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Indiglow Gauge and Radar Remote Install on 1993 300ZX Twin Turbo
There are a lot of posts on the boards basically saying "Don't do glow gauges, you'll ruin your gauges!"...but I wanted them in, and I didn't really want to pay someone to do it. First, let me say that I'm not a super technical guy, I just found a good site and took my time doing this. Here is the original site that guided me thru most of the install. You'll want some basic tools before you start; Flat and Phillips head drivers, wire cutters, wire splices and some double sided regular and foam tape. Presumably, you already have your gauges and your Z? Be sure you buy the correct gauges for your model year car. I (of course) didn't and had to make a few mods to make everything fit, plus leave out the boost and oil pressure gauges. Apparently gauges come in two flavors; 90-91, and 92-96. YMMV.
Enough babble, let's take something apart!
Okay, first thing to do is go fill up your gas tank and take a pix of where the gas gauge is sitting. It's going to move around while your working on it and you want it back where it was. Then remove the two screws that hold the instrument cover on. (pix 1) Now remove the two bolts holding the surround and cluster to the metal bracket. (pix 2) Next remove the two instrument pods on the sides of the cluster, one for the lights and one for the environment controls. They both have two screws underneath them. (pix 3) Most of the wire harnesses in the pods have tabs you needs to squeeze together to disconnect them. Some will be stubborn, but they'll come out.
Once you get the pods out, remove the two gold color screws on each side (pix 4). Next comes the bottom panel, four screws hold that in (pix 5). Lift the instrument surround up and out. Hiding behind it are two more screws (pix 6). Be careful not to break the odometer reset pole during this step.
The cluster has 5 total harnesses going to it. Three of them plug directly into the back on the cluster, into the thin mylar circuit board, so be careful. Just pinch the two release tabs on each cluster together (HARD!) and they'll come out. (pix 7) Carefully remove the cluster from the car and place on a nice flat surface somewhere. Remove the screw from each side (pix 8), then push the tabs into with a small flat blade to loosen the cover (pix 9).
These two wires must be disconnected from the circuit board before the cover can be fully removed (Pix 10). Now the black cover comes off. Be careful not to touch the front because it'll pick up fingerprints. (pix 11) Time to put the gauges on! If you're doing the boost and oil gauges, remove the 4 screws that hold the speedo and 3 screws that hold the tach in and remove those gauges to gain access. (mine wouldn't fit, so I skipped them). to install the gauge, slide the needle thru the hole in the middle, then slide the hole UNDER the needle and work the needle thru the hole. Be sure you press the needle stops THRU the gauge (pix 12) or the gauge face will sit up too high and stop your needles from returning back to zero.
After you get all the gauges on, secure them down with some double sided tape (pix 13). Be sure all the needles move freely through their entire range. If they don't you need to tape the gauge faces down better. The needles MUST move freely or they'll get stuck. Run the wires out thru the holes on the top (90-91 guys might have to drill some holes). Remember that photo of the gauges? Put the needle on the gas gauge and temp gauge back where they where and then put the cluster back together. (pix 14) Now we can go back to the car and install the inverter and dimmer switch. You'll want to power the inverter off the parking lights (not the dimmer circuit, you'll burn it out that way). Find the lighting harness and tap the red wire from the inverter into the green wire on the harness, and black from the inverter to black on the harness (pix 15 - sorry it's so blurry).
The inverter needs to hide somewhere, I found there was room behind the light control pod and stuck it there with some double sided foam tape. (pix 16) Be sure and check your work before putting everything back together. Hook up the lighting pod, turn on the parking lights and PRESTO! We have glow! I stuck the dinner switch right on top of the lighting pod with more double stick foam tape. (pix 17). Yay glow! (pix 18).
Radar Install
Here's the sidebar on doing the radar remote install. Might as well do the two jobs together when the dash is apart. The best place to power the radar is from the clock (unless you want to hang it up by the mirror, then splice into the lights). I like my radar mounted in the center of the windshield, so power off the clock it is. Remove the center dash, the plastic plugs simply pull out and then remove the screws (pix 1). If you happen to be doing gauges at the same time, you already have the dash apart and it'll be easy to run the power wires where you want them. I mounted the remote unit under the climate control pod (pix 3 & 7-) so I ran the wires from there up and behind the cluster and then down to the radio/clock area (pix 2). I ran the power to the radar unit out from behind the cluster cover, thru the defrost grate and then finally up to the unit. You can use a small flat blade driver to remove the defrost grate and thread the wires thru there so they're not just hanging about on the dash (pix 4). I connected the ground wire to the bottom of the radio (pix 5) and the power to the green wire on the clock (pix 6). Test that it's working (pix 8), then put everything back together and you're done!
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chadman
Z CHAN waiting for new turbos |
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How-To: Indiglow Gauge / Radar Remote Install - 
