Instrument Cluster - Custom Gauges

[John D]

what about the "warning lights"? CEL, turn signals, brights, the extra lil stuff

Did you look at the pictures? read the text?

 

[FlexdXJ]

Just like the rest of the Jeep.....AWESOME! Good work.

 

[geekwearz]

JohnD
IMHO that gauge cluster rocks..If you dont mind me asking, what do you figure you have in it money wise?

 

[John D]

JohnD
IMHO that gauge cluster rocks..If you dont mind me asking, what do you figure you have in it money wise?

The gauges and the lights plus shipping were about $535. Cant put a figure on the time and frustration of not making the Jeep cluster work...

 

[shawnxj]

that's awesome think it would look even better with phantoms

hmm i went back and reread and apparently you did use phantoms. guess i was thinking of another series

 

[xrayjeeper83]

that looks awsome. My gauge cluster has stopped working, there is a short somewhere keep blowing fuses. I have gotten fed-up looking for it and have been thinking of gonig mechanical. I think I will have to try my hand at doing this.

 

[Starboard M]

How did you cut the holes for the gauges to fit into?

 

[John D]

How did you cut the holes for the gauges to fit into?

Hole saw and drill press.

 

[keep0njeepin0n]

Some people don't like the accuracy of the factory gauges, especially if they have spent money building an engine. The Jeep PCM will not run the aftermarket gauges.

Maybe I missed something here, but is it true that the Jeep PCM will NOT work with these gauges? I LOVE this setup and would do it in a heartbeat if I could get it to work without 50 hours of work lol.

 

[John D]

Maybe I missed something here, but is it true that the Jeep PCM will NOT work with these gauges? I LOVE this setup and would do it in a heartbeat if I could get it to work without 50 hours of work lol.

The Jeep PCM will not drive these gauges on later models for sure, probably not any models. You can easily plumb in the senders for the gauges and run them in tandom with the Jeep senders tho.

 

[white hawk]

Hey john d. What size of gauges did you use? Are you using a stock wiring harness? Do you have any measurments for the cluster that you did?

Thanks

 

[John D]

Hey john d. What size of gauges did you use? Are you using a stock wiring harness? Do you have any measurments for the cluster that you did?

Thanks

3 3/8" for the Speedo and Tach and 2 1/16" for the others.

No to the stock wiring harness, sorta. I am still running the Jeep BCM so I was able to pull lighting and directional signals from the dash. For the rest I used electric gages so I just plumbed in the sensors and pulled in the lead wire to the back of the harness. Common ground for everything. No measurments, it was simple trial and error - EZ.

 

[white hawk]

Thanks for the info. so are your gauges hooked up to the xj pcm or the 5.3l pcm? If it's the 5.3l pcm than I can just absolete the xj pcm on mine. Would this be correct?

 

[John D]

Thanks for the info. so are your gauges hooked up to the xj pcm or the 5.3l pcm? If it's the 5.3l pcm than I can just absolete the xj pcm on mine. Would this be correct?

They are hooked to neither. I eliminated the XJ PCM and I run both Chevy and Autometer sending units in the 5.3L. The Chevy sending units tell the PCM what's going on and the Autometer sending unit tells the gages what's going on.

 

[white hawk]

Ok now I understand. Thanks for answering my questions.

 

[John D]

No problem, let me know if you need the print for the wires in the dash to grab for your directionals and illumination.

 

[John D]

A little update for this. I got tired of not knowing where my fuel level actually was so I did a little work. The problem is/was that the Jeep sender measures 270 ohms down and 20 ohms up. The Autometer gauge is 240/33, so it nevers reads accurately. I was able to bend the float arm to the correct position to read 240 at empty. It still reads high on the full side, but I know when it's full

Original float position.

Float arm bent to show 240 ohms empty.

Still shows 20 full which puts the Autometer indicator against the F-stop.

 

[zluster]

So, I basically finished up doing the 5.3L / 4L60E swap last September. One of my goals was to maintain the OEM Jeep instrument cluster to save the appearance of a stock Jeep.

I ran the Jeep PCM in tandem with the Chevy PCM. I spent some money and time plumbing the 5.3L with Jeep sensors and everything should have work, it didn't. You see, the gauges are fed (I think it starts in '97) by the signals being multiplexed through a buss going from the PCM to the instrument cluster. Even so, my theory was that the proper sensor would feed the Jeep PCM and send the signal to the dash. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. It appears in my case, that the Jeep PCM is going into a sort of auto-shutdown. Countless hours of research (wire diagrams, web searching, interviews with Mopar experts, and seat of the pants troubleshooting) have proven that it is not an auto-shutdown. What happens in my case is, when you go ‘key-run’ all of the Jeep gauges light up and read accurately. When you go ‘key-run/start/run’ the gauges "freeze" wherever they are and will not go up or down until it goes ‘key-off/run’ again. The computer drops communication with the instrument cluster through the start-run cycle. I have spent countless hours over the last six months trying to make this work and I cannot. It is unfortunate because I really wanted my dash to look factory.

One solution could have been to use a diesel XJ PCM. The diesel XJ uses a bosch ECU(EDC13 IIRC), since this ECU does not have a provision for communication on the Chrysler proprietary CCD bus the diesel XJ's use a standalone "PCM" in much of the same manner as you were trying to do. This unit is sort of like a stripped down version of our PCM, but just broadcasts all the necessary info onto the CCD bus, and is somewhat "standalone" for what that term is worth in a vehicle with integrated electronics.

Maybe useful for future peoples out there, I cannot speak to the effectiveness in your old situation.

 

[ChevelleSSLS6]

your cluster looks nicer than stock! great job! My only gripe is why does Auto Meter (and just about every other aftermarket gauge) run all the way up to 10k? Most engines don't go past 6500rpm, save for some high performance cars (Honda S2000)

 

[John D]

Thanks! I guess seeing the 10k on your tach makes people feel cool? Dunno