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I am wondering if anyone here has installed the Dakota Digital VHX-73J-WAG instrument panel. How was the directions and installation experience? We are looking at this for my wife's 77 Wag.
I don’t have experience with it, but have been looking at it for a future upgrade. Bjs off-road also sells a version of that with more stock appearing graphics (same guts though).
Lucky (from Hotrod Garage) just did a short YouTube video on installing that gauge cluster in a wag. You might be able to gleam some install info from it.
RamJetFSJ wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 7:07 am
I don’t have experience with it, but have been looking at it for a future upgrade. Bjs off-road also sells a version of that with more stock appearing graphics (same guts though).
Lucky (from Hotrod Garage) just did a short YouTube video on installing that gauge cluster in a wag. You might be able to gleam some install info from it.
thank you for posting, too much glare on this cluster... as I can see on that video... I observed the same on the 86 and later, it is terrible you can see the transmission lever and the blinker stalk, the 85 and older are not great, but better than the other choices, it is amazing that when the redesign was done that these annoying shortcomings were not addressed
and yes you need to lower the steering column... otherwise the cluster and the steering column will get scratches
Michel
74 wag (349 Kmiles... parked, next step is a rust free body)
85 Gwag (229 Kmiles... the running test lab)
letank wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:32 am
thank you for posting, too much glare on this cluster... as I can see on that video... I observed the same on the 86 and later, it is terrible you can see the transmission lever and the blinker stalk, the 85 and older are not great, but better than the other choices, it is amazing that when the redesign was done that these annoying shortcomings were not addressed
and yes you need to lower the steering column... otherwise the cluster and the steering column will get scratches
Glare? As in from the lens faces? You reuse the original lenses. If there is glare, it was there the whole time.
84 Grand Waggy-Radio Flyer (Garnet Red/3M Ebony Metallic woodgrain, with honey interior) AMC 360 2004 4.8LS/Advance Adapter/727/242 D44/AMC20 Serehill tailgate and headlight harnesses Ongoing thread-viewtopic.php?t=11897
Actually - I wouldn't reuse the original lenses - you can use them if you want but it looked really weird & pushed the gauges too far back & the glare was really weird. Give it a shot to see, but I pulled mine.
Installing the sensors, wiring, and CPU was easy. Instructions were clear. There was plenty of space above the steering column inside the dash to mount the brain.
Only the temp gauge worked for me. None of my other gauges worked. Either I was too dumb to figure out how to configure it (followed the directions through 5 times, still had inaccurate gauges), or something else went wrong. Gave up after hours and hours of troubleshooting. Prior to installing the dakota gauges, all my gauges worked. I had already previously replaced every nut bolt wire and wiring harness in my Jeep, everything was fully restored and I wanted to upgrade to digital gauges.
Hopefully some day I meet someone that knows how to troubleshoot them because at this point it was just a waste of money for me :/
ArchitectJS wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:34 am
I did the Sniper / Hyperspark combon, and i think Dakota has a plug-and-play for all the gauges. Price is hefty.
Would love to get new lenses. PO was sloppy with his adhesive on a previous fix attempt.
Hi - I found out that Jeep Recyclers has them laser cut from flat, clear Lexan sheets that sell for $25 each.
Just want to post in here again that I didn't think it worth it to put the lenses back on with a dakota cluster - lenses had really weird reflections and sat too far back. The overlay on the cluster itself is super clear and hard. Recommend trying it first without sourcing new lenses first and see what you think.
I'm curious about how it you like also, as I've been considering this for my 87 GW.
There is one thing that bugs me with them though (if the pictures online are accurate) and that is the temp gauge sweep. They put the mid point as 180 even though our stock thermostat is 195 and "normal" operating temp is 210. It's probably just me, but that would bug me to see the temp gauge towards the top of the sweep all the time...and for $750 I don't want anything to bug me.