Speedo conversion from a NA car?

[masterbateson]

Had an idea

I dont particularly like the lockwood speedo conversion cover thinga'mejigs and also with them on the speedo reads 10mph over what the speed actually is.

So ive had a couple of thoughts and wondered if any of you guys could confirm if poss.

First idea is, just get a NA instrument cluster and use as is or fit boost gauge in the middle if poss

Or second idea is, get a speedo from a NA uk car and transplant it into my existing instrument cluster.

Are either options poss?/ things peeps have done b4?

[craig]

Transplant speedo unit into your cluster. Don't swap the whole cluster as there could be wiring differences.

[masterbateson]

excellent will do that eventually,but is just going to go on the ever growing list for now.

[Kiddo]

I've got a complete instrument cluster, UK with 103k on it. The plastic see through window is a bit cracked but everything behind is good. £15 delivered. Drop me a PM if you're interested

[Pauln]

My Turbo had lockwood dials fitted when I bought it, worst of all someone had fitted blue leds, which meant the needles vanished at night.

I simply purchased a n/a cluster and swapped all the individual gauges over. As has been said the complete n/a cluster and the turbo cluster aren't interchangeable due to wiring differences. The warning lights are also different on the turbo, and the turbo has an additional small pcb that controls the stock boost gauge.

As the stock boost gauge is pretty poor and I already had a pillar pod mounted boost gauge, I chose to fit the n/a voltmeter where the stock boost gauge normally sits in the turbo cluster.

You can't simply swap the boost gauge for a voltmeter, but the mod is pretty straightforward. You just need to remove the additional boost gauge circuit board and bridge two of the four screws that hold it in place, and not replace the other two. There's a full how to on mr2oc:

How to replace the stock boost gauge with a voltmeter

Paul

[masterbateson]

Picked up a uk cluster today as I went to pick up a set of wheels, ended up with a set of wheels with nearly new tyres (fronts Yoko's) a full set of callipers door cards and said cluster.

What I am concerned about tho, is as uk speedo is dif as far as 160mph etc will it be ok on my car without any adjustment/alteration?

I think I might be right in saying that both uk and jap and turbo and na all use the same signal doodah thingy?

Also back of this cluster is just ribbon type connectors, no mechanical linkage point so I am guessing I may be safe in assuming that Its not a rev1 mechanical jobby.

Also speedo I bought is 160mph job and I think you can get another type, is the 160 speedo ok for the job? I think so but a confirmation would be great!

[Pauln]

If there's no sign of a cable drive for the speedo it's going to be the electronic type fitted to the rev2+.

As you have a JDM turbo the speedo when imported should have been a 180km type. The question is what was the top speed shown on the Lockwood dial face fitted by a previous owner?

If it was 180 mph, then you should have a km to mph converter fitted. Either a Stef type clamp converter which is a small pcb attached to the rear of the cluster, or a separate converter with additional wires connected on the back of the cluster.

This shot shows my Stef delimiter/converter fitted on the back of the speedo gauge. Please ignore all the wires, these relate to temporarily testing stuff and power for the Speedhut dials.



If you want to replace your 180mph speedo with a 160mph UK model you will need to remove the converter, and if the additional wire type converter, make good any cables that have been split to fit it.

It your existing Lockwood dial is the 160 version, it's just a straight swap as all the previous owner has done is to fit a recalibrated dial face.

Paul[/img]

[masterbateson]

well I guess I'll know a bit more when I get home and take cluster out.
I prefer the original Toyota dials so deffo going to be doing a transplant.
Maybe whilst Im at it perhaps I can check for a bad caps and poss change to led lighting.

Can I just fit the uk cluster as another option if I change the connector or the pins?

[Pauln]

There are major differences between the n/a and turbo cluster. To start with, the warning light layout is very different and their is additional circuitry and wiring to accommodate the boost gauge, and there may also be other differences. So I wouldn't recommend trying to do a straight swap.

Just swap over the actual gauges. If you currently have a Lockwood 160mph speedo gauge, you can simply swap that with the gauge from the n/a. If it's a 180mph Lockwood gauge you just need to check for a converter and remove it.

This forum post shows the other type of converter that could be fitted.
seperate converter with wires

If you do change to led at the same time, I can recomend this type for backlighting:

LED link

These are fairly bright, so you may want to use the type with fewer smds fitted. But that style seems to give the most even distribution of light.

You can also fit leds in the warning lights if you want, but they are a smaller fitting. But don't change the warning lamp for low fuel level as this won't work with an led, the resistance is all wrong. Just don't forget LEDs only work one way around so you may need to turn the holder around through 180 deg to make them work.

Paul

Paul

[masterbateson]

Yeah was just toying with the idea as I wasn't to bothered about stock boost gauge as its about as much use as a chocolate teapot and I have a separate boost gauge, plus thought I might like a battery charge gauge

[Pauln]

As I mentioned in my earlier post it's fairly straightforward fitting the voltmeter from your n/a cluster to replace the rubbish stock boost gauge. Just follow the how to link in my previous post. The only thing I did differently was to use a short wire link with crimp terminals held in place by the screws rather than soldering a link as the how to shows.

Paul

[masterbateson]

One thing I would like to do is adjust the odometer to match that of the original one in my car at present, mines fairly low miles where as this donor has a good few more miles on it.

I am led to believe that this is legal providing your adjustment matches cars actual mileage.

Not sure how to go about this or if I should? looks like it should be easy enough to do but not entirely sure how yet or also if.

[Pauln]

Changing the odometer reading is as far as I'm aware perfectly legal providing you can show that you've not done this to pass the car off when selling as being lower mileage than it really is.

When I did this I took photos of both speedo clusters to show them set to the same mileage. It's obviously not absolute proof, but I believe most buyers would accept this as demonstrating that you are honest.

It goes without saying that you try to change the odometer reading at your own risk as the mechanism is plastic and quite fragile.

On the back of the speedo you will see all the dials of the odometer are fitted on a plastic spindle. If you carefully ease this spindle out of it's housing at one end only you can create enough slack to manually turn the dials to the desired reading. But don't pull it out too far or try to take the spindle out completely, or you'll never get it back together again. And make sure all the dials remain lined up as you click the end of the spindle back in place, you really only want to do this once. Just take your time and be gentle.

Paul

[Hez]

take the speedo part of the cluster out and you can just roll the numbers to change the milage, use a little screwdriver the push the retaining cog aside, its all obvious once its out.
Lots of people change their milage when fitting new clusters or after importing and its completely legal aslong as your not trying to deceive.

[masterbateson]

Presumably mileage is showing on dvla database anyway and old MOTs so you'd be mad to try and do any fiddling.

Suppose our cars are a mixture of km's and miles so not entirely accurate anyway

[masterbateson]

Anyone who has fitted uK speedo and removed electronic convertor answer this one please.

Swapped my dials over into turbo unit and went for batt charge instead of boost gauge as I have a boost gauge in centre console.

Any hoo I noticed a wire had been cut on the loom/plug going to the speedo unit think it was purple from memory.

So rejoined this cut lead, but speedo still doesn't work.

Believe I may be missing the input signal coming from the gearbox on a yellow wire, but where does it need to go? its not spliced into this cut purple wire presumably?

[masterbateson]

woohoo!! found abroken wire, speedo now working and in mph, plus bonus of the fuel gauge now reads properly too,