For a long time I have been wanting new gauges. The factory speedometer was the only gauge left in the factory cluster that was still working. All the others had been replaced by cheap parts store gauges screwed to the underside of the dash. I had also installed a tach with a large hose clamp to the steering column. Not pretty, but they worked. I first saw a quad gauge several years ago and loved it. I said to myself, I could replace the factory gauges with a new matching speedo, tach, and quad in the factory clusters 3 holes. It was not until recently I was in a position financially to be able to do it.
So my search started for some gauges. Since I have installed fuel injection, and already had a speed sensor, so it made sense to ditch the speedo cable and go all electronic. My initial search on summit and jegs did not find anything I was really happy with. Most of the spedos and tachs were ok, but I did not care much for the quads, then the fuel level was not gonna be right. While searching on google, I stumbled across speedhut. I had never heard of this company, but browsing their site, I almost instantly fell in love. I was blown away by the near 100% customability. You can pick the face color, number color, the pointer needle, the font, the tick, and even what color it glows at night. No bulbs, the night illumination uses ectroluminescence, very cool. They also said they can do custom fonts and usually match many factory fonts.
So with a few email exchanges, confirming they can do a custom job, I placed my order. I sent them a picture of my stock speedo and they went to work. They will make a picture preview of the gauge and email it to to. Then you go back and forth telling them yes, no, change this, etc.. and they keep at it until you are happy. It only took them a few attempts to get everything exactly how I wanted. I had them model the tach and quad font after the stock speedo font.
Install was not to hard. I bought a used cluster bezel and simply cut and sanded the backside smooth, I then mounted the gauges in the stock holes. The gauges are held into place by a large plastic nut on the backside. The gauges are really shallow. I couldn't believe how thin they were. Wiring was straight forward. They came with the required oil pressure and water temp senders (that replaced my stock ones perfectly), more than enough wiring for them. The connectors are waterproof, and the wires are a nice wrapped cable (kinda looks like a small extension cord) There was enough cable for the fuel sender to go all the way to the back of my jeep to the fuel tank. One nice thing about the speedhut fuel gauge, is its programmable to any fuel sender. I purchased another sender online and used it to program the gauge. You simply hold it at full, set it, then hold it at empty and set it. You now have a accurate gauge for your sender!
I bought the speedo that had the turn signal and high beam LED's in it. Simply wire in the stock wires for those. They come with a harness that connects all 3 gauges together and powers them all. Simple switched power and a ground. They all run through a single 3 amp fuse. Instructions say each gauge pulls about .2 amps. That's barely anything! They also come with another harness and a inverter to power the nighttime ectroluminescence. Simple power and ground for it. I just tied it into the stock dash lighting wire. It also comes with its own dimmer switch.
Tach is programmable for about any engine/ignition system. It was already preset for a V8, so I didn't have to touch it. I went with a 0-6000 tach, as I never rev above 4k, and my rev limiter is set at 4800, so I saw no point of having a tach that goes to 8k or higher. Speedo is programmable for about any speed signal and pulse count. Simply use a GPS or another car with a accurate speedo, drive to a specific speed that you can pick in the menu, and then push the button. It then saves it and your done. You can reprogram at any time. So if you get new tires, change gear ratios, etc.. it only takes a few min to reprogram it.
Now for some pics. I used a couple LED's I got from the parts store as warning lights. The amber one is my check engine light, the red one is parking brake.
Closeup showing the gauge font:
To compare, here is a closeup of my stock gauges.
