What guage fits where?

'96 XJ Sport. I want to install a transmission temperature guage. I have a digital voltmeter that plugs into the cigarette lighter, so I'm hoping to use the OEM cluster position for the stock voltmeter. Can this be done?

All these 2 1/16 dia guages I see in the catalogs, will one of these fit into the OEM pod? Or will I have to mount the new guage somewhere else? Ie, top of the dash or wherever? TIA

Don't know about in the dash, but under the dash to the right of your right knee, if you have one, is always a good place.

You cannot run an aftermarket gauge in the OEM cluster. There's a printed circuit board on the back of the cluster and you do NOT want to cut a 2" hole through that.

Look to the right of the instrument cluster, above the cigar lighter. There's a flat square panel there. Used to be where the clock went in the arly XJs, now it's just a blank panel. Should be nothing behind it. Suggest you put the gauge there.

I removed my temp gauge on the factory cluster. I was able to install another manual temp gauge in there..
Wasnt too hard. it required some "custom" dremel work tho.

Thats where I put mine.. Ill try and snap a pic of my cluster with the aftewrmarket gauge init.

??????

That window pillar gauge pod isn't factory. How does that relate to the question?

All these 2 1/16 dia guages I see in the catalogs, will one of these fit into the OEM pod? Or will I have to mount the new guage somewhere else? Ie, top of the dash or wherever? TIA

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He asked If he would have to mount somewhere else. He also mentioned he has a second volt gauge already. This is a pic to show him a solution. Also Ciggarette lighter gauge m,ight not se so accurate as it is running off a single wire that has other accessories on it. If all these accessories are running (wiper blades stereo dash lights etc) it may show a lower number. Running straight to the battery or alternator would give more accurate readings.
Heres a pic of the TWO aftermarket gauges I have in my Cluster
it is custom tho, and will NOT bolt up. The Tach is for the V8. and the temp gauge is a mechanical one. its a hunk of crap, thats why I ran another in the Gauge pod.. Lesson learned but too late to go back

THE_OWL said:

Heres a pic of the TWO aftermarket gauges I have in my Cluster
it is custom tho, and will NOT bolt up.[/IMG]

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That's pretty neat. How much work did you have to do to get the tach and water temp gauge in there? You obviously had to have cut out at least part of the OEM printed circuit board, so how did you reroute the circuits? Solder in wire jumpers?

I moved the whole circuit board back and yes, I jumped the cut connections
It DOES NOT look pretty back there

That is pretty neat looking. Pretty much what I had in mind. But what do you mean it is "custom" and will "not bolt up"?

to put the gauges in the cluster I had to cut grind and shimmy.
where Eagle talked about mounting a gauge is also a good spot, and easier to fit.
I would take ur cluster apart before I ordered any gauges, that way you can see what ur in for.
I think he means the spot where my ARB switches are.

THE_OWL said:

where Eagle talked about mounting a gauge is also a good spot, and easier to fit... I think he means the spot where my ARB switches are.

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Yep -- that's where I had in mind.

Boston, what I was getting at is what Owl described. He had to modify the printed circuit board behind the gauge cluster to be able to put aftermarket gauges into the factory locations. Nothing is impossible, as his dashboard demonstrates, but unless you are comfortable soldering to a flexible printed circuit board I don't think this is the way to go. It wouldn't be for most people. I've built my own computers for years and I'm not totally terrified of a soldering iron, but I would not attempt to do what Owl did.