Swapping clusters, cant get the black harness plug in

[peetiewonder]

does anyone have any tips for me? i think part of my problem is i have big ass hands and theres not much space under there. any help appreciated. the sooner, the better :duh:

[projectRDM]

Into the cluster or into the dash harness? Either one it may be just angle the cluster out of the way as much as you can, tilt the wheel down for more room. Your hands can't be that big.

[peetiewonder]

it was the black one thats further back into the dash. i ended up calling my asian friend and he ninja'd it in there.

now that i got it hooked up, half of it is dim, and now all my interior lights are out and my radio does not work. i checked some of the fuses they all seemed intact. has anyone else had this issue when installing a cluster?

[Enna]

Was it a direct swap or did you have to do some wiring for it?

If you had to do some wiring, then go back and double check all of your connections. I did it in my S14, converted from zenki cluster to kouki. All I used was the FSM for the two different cars and mapped out the wires how they were listed.

If its a direct swap then you might want to make sure the cluster isn't already fucked, and check your wiring also. You might have (granted I dont know how the fuck you could do this) somehow fucked up the wires back there. Stupid shit happens, who knows.

[peetiewonder]

aight yeah ill take it apart again when i have time. it was a direct swap. so ill check the harness for any bad wires and stuff.

[peetiewonder]

aight so i havent had time to pull everything apart again, but some things i have noticed are that the automatic seatbelts now dont work unless the ignition is on, the right half of the cluster is not lit. the right turn signal light (on the cluster) wont come on, but the right turn signal does work. i have no radio, the light on the emergency signal doesnt light up when the parking or headlights are on, and the interior lights no longer work.

what i am wondering is if a bad cluster harness can cause any or all of this or maybe a bad cluster causing any of this. also i am going to check the TCU box when i get a chance to make sure nothing is burned up in there becuase i read that that thing can cause some problems.

any other ideas or suggestions as to what to look for would be appreciated.

also fyi i swapped from digital to analog cluster (which the analog tach placement sucks by the way comparitively speaking).

another question: could a bad cluster harness cause a malfunction of the HUD/ Digital Speedo unit?