turbo asessory guages into non turbo

this is what i did. so far...... i have an 86 240 non turbo. the stero is mounted in the upper location. when my transmission went out i debated on what to do about it. i got a wrecked 242 turbo gt from a friend. i did the auto to manuel conversion. i also took out the asessory guage cluster. already have dropped a few bones for a stereo.take out the turbo guage and replace it with the oil temp guage instead. i took out my middle heater vents. and stuck the cluster there. i was quite impressed with the way it looked. ok youve got the location now you need the power and info from senders not so easy. carefully take out the wireing for each gauge and follow them into the dash (i found it easy to take out the dash, you wont have to take the dash out of your car. it is easier to put them in.) a few of the wire go to the cis controller (constant idle speed) turbo only! then you can run the wires directly to the senders withe the power (sky) wire to the fuse (asessory 4th from bottom) there you go lights and everything!! poeple drool over this i might add. it is your choice if you like the way the guage suround looks there if not make your own.(i got a first place trophy at a show just for it.) i will add pics soon on how to do it. skill level: 2 using common hand tools like screw drivers snips and youll need wireing connecters as well as a diagram. good luck. -chris

what do you think about this modifacation? would you do it? sacrifice heat for pimpness? wouldjah? or is to advanced for you toys!

Pictures of this would be great. Also, make it an article.

Anyways, I may be follow somewhat in your footsteps here. I am planning on removing the stock stereo in the stock location and moving it to the that free open pocket at the bottom of the center console. I am getting all of the small gauges and want to put white faces on them. I want to put three of those small guages above the vents high in the center console. I think that will look cool for an '89 244.

Anyways, pics man, pics!

Works great!! Though in the winter I really like to have the middle heater vents working.

This is what I'm running right now, just one middle vent seems to be enough.
http://www.vipinfoservices.com/john/images/wideband02.jpg

Good luck,

John

yeah that is what i did. i used the oil temp guage instead of a turbo guage though. haveing two sets of guages looks funny. i want an ambient guage in the upper loacion above the clock. i will pay good $$ for a temp guage.

Awesome. I hope my looks that good in the end. I'm going to keep both vents tho.

Also, how hard was it doing the white face conversion on your guages?

Cheers

guage faces.

it was really easy. the hardest part was the piece inbetween the fuel and temp guages, it is held in with melted rivets. so you have to cut it out with a soldering iron. other than that just cut and paste using rubber cement, then press it tight with a CLEAN cloth underneth a book. http://www.linkline.com/personal/dbarton/ he has nice faces for sale.

honestly mine looks a whole **** load better i will try my dam hardest to get a pic of it in here asap!!!!!

Yeah when I put the two sets of gauges in, I was just doing it for fun cause I had them laying around. I didn't even hook the second set up, just wanted to see how easy it was in case I wanted 8 different gauges.

And the white gauge faces FRICKIN RAWK, probably the BEST money I've spent on my car. I got mine from Dave Barton, in the link posted above, he's awesome. And they're only like $30, which is a steal. It's something you look at every single time you're in the car. Nighttime visibility is amazing, I can barely see my black accessory gauges compared to how well I can see my speedo and stuff. I've got the faces for my accessory gauges, just haven't converted them yet.

The fuel and temp part was really easy. I'd say the hardest part is the speedometer. I kept breaking needles, you've got to be very very careful. I think I finally ended up using a fork or two spoons or something to get the needle off the shaft, that worked very well. Everything else is pretty darn easy. And try real hard not to get them dirty or scratch them badly, I've got one mark on my tach and it annoys me a little bit....

John

Where do you get the white gauge faces?

If you've got access to a printer, download and print out mine. Otherwise, check out Dave Barton's site.

white gauges would be cool if i didn't have autometer sport comps (and my in dash temp gauge is unpluged so a waste of time.

what i would like is to loose the main cluster and replace with a 3 3/8 speedo, 5" in dash tach (8000rpm) and 2 5/8th fuel gauge. all my other stuff could live in around the vents.

