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How To: Gauge Cluster Swap / Odometer Recalibration (Lots of Pics)

So is it for certain that this wont work on a 92 cluster? im still waiting on mine to come in, but i wanted to know if I should bother taking it apart and trying to reset it to the actual mileage or just put it in?
 
From what I have been told/read. The ~91 and up are set to where you cannot change the odometer. Instead of having a clip, the shaft has a piece melted on it to where you cannot remove it. It is not that hard to check, so its worth a shot. Just don't try to change anything if you don't have the clip.
 
ok, you can roll it back. move the little brass piece on the left side( if the numbers are facing you, opposite of the white dial) shift the numbers over and adjust accordingly.

I also decided that Im going to use the wire that feeds the license plate light since I dont believe that would be considered dimmable.
 
Hope you don't mind me adding to the thread.

This shows an odometer correction due to a gauge cluster swap on a 96. Original mileage 111K. "New" gauge cluster had 250K. The 96 has a mechanical odometer but it's driven electronically instead of via a cable. The gauge cluster I purchased was advertised as coming from a 96 so it was a same-year swap.


Follow TMXONR's directions for removal of the old idiot light panel from the dash. The only real difference is that instead of a speedometer cable there's a second electrical plug to undo.

Remove the 4 screws on the front of the gauge panel and remove the clear plastic cover and gauge surround. If you have a trip odometer you'll need to pull the plastic knob off the trip odo reset shaft.

The speedometer is held in via 3 screws on the back of the cluster.

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Those screws make the contact between the speedometer and the flexible printed circut so don't loose them.

At this point the speedometer will fall out from the front as a unit. If the old speedo unit is acceptable you could just swap the old for the new. In my case the new unit has a trip odometer so I wanted to reset the new unit to the correct mileage.

Remove the 3 screws holding the white plastic panel on the back of the unit.

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It should just lift away. There's a circut board under that held in by a couple of tabbed shafts. Gently pry the shafts back to clear the tabs and the board should come out.

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The odometer wheels are turned by a small gear unit that's held in with a couple of tabs and a small melted plastic button indicated by the screwdriver below. Use something sharp to trim the edges of the melted button so the gear drive unit can be removed. Bend back the tabs (carefully, they do break) and the gear drive unit should come out.

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Tabs where the red lines are - the top one is broken (this is the old unit.)

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At this point the 10ths wheel will turn freely. Rather than turn the 10ths wheel backward to get from 250K to 111K, even using a drill I removed the number wheels from the unit to see if I could manipulate them to change the rest of the digits. Here's how to get the number wheels out:

The shaft holding the wheels is held in place by a couple bits of melted plastic. Trim the melted plastic till you can pop the shaft out. Don't carve too much, you'll want a good socket when putting the thing back together.

To get the number wheel completely out of the assembly remove the two screws from the front of the speedometer. I tried to gently remove the speed needle to completely remove the face but it wouldn't move. In any case the face tilts forward so there's enough room to get the shaft and number wheels out.

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The number wheels are held on the shaft with what appears to be a brass pressed on washer on the high number side. You can see it in the picture above. I tried to get that off and started to bend the shaft so stopped.

However, if you have your old unit the easier action is to remove the number wheel from that and put it in the new unit which is what I did.

Otherwise you'll have to disassemble the number wheel or use a drill or dremmel to turn the 10ths wheel till you get it where you want. Post pictures if you take the number wheels apart.

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Reassembly. There are some flat pieces of metal between each wheel as indicated by the red lines in the picture above. These have a finger that engages part of the plastic housing so make sure those are in the right place.

I put a bit of epoxy at the ends of the shaft to replaced the retaining plastic (the shaft doesn't turn) and over the trimmed button on the gear drive unit to keep everything in place.

Hold the trip odometer reset shaft with a pair of needle nose pliers while pushing the knob back to avoid breaking the reset mechanism.

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I found a cluster from a 88 4.0. How do you recalibrate the tach to a 2.5 or do I need to?

I don't know if you would have to or not. It is my understanding that all the tach does is relay the signal from the wire harnes, to the needle. Someone else may be able to chime in on this with a better answer, but I would just wire it up and see if the tach gave some abnormal reading.
 
there is a small dashpot on the rear of the tch that is used to calibrate it. hook up another good tach that you know is right and turn the dashpot until the two match. rreally simple... its how i used a factory tach with my sbc 350.
 
Sweet writeup! I stumbled across a thread last night explaining this procedure and was quite interested. I was headed to the local salvage yard anyways today to pick up a few other needed items and found myself a cluster from a '90, mine is an '89. The other writeup didnt include pics or part numbers, so this one definitely helps, as well as informing me that I may not need the sensors since I have temp and oil pressure guages currently. Knowing how to reset the odometer is nice as well, though my jeep is odo exempt in my state, it would just make me feel good! Thanks for all the great info!
 
Success! I completed the first "Mod" to my XJ! I did the swap last night in about an hour including the odo recalibration. A note about the speedo cable: I found it easier to unscrew the short piece that connects to the rear of the cluster from the cable underneath the dash instead of reaching my hand behind the cluster. It made it much easier to reinstall. Thanks for all the great info on this site, I love my XJ, as do most of the users on this forum. Thanks a bunch!
 
I believe that junction only exists on vehicles equipped with cruise control, but I could be wrong.

Glad it worked out for you!
 
Forgive my "lazyness" here but, when I did this swap a couple years ago on my '88 MJ, I just pulled the original speedo with odometer and installed it in my new to me gauge cluster. No need to do any re-calibration. Seems easier to me....
 
WAIT! don't throw away your old pressure and temp switch just yet there is still a cool mod you can do. I upgraded my temp and oil pres to mechanical gauges mounted to my A_Pillar. but sadly i don't always pay attention to them, you can use the old switch's to activate new awesome idiot lights to get your attention... you can see them here mounted next to each gauge in the a-pillar pod. and its a simple to hook up too. its a pretty good mod, Enjoy!

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So if I want to do this to my 2000 XJ with idiot lights can I get the full gauge cluster and swap the old speedo unit into the new fullsized cluster so I don't have to deal with taking it somewhere to have them digitially fix the odometer reading?
 
So if I want to do this to my 2000 XJ with idiot lights can I get the full gauge cluster and swap the old speedo unit into the new fullsized cluster so I don't have to deal with taking it somewhere to have them digitially fix the odometer reading?
With the 97+ I believe all you have to swap is the gauge cluster. No sensor change should be needed.
If so I am sure someone will chime in.
 
From my understanding, the mileage is fed from the ECU/computer to the digital readout. So you wont have to worry about swapping out odometers or correcting any mileage
 
From my understanding, the mileage is fed from the ECU/computer to the digital readout. So you wont have to worry about swapping out odometers or correcting any mileage

Ok cuz I have heard both. I've also heard that the mileage is stored in the cluster so that when u swap the cluster u get the mileage of the new cluster so I am just trying to find someone who has actually done this in a late model with digital read out to confirm.
 
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