Aftermarket gauge faces - installed.

Your Shopping List

• A set of aftermarket gauge faces - There are lots of places to find these. I'm fond of the ones sold at the revlimiter.net Store. They're the same gauges that are photographed below.
• Powder-free gloves - Because you'll never be able to wipe off finger prints from most gauges, including your old stock ones.
• Super glue - To stick the needle stoppers onto your new gauge faces.
• Paper towels.
• An exacto knife - to aid in the removal of the needle stoppers from your OEM gauge faces.
• 2 Phillips screwdrivers, one fine (#0) and one regular (#2).
• Either 2 slotted screwdrivers or a single needle/pin removal tool - to help you pop off the needles.
• Needle-nose pilers - might be required to fit a non-stock tach face.

Frequently Asked Questions

• I have an NB. Is it the same process?
  It's very close. The gauge cluster is much easier to remove from an NB, but there's a little extra work once you get it out. Hit my NB Gauge Install for something like 42 photos of the whole process.


• How do I install the needles?
  Whoa whoa whoa. Getting a little ahead of things! That section is at the bottom of this document, under Setting the Needles.


• Where can I get the gauges in these pix???
  I sell them here on this site! Check out the revlimiter.net Store.


• What's the deal with those funky gauges with non-stock zero positions?
  Miatas are quite blessed from the factory in that the tach and speedometer are round with the needle in the middle. The gauges have absolutely no idea where o'clock the needle is pointing. As long as you follow the Setting the Needles section correctly, the gauge will think that zero is zero. It doesn't matter if zero is at the stock 7 o'clock position or anywhere else. It will rotate all the way around and stop before it loops back on itself around the stock 9500ish mechanical hard stop.


• How do I know the tach is accurate after doing this?
  There are a few tricks, the best of which is the 2500 rpm = 50 mph in 5th gear one. Really, the best way to assure yourself of tachometer accuracy is to take some readings before you crack anything open. Mark on a sheet of paper what speed equals what rpm in a couple of gears. After you're finished with the gauge face install, check against your own notes.


• Will this make my odometer read wrong? Can I roll it back while I'm in there?
  No. Popping out the cluster and opening up the gauges doesn't affect your odometer at all. And if you try to roll it back, you'll just end up breaking it. I know this from experience. Not trying to cheat an odometer, but because I've been in the Miata world a long time and have had a half dozen gauge clusters in my possession at one point or another. I got a junky one and tried to roll back an odometer one day to see what would happen. I changed one digit and all of the numbers magically lost their alignment. None pointed in the same direction again, no matter what I tried to fix it.


• What happens if I don't hack out the extra plastic behind the tach?
  That area on the bottom will not light up at all. It will be a perfectly black area at night. This is fine for a stock-style gauge with zero at 7 o'clock, but for any other gauge it will look a bit silly.

Gauge Cluster Removal

To get access to the gauge cluster, you need to remove two plastic panels - the steering column cover and the gauge hood - and 6 screws. Check out the diagram above and whip out your #2 Phillips screwdriver. Tackle the column cover first.

One thing to note, you do NOT need to remove the metal knee guard that sits in the bottom dash area. The column cover can be removed just fine with that knee guard in place.



After removing the 3-4 screws holding the column cover in place, you will be able to split it in half and set both halves to the side. It snaps together very lightly and shouldn't put up much of a struggle as it comes out.



This is the first part of the job that will present a challenge. After removing the two screws holding the gauge hood in place, you'll have to pull it free. The dash is holding onto it by these three points and the plastic becomes brittle after years of baking in the sun. Pull it straight back (toward your face) in one motion. With luck, you'll not have any breakage.

The one pictured here is from Sharka's 1997 body. It has been removed and installed something like 20 times. It's still fine. The one from Sharka's 1995 body broke the first time I removed it. I wish you luck.



4 screws are holding the cluster in place. Well, 4 screws and 3 plastic clip connections on the back side. We'll get to those in a minute. For now, just remove these screws and set them aside. Then pull the cluster forward slightly (less than 1 inch or 2 cm) to give yourself a little room in the back.

