Indiglo Lights

Indiglo Lights

Indiglo gauges will add a fine touch to your interior as they are white by day, blue by night making it easier to read during the day and night. These gauges made by APC are of high quality and are quite easy to install. This procedure should take the average do-it-yourselfer about an hour and a half to complete. I have provided step by step instructions with illustrations to make it easier for you to complete this task. In my case, I already had the NR White faced gauges installed so I will be replacing them with the indiglo set up. Put aside about an hour and a half for this install. If you are not mechanically inclined, let a professional do it. This takes patience and time as you must be very gentle around the gauges. They are very delicate and can easily be broken. Well let's begin.

Tools needed: Drill, ring terminal, 1 self tap screw, zip ties, Small Philips screwdriver, flat head screwdriver, soldering iron, razor blade, wire strips, and patience.

1)Begin by removing the 2 screws located on the top of the cluster. Once the screws are removed, the black bezel is held in my clips. Pull gently on the bezel till it comes off.
2)Once you have the bezel removed, the dash will now be exposed. There are four screws at each corner that hold the cluster in place. Unscrew the four gold screws to remove the cluster.
3)This is the back of the cluster. There are four harness that need to be removed temporarily. Two blue ones, a yellow one, and a green one. Disconnect them and put them off to the side. Once you have the cluster removed, go inside your house and find a clear, well lit place to work.
4)Once inside, begin by removing the clear plastic piece that protects the gauges. There are clear plastic tabs all around the cluster that hold the plastic piece in place.
5)Once the clear plastic is removed, you must remove the black surrounding piece around the gauges. This piece is held in by black tabs all around the cluster. Before you remove this piece, it is a good idea to remove the bulb on top of the cluster as it will be in the way of you removing the black piece. Now unclip the tabs and remove the black piece.
6)Once you have the black piece removed, just lift on the bezel surrounding the gauges and remove that piece. Now you have the gauges fully exposed. &
7) Now we begin to install the indiglo gauges. You must remove each screw that hold the gauges in place. There are a total of eight (8) screws that hold them in place: 2 for the tach, 2 for the speedometer and 4 for the fuel/temp gauge.
8) Ok this part can get a little tricky and this is where the patience comes in. You want to begin with the tachometer. Gently move the tach to about the 4000rpm mark. That way you can clear the needle through the gauge. Insert the needle through the center hole of the gauge and feed it through. Once you get to the base of the needle, it will be a little tight. So gently push the gauge down till it fits flush against the gauge. Don't force it, just work it gently till it goes through.
9) Ok!! Now that you have that one in, move over to the speedometer one and perform the same steps as you followed for the tach. Remember, be gentle.
10) Now comes the toughest part of the install: the infamous fuel/temp gauge. Its actually not as hard as installing regular white faced gauges. APC was smart and enlarged the holes for easy clearance. You want to start with the fuel side first. Gently move the needle towards the "F" so that you can thread the needle through the hole. Do not go all the way through. Now move to the temp side. You will not need to bend the gauge itself, just move it side to side to maneuver the gauge. Gently move the temp needle to the "H" and feed the needle through the hole. Once you have both needles half way through the holes, go back to the fuel needle side and push it all the way down flush against the gauge. REMEMBER, be gentle, it will be tight. Now move over to the temp side and do the same thing. If you want more support for the needle if you are afraid it will break, push down on the base of the needle while you push the gauge flush against the gauge.
11) I know, that was tough. Now take a deep breath. The worst is over and you are now home free. Now we will go backwards but first we need to do a few things. Now you are probably wondering how you are supposed to install the bezel surrounding the gauges if the wires are over the edges. Well take your razor blade and scribe an indent in the white part so that the wires for the gauges will fit in the indents. That way the bezel can fit flush against the cluster. Do that to the tach side as well. There is no need to do it to the speedometer as you will just route the wires away from the bezel. Click on the second picture for a better view
12) Use a rag now to wipe over the gauges to remove any fingerprints or marks that you may have put on the gauges while handling them. Now put the bezel over the gauges and push down till its flush. Now put the clear plastic piece back on and make sure all the tabs are pushed in all the way locking it all together. You are now done with the gauge install. Its time to go back to the car. Hang in there, we are almost done.
13) Reconnect the four harnesses in the back of the cluster and reinstall it into the dash. Leave it exposed as you will be routing wires down through the dash.
14) There are three screws holding the lower dash piece on. Two on the left side of the steering column and one on the top corner of the right side of the column. Remove those and pull the dash off. Be gentle as it is held in by clips. Just give a gentle tug and it will come off. You can just leave it hang while you work as there is no need to fully remove it unless you want more room to work. Once the piece is removed, your wiring will be exposed.
15) Now the gauges have 2 main wires that you will hook up. Red for power and black for ground. The dimmer switch has 2 wires that need not be hooked up. What you want to look for is the parking light wire. You will be hooking up the Red (Power) wire to it. That way when your parking lights are on, the gauges will be on as well. The parking light wire is the red with the black stripe. It will be pretty easy to find as it will be the only red/blk wire there. Now splice the wire and wrap the red wire around it. Do not cut the wire, just splice into it. It is important to solder these wires together for a good connection. If you don't have one then get butt connectors and use them. Do not just tape it up as over time, it will come lose and can short something out.
16) Now find a suitable ground for the black wire to be hooked up. You may want to get a self tapping screw and use a ring to secure the wire to the metal reinforcement seen in the 14th step. That is a perfect ground.
17) Now connect the three harness from the gauges that you fed down though the dash to the three receiving harnesses of the transformer and tape them all together to keep it nice and neat. Once you have that done, use a zip tie to secure the transformer to something. That way, it won't be moving all over the place while you are driving. I elected not to install the dimmer switch (knob) into the dash because I felt I would never actually dim the gauges. So I decided to just tuck it away behind the dash. You can install it if you wish but that's completely up to you.
18) You are now pretty much done. Before you re-install the dash, check to make sure they work. Turn your parking lights on and your gauges should light up. If they don't then turn the dimmer knob clockwise all the way and see if it was turned off. If they still don't work then you must go back and check all your wiring. I'm gonna assume they work since mine did the first time. Now you can put the dash back on and complete the install
19) Now all you have to do is re-install the black gauge bezel and put the 2 screws holding it in and you are finished. Now that wasn't so hard was it. Turn your car on and make sure all the needles move freely. This will give the fuel gauge time to realign itself to the correct reading. You may want to take it for a spin just to see if everything functions properly. I'm pretty confident you followed everything correctly so everything should work fine.
20) Let out a sigh of relief and pat yourself on the back. You did it and now I bet you feel you can accomplish anything. Good job. Here is the finished product at night. Pretty sweet isn't it.