News:

It appears that the upgrade forces a login and many, many of you have forgotten your passwords and didn't set up any reminders. Contact me directly through helpmelogin@dodgecharger.com and I'll help sort it out.

Main Menu

DIY voltmeter mod for 2nd gen Chargers

Started by Dino, February 25, 2014, 02:23:36 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Just 6T9 CHGR

Ok got the decal on.  Not impressed with the fit of the decal.  Had to do some trimming and the guide notch in the upper left corner didnt really fit correctly.  Had to do some trimming.   When its installed in the cluster Im sure you wont see the edges too much to tell its a decal.

Still think the PCG stuff fit much better.  I contacted Dave P. there to see if he would do a custom one...no dice.

Over all its pretty much spot on with the voltage readings as seen in the pic.  When the weather warms up Ill install it along with the new OER oil psi gauge I just got...now Ill have a mixture of PCG decals, OER screen printing & Whitegauges decals in my dash ;)
Chris' '69 Charger R/T


Charger4404spd

Nothing wrong with that Chris, Im sure it will look great once everything is installed. :2thumbs:

Dino

Is it the monitor or is the battery gauge print a bit pixelated and wobbly? 
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Just 6T9 CHGR

yes the font isnt as sharp as the oil psi gauge is :rotz:
Chris' '69 Charger R/T


Dino

Well since my communication with whitegauges doesn't seem to go anywhere I guess I'll just tweak my own and get some thicker decal paper to print on.

When are you planning on working on your cluster?  If I am able to get a decal to look close to the PCG decals I'll send you one.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Just 6T9 CHGR

Their email sucks.....I found it better when I called them.  Im sure it will look OK when installed
Chris' '69 Charger R/T


RECHRGD

Dino, that's strange that you had to trim it.  The 'volts' one that I bought fit fine.
13.53 @ 105.32

Dino

Quote from: RECHRGD on March 30, 2014, 12:16:27 PM
Dino, that's strange that you had to trim it.  The 'volts' one that I bought fit fine.

Not mine!  That's Chris'   :yesnod:


I fiddled with the design yesterday and the print was way better than the one they sent you Chris.  Let me tweak it some more and I'll repost the design and instructions on how to print it for best quality.

This is what I'm ordering to print them by the way:
http://www.papilio.com/inkjet%20waterproof%20adhesive%20film%20media.html

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Just 6T9 CHGR

You got me all self conscious now Dino!  Called up WhiteGauges and they are looking into fixing it... :thumbs:
Chris' '69 Charger R/T


Just 6T9 CHGR

Small update.....they "fixed" the decal and are sending me out a new one....should have it tomorrow.

Silly question about the hook up of the voltmeter.   Can you use the original ammeter wires in the harness?  Reversing the black & red to match the gauge of course. Or should you run new wires tapping off say the fuse box?

Also figured out why my back lighting had different shades to it.  2 of the blue lenses were cracked.

Got some repro's (a little more blue than original) and tested out the new bright white LED bulbs.  These will make a huge improvement!
Chris' '69 Charger R/T


Dino

Woah that looks great!  You just reminded me to go find some leds for my cluster as well.  My blue lenses are intact but originals.  Would you still replace them?  I may just do so.

Regarding the hookup, both red and black are power wires so if you're not changing the charging system like I did to mine, I would solder red and black together and take 12v for the voltmeter off keyed ignition.  Ground the other side and done.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Just 6T9 CHGR

That makes sense.   Got the new decal today...meh a little better I guess...check that....looks exactly the same :rotz:

Another thing I noticed is when its installed the far right of gauge looks like its cut off by the plastic gauge face....have to do a bit of grinding to move the entire gauge over to the left....
Chris' '69 Charger R/T


Dino

That's...quite lousy  :rotz:

My decal paper should arrive one of these days so I'll see if I can do better.

It doesn't seem that my gauge has to move but it is a bit more forward than the stock one.  I guess the cluster housings are not that precise either.  Dremel time!   :icon_smile_big:
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Just 6T9 CHGR

Quote from: Dino on April 09, 2014, 05:50:45 AM
That's...quite lousy  :rotz:

My decal paper should arrive one of these days so I'll see if I can do better.

It doesn't seem that my gauge has to move but it is a bit more forward than the stock one.  I guess the cluster housings are not that precise either.  Dremel time!   :icon_smile_big:

Yeah thats what I did with mine.....also tried to lower it as much as possible in the housing to get it to line up (lettering wise) with the other gauges.

This is as low as I could get it without the gauge bottoming in the housing...
Chris' '69 Charger R/T


Dino

Careful with that!  The lettering is not on the same level for the 4 gauges.  The top border of the letters on one gauge line up with the bottom border of the gauge to the right of it.  They all stagger like that.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Just 6T9 CHGR

It still is staggered...if left alone it will be too much on the volt gauge
Chris' '69 Charger R/T


Dino

Gotcha!  Just making sure you weren't trying to line them up.  With the loose tolerances on these cars anything is possible. 
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Just 6T9 CHGR

Dash back in with LED's

Chris' '69 Charger R/T


Just 6T9 CHGR

Chris' '69 Charger R/T


chargerbr549

Wow!!! Thats a huge difference like night and day!! Where did you get your LED bulbs?

Just 6T9 CHGR

Chris' '69 Charger R/T


Dino

That's quite the difference!   :2thumbs:

I'm unsure what to do with the blue lenses themselves, mine are intact but I'm not sure how much they have faded over the years.  Where did you buy the lenses?  If they are cheap I may as well get those as well as the leds.

Thanks for the links.   :2thumbs:
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Just 6T9 CHGR

The lenses I got locally from a friend that is a Mopar parts retailer

http://www.gothamparts.com/

I only replaced the 2 over the small gauges themselves.  The others are the faded originals.  Cant tell a difference.   If they arent broken like mine were I'd leave em alone :Twocents:
Chris' '69 Charger R/T


Dino

Great!  Led's are ordered, vinyl paper will be here on Monday.   :2thumbs:
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

chargerbr549

I just came across this DIY voltmeter conversion has anybody tried this, they talk about using a water temp gauge (robbed from another cluster of course) and putting an ammeter face on it or I think you could use a new decal and with a new voltage limiter and a special sending unit it will supposedly work as a voltmeter, for normal the needle would ride in the middle. It sounds like a slick deal and alot less work to do.

http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=67781.0