit before you get them. Post the link i dont mind at all

Really well done, huge fan of using modern tech with old school indication

Thanks man, I was originally going to use 5mm leds to match the original indicator like exactly, but im glad i went with the smaller ones. I think it looks a little bit cleaner

 

[dbbowen]

I will definitely take some decal sets. I’m sure @BigHighBlue and @roma042987 may be interested

I was looking at pictures of the cable locker housings and i think that there is a pigtail that comes out of them for the indicator light. If your diffs are like the ones in this listing?

Diff lock axles HJ60 HJ61

1 Set of diffrential lock axles. The system is complete, from levers up till the actual axles. Braking parts are not necessarily included. Gear ratio is 37:10

www.cruiserworld.eu

If so, they probably send a ground signal so you could use that to either send ground to this LED and just have the positive connected to constant power, or you could use a relay to make the lockers ground signal a power signal and then connect the other side of the LED to ground?

 

[CenTXFJ60]

I was looking at pictures of the cable locker housings and i think that there is a pigtail that comes out of them for the indicator light. If your diffs are like the ones in this listing?

Diff lock axles HJ60 HJ61

1 Set of diffrential lock axles. The system is complete, from levers up till the actual axles. Braking parts are not necessarily included. Gear ratio is 37:10

www.cruiserworld.eu

If so, they probably send a ground signal so you could use that to either send ground to this LED and just have the positive connected to constant power, or you could use a relay to make the lockers ground signal a power signal and then connect the other side of the LED to ground?

That’s correct Brian. Funny enough I bought another set of locked axles from Maarten at CruiserWorld. Which is why I’m stoked about what y’all have developed here. I actually have one more OEM early locked gauge cluster, but still want to make a domestic one so I can keep the parking brake indicator. Very nice work you guys are doing and thank you. Also, around page 33 on my Frankenstein build thread you’ll see where I fumbled through the process and figured out how to get the factory indicators to work.

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Awesome & thanks for mentioning to friends.....Just took a look at your build thread and that is one sweet 60 series you have

Let's chat however works best for you....I think many owners will find Brian's work a great project for their 60 so we can all thank him as well...

Mo

Thank you Mo. look forward to speaking offline with you and Brian. My cell is 713-805-3962. Look forward to working with y’all.

 

[63FST]

Thank you Mo. look forward to speaking offline with you and Brian. My cell is 713-805-3962. Look forward to working with y’all.

We can text

-- Yes I think Brian will have his hands full assisting or maybe even offering the soldered panel ready to go with or without decal.....

I'll post my link here and will send you a text early tomorrow AM to get communication started

FJ60/62 Landcruiser Diff Lock Kit (Telltale)

Diff Lock (Telltale) FJ60/62 Landcruiser

mofaraz.com

60 stuff -- 60 series - https://mofaraz.com/collections/60-series

-M

 

[dbbowen]

That’s correct Brian. Funny enough I bought another set of locked axles from Maarten at CruiserWorld. Which is why I’m stoked about what y’all have developed here. I actually have one more OEM early locked gauge cluster, but still want to make a domestic one so I can keep the parking brake indicator. Very nice work you guys are doing and thank you. Also, around page 33 on my Frankenstein build thread you’ll see where I fumbled through the process and figured out how to get the factory indicators to work.

Oh man that is awesome. It’s odd how many different variations of the cluster are available. Some don’t have anything there at all. It’s just flat.


Another thing I was kind of kicking around as an idea is to run the fj62 cluster pod thay has the fuel, oil pressure, Etc on my 60. It puts the parking brake indicator up in the are of the high beams and charge light. Doing this would open up the spot for the brake light for some other type of indicator light.

In your case of the overseas cluster without a brake light, you could use the 62 cluster pod and have a brake light and the locker indicator. Kind of tough to find them though

 

[Spook50]

Very impressive man! Great attention to detail and definitely has an OEM look.

 

[dbbowen]

Very impressive man! Great attention to detail and definitely has an OEM look.

Thanks! Appreciate the kind words!

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Oh man that is awesome. It’s odd how many different variations of the cluster are available. Some don’t have anything there at all. It’s just flat.


Another thing I was kind of kicking around as an idea is to run the fj62 cluster pod thay has the fuel, oil pressure, Etc on my 60. It puts the parking brake indicator up in the are of the high beams and charge light. Doing this would open up the spot for the brake light for some other type of indicator light.

In your case of the overseas cluster without a brake light, you could use the 62 cluster pod and have a brake light and the locker indicator. Kind of tough to find them though

Mo, I have a couple late (62 style dash) JDM clusters with the factory locker indicator if it would be any help for you. It is a bit different from the 60 version.

 

[63FST]

Mo, I have a couple late (62 style dash) JDM clusters with the factory locker indicator if it would be any help for you. It is a bit different from the 60 version.

Let's talk more via text -- I would like to take a look if you can send a picture....the main thing is getting exactly what you want on your cruiser -- that will put a smile on your face