Dave Barton's gauges are CHOICE, and they have a matte finish so they don't glare. But VolvoGeek, yours look pretty slick too!

ravennexus said:

what i would like is to loose the main cluster and replace with a 3 3/8 speedo, 5" in dash tach (8000rpm) and 2 5/8th fuel gauge. all my other stuff could live in around the vents.

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I plan on doing this too pretty soon, but I figured that a 5" tach would be HUGE for an in-dash gauge. I think the stock cluster is about 5" tall, so a 5" tack would be way too big in my oppinion. I'll be doing a 3 3/8 speedo and same sized tach. I'm pretty sure that Doug has this size speedo and tach in his carbon fiber dash.

John

Get those Pics up man..and also..Where can i get a good pic of some R-Sport gagues

The Aspirator said:

Yeah when I put the two sets of gauges in, I was just doing it for fun cause I had them laying around. I didn't even hook the second set up, just wanted to see how easy it was in case I wanted 8 different gauges.

And the white gauge faces FRICKIN RAWK, probably the BEST money I've spent on my car. I got mine from Dave Barton, in the link posted above, he's awesome. And they're only like $30, which is a steal. It's something you look at every single time you're in the car. Nighttime visibility is amazing, I can barely see my black accessory gauges compared to how well I can see my speedo and stuff. I've got the faces for my accessory gauges, just haven't converted them yet.

The fuel and temp part was really easy. I'd say the hardest part is the speedometer. I kept breaking needles, you've got to be very very careful. I think I finally ended up using a fork or two spoons or something to get the needle off the shaft, that worked very well. Everything else is pretty darn easy. And try real hard not to get them dirty or scratch them badly, I've got one mark on my tach and it annoys me a little bit....

John

Click to expand...

I've been planning on picking them up from Dave all along, but was curious about the level of difficulty compared to the 700 series boost guage face he makes. That was cake, but it's my understanding that some of the 240 installations can be a little tough. In particular, on some of the 52mm gauges. On his site, he says an alternative installation method (as opposed to pulling the needle) is to use a real sharp knife (exacto) and cut a straight line from the center to the bottom edge then manipulate the gauge face on that way. I'll find out I guess. I have the three face gauge cluster coming in the mail right now as well as a small tach.

Late...

The small gauges are tougher, but still no biggie. His instructions are pretty clear, I followed them and it worked well. Take your dremel or hacksaw and chop the front part off the gauge. Pull the needle, remove the screws, install face. Then either tape or glue the front of the gauge back on.

Dave mentions that if you don't want to remove the needles you could cut the face from the center to one edge, slip it around the needle, then rubber cement it on. Personally I didn't like the thought of this, cause you'd probably end up with a very visible seam that would annoy me, but who knows it might be a flush finish.

Where can i get a good pic of some R-Sport gagues

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Stock R-sport dash and gauges:


Dave's HOTTTT refinished R-sport gauges with aluminum painted bezels, damn these would look incredible when installed, they look like frickin brand new Autometer gauges, well done:

are those 2 1/16 sizes?? IDEA! THANKS MAN and btw..whats with the 3bar oil..comon 5bar! lol. It makes my car faster..along with my magnecore sticker.

Yes I'm pretty sure that all the R-sport accessory gauges are 2 1/16", and the speedo and tach are 3 3/8", just like the aftermarket gauges you can buy easily. And the accessory gages like I've got in my car are all 2 1/16", just so you all know in case you're looking to buy new ones.

Yeah, 3bar oil pressure gauges are annoying, but certainly better to have a 3bar than to not have one at all! My next one will be a 100psi mechanical Autometer oil pressure gauge.
John

hehe...any chance i could get mah hands on some R-Sportys! that would be insane! Mount the Tach and speedo on my dash..ill be ricey!! be like Yo boys- it says 130, that means it will go down there and it says 8 on the RPM's. ooo must be fast.

ebay man ebay. there is a place in seattle called northern european.(look in the member discount list in the back of vcoa's mag. 'Rolling' for their address and phone number) they have about 6 pairs of these r-sport guage clusters for about $100. the speedo is cable driven. so they wont fit in an 86 plus 240 with out changing the transmission to cable driven.