this'll prolly get moved to tech.... but here's my old write-up of it:
"
LoL... my sister was supposed to give me her hi res camera since her boyfriend had a better one than she did... she's since broken up with him and won't give me hers. mine sucks, but here's what they sent me:
http://members.aol.com/pjcorrales/gauge_install/gaugefaces.jpg
and the finished product:
http://members.aol.com/pjcorrales/gauge_install/finish.jpg
the install wasn't bad. there were some clearance issues like with the EL connectors:
http://members.aol.com/pjcorrales/gauge_install/clearance.jpg
You can also see I lost one of the screws (although I'm decent enough at taking the dash apart so if I ever find it I can screw it in <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'> )
anyways, the wiring was easy, I just spliced it into the dimmer switch, which was the closest power/ground anyways:
http://members.aol.com/pjcorrales/gauge_install/dimmersplice.jpg
red/blue is positive
black is obviously negative
niftiest part is I didn't have to remove the needles. just slide the gauges onto the odo reset and time adjustment poles, rotated the needle so I could get it to slide into the gauge, and slid the gauges in.
http://members.aol.com/pjcorrales/gauge_install/slideface.jpg
notched the case to run the indiglo wiring so I wouldn't have to remove my bulbs and run the wires through that hole.
http://members.aol.com/pjcorrales/gauge_install/notch.jpg
the instructions were pretty crappy. No pictures, and they're pretty vague (they generalize so they can ship it with every set they sell, non-car specific.) I glanced at it, and laughed at the part where it said : "If your gauges are backlit only, you may want to leave your bulbs intact (I actually did this too), this will illuminate your needles, and looks cool at night with the indiglo faces lit." The instructions also suggested to wire the power from the parking lights.... oh well, so much for trusting instructions written in Comic Sans...
The gauges look pretty nice. They aren't as bright as I thought they'd be, but it isn't dark out so it's not like I can tell that yet. When it's dark out I'll get a lit shot.
My only complaint is that I can hear them whining or whirring or something... it's no big deal, as soon as the car is started it's completely undetectable. I'll have to see if I wired something wrong (which I doubt) or if it goes away. It might just be power draw off the dimmer switch.... so maybe I should try hooking it up to a more solid power source...."
Update: The whining noise doesn't seem to be as noticeable when the gauges are in "Green" mode, and I've since cleared out my needles and painted the backs silver instead of orange. The goal is blue or white lit needles over the green indiglo gauges, but I haven't had the time to get back into the dash to do it. (Right now I have normal 194's in the dash which lights up a bit yellowish).
Also... I was wondering about the white faced overlays that you used to be able to buy for $30 on ebay.... since the numbers were notched a bit larger than the actual numbers, I was thinking that those installed over the indiglows would give an indiglo outline of the number at night, like the reverse EL gauges out now. If I can find a set cheap enough I might try it out. The last thing is that I want to try the import intelligence needles over that if it works <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/thumbs-up.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':thumbsup:'>