Sorry about the "Stock Gauges" edit. The gauges installed in Sharka at the time these photos were taken are actually the ones you'll see at the end of this tutorial. I installed the gauges first and then took the installation pix as I put things back together. Seeing the "wrong" gauges installed in these first photos was confusing, so I blacked them out.



These are quite easy to remove, actually. With practice. But the first time? They're a huge pain. Just get in and out of the car a few times to figure out where each tab is and then shove your hand behind the cluster and try your best. The two top connections are electrical. The one lower connection is the speedometer's mechanical cable.



I thought this shot might help out a small bit. These are the three connections. You can see the little tabs securing them a bit better in this photo.

Gauge Face Installation

Take the cluster out of the car and to a comfortable, dust-free work area. You might consider putting on your gloves now. No gauge face I've ever seen is able to have finger prints or skin oils wiped clean, not even the stock ones. If you think you'll ever want to go back to stock faces, put those gloves on now.



To get at the gauges, you'll need to separate the front cluster cover (the glass) from the rest of the gauges. It is secured by a bunch of little tabs that run around the outside. They are easily popped free with just your fingers. Be careful, as this 20 year old plastic can break just as easily as the gauge hood can.

Incidentally, this is a great time to install a new cluster cover. The KG Works and AWD independent clusters will really make your new aftermarket gauges look great. And if you do both at one time, that's one less time you have to remove that delicate gauge hood.



Next, it's time to remove your needles. These are the two types of tools that I find make the job easiest - an interior pin / needle removal tool or two slotted screwdrivers. The needle removal tool can be found in most auto parts stores. They're usually used for removing carpet pins. The one I have is a very lightweight one that struggles with carpet pins but excels at removing gauge needles.



Here's the trick with the screwdriver method - you just carefully pry. Slide one blade under each side of the needle and slowly twist. Try not to move the screwdriver or you'll risk scratching your old gauge faces. Really, this method is very easy.



Using this tool is my preferred method of popping off the needles. It's just easier using one tool rather than two and I've never scratched a gauge face with this little thing. If you can find a slim pin puller like this, I highly suggest it.



Finally, out come the small screws holding the gauge faces in place. Be careful, since the metal is quite soft and the screws strip easily. Set the screws aside for re-installation in a moment.



Optional Step!
If your new gauge faces put the tach zero position in a different place than the stock 7 o'clock spot, you'll need to modify your cluster a bit. I'm sorry to not be able to provide you a before photo, but you'll most likely have the Before Version sitting right in front of you. The cluster plastic is easy to chew away. My favorite tool is a pair of needle-nose pliers.

Just grab a bit of the plastic with the pliers and bend. It'll snap easily. Remove as much as possible to get as much light into the lower area of the tach face as possible. Your car will have no idea it's modified and the three little lights will continue to work as they always did. If you ever need to go back, a small plastic cylinder like a lipstick tube can be used to separate the output of these three little bulbs.



Optional Step!
If your new gauge faces light up in a color other than the OEM green, you'll need to pop out each of the four bulbs and remove the little green bulb covers. Some folks call these "light bulb condoms". Whatever you call them, I'd recommend putting them in a baggy with your old gauge faces and saving them. It is very hard to get new little green condoms when you really want them.



PUT YOUR GLOVES ON. You will working with your new gauge faces a lot now. Treat them like they would self-destruct the moment anything touches the front side. A few mintues of extra care here will be worth it. Would you like to stare at an oily (or even dusty if using powdered gloves) finger print for the rest of your car's life?

Next, you'll need to deal with your needle stoppers. Some aftermarket gauges include new ones for you to glue on. Others require you to remove the stoppers from your stock tach and oil pressure gauges. This removal is quite easy. I'm sorry to not have a photo of it to offer, but I'll do my best to explain it.

Flip the gauge face over and look at the back. There's a small blob of melted plastic on the back side of the gauge holding the needle stopper in place. Take a sharp exacto knife blade and slice this melted plastic clean off. Try to cut in a parallel line to the gauge face. Once the blob is gone, the needle stopper will fall right off the front of the gauge face.



After slicing off the needle stopper, you'll be left with a small nipple on the back of it exactly the thickness of your OEM meter face. Take your exacto knife and slice off that little nipple so that the back side of the stopper is smooth and flat like you see in this photo.



Apply a drop of super glue to the back of the needle stopper. Don't be shy. Make a big dome-shaped drop on the back. You'll remove most of that glue in the next 3 seconds.



Use the corner of a paper towel to remove most of the glue from the stopper. You want to end up with just a thin layer of glue covering the back. This way, you won't have any excess glue seeping out from the edges of the stopper, making your new gauge faces look bad.

If you'd like, get out a sheet of plain paper and practice sticking the needle stopper to it. Make a mark with a pen and try to stick the stopper right over top. If there's any excess glue around the edges, remove it and wipe off all the glue from the back. Then re-apply the dot of super glue and try again. After all, it's easier to ruin a piece of paper than your new tachometer face.



That's what you're after. Just a little glue. Let it dry for a few seconds according to the glue directions and then pop it in place. Good luck!



And there's the needle stopper, all glued in place. Just like it was always there! OEM quality, just with a bit more style.

Setting the Needles

There is no good way to photograph each step of this. Sorry, but this involves a lot of reading. I'll try to make it as easy to understand as possible.

Speedometer: This is the only gauge needle that you can set while the cluster is on your table inside. The speedometer is self-zeroing. That means you can carefully and gently place the needle on the zero position and probably get it right. So stick it on there very lightly and then spin the needle up to 20 mph or so and let it fall by itself. Did it return to zero? If so, then give the needle a little extra press to make sure it's on there and then call it good. If it didn't return to zero, pull it off and try again.

Take the cluster back out to the car and reinstall it with the glass covering removed. Connect all three inputs on the back of the cluster. I like to also screw in 2 of the 4 cluster mounting screws to hold it in place and keep it from rattling around too much. Then turn the car on.

Oil Pressure: This is usually the second needle I put into place. With the car on and the engine cold, your oil pressure gauge will read very near the maximum value (the highest oil pressure) it will ever show. Point the needle to that spot and gently press it on. Not too hard! If you get it wrong and it starts showing low oil pressure when the engine is hot, you'll want to remove this needle and try again. And, obviously, cars with dummy oil pressure gauges don't really matter. Just put it on pointing at the middle.

Tachometer: When your engine has warmed up enough and you hear it idling normally, pop the tach needle in place with it pointing somewhere around 850 rpm. Next, rev up to your rev limit. Verify that the needle points to this value. I say "this value" since many cars have aftermarket ECUs with non-stock rev limits. For stock cars, it is 7200.

If you have an aftermarket ECU, it is very easy to set the tach needle. Just plug in your laptop and monitor the engine speed. If you see the needle is grossly incorrect, pop it off and try again. But if you don't have this luxury, there is a trick: for cars with the 4.1 rear end (94-97), 50 mph = 2500 rpm in 5th gear. For 90-93 cars with the 4.3 diff, I'm not sure of the magical check point. At any rate, once you're satisfied with the tach needle, you should press it firmly in place.

Water Temp: Once you've finished messing around with the tach needle, your engine should be warm enough to put the water needle in place. The stock position is approximately 11:30 o'clock. Put the needle in place and then press it down firmly.

Fuel: Last but not least, the gas gauge. I like to leave this needle off and drive to the gas station near my house. Then I fill up. Then I drive back to my house and sit in the driveway and put the fuel needle a bit above the F mark. It takes a little over a mile for a full tank of gas to register, so keep that in mind.

Lastly, turn the car off. Keep the cluster glass off and verify that the needles fall to their correct zero zones. If you didn't press the needle on hard enough, you'll have a droopy gauge. I'm talking to you, Mr. Water Temp. The tach and oil gauges both have stoppers. The fuel gauge doesn't fall. The speedometer self zeroes. But the water gauge can droop if the needle isn't pressed on hard enough. Once you're satisfied, give your new gauge faces a quick dusting with the very edge of a clean paper towel (don't use pressure to dust!) and then snap the glass cover in place.

And that's it. It sounds like a lot of work, but really the process is quite straightforward. With a little bit of care, it's very easy to swap out gauges and put everything together with that OEM fit and finish.

Cliff notes: Take everything out. Put on gloves. Put everything back in.

Additional Images

After all that work, I had to celebrate with some finished photos.