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- Apr 20, 2017
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I thought I'd post about my experience installing the BG6004 Digital Gauge Kit from Intellitronix to see if I can save some poor soul a portion of the frustration I dealt with installing these in my 76 K5.
TL/DR: This kit is very much a kit. I think it's a decent value considering the hardware included, but the instructions are next to worthless and significant modification and cutting are required. I've got about 10 hours in this swap probably so far (although I'm a bit OCD, so someone less detail oriented might have an easier time). I believe this kit was designed for an 80s rig with a plastic instrument bezel, and although it is advertised as a 73-87 kit, the metal bezel in my cluster was a pain to trim to fit this kit. If you want a bolt in solution, pay up for dakota digitals or something.
Background:
I went to school for electronics engineering, and while I don't do that for a day job, I still enjoy it as a hobby. I started making my own gauges with x27 steppers to replace the mechanical gauges in my 76, but after seeing this kit for $400, I realized this was just another project keeping me from finishing the truck and I should just pay up and be done.
The first problem I encountered with the installation was actually fitting the boards in the housing. I had to dremel away a fair bit of plastic just to get the boards to sit in place flush. Next, I noticed there was no way the metal reflective bezel would fit over the boards. Although trimming being required was called out in the instructions, the video linked on their site was for an 80s rig with a plastic bezel, and all they trimmed was the holes for the small gauges with a razor blade. I had to remove probably a good 40% of the metal bezel with sheet metal shears and a dremel to get it to sit flush with the gauges. Also, I had to make my own standoffs for the top two gauges (about 18mm tall) out of some nylon standoffs I had lying around. Otherwise, the gauges would sit lower and appear smaller/dimmer/farther away than the bottom gauges (again, OCD).
The next issue I encountered was the generic documentation. My board didn't match what was described in the instructions, as it appears to be generic instructions for multiple kits (things like "If you have a red wire or a pink wire, those are ignition hot. If you have both, pink is ignition and red is 12v constant. If in doubt, the board is marked with what each wire is.") My board had no markings, and so I connected the red wire to fused 12v constant resulting in the brake warning light always being on (due to a short to ground in my brake warning connection). After following the traces on the board, the only purpose for that wire is for the brake warning and check engine LEDs, which seems strange to put on 12v constant to me. I can't think of a reason either of those should be on when the ignition is off (and it's a carbureted 400sbc), so I left that wire disconnected.
A lot of the guides use Weatherpack connectors, but that seemed overkill to me since it's interior, so I used a Molex 18pin Mini-Fit Jr connector
The next issue I had was with the turn signals. When the parking lights are on, the turn signal indicators are always on, and turn off with the turn signal. This is due to the way the front side-marker lights are wired. They only have 2 wires, neither of which are ground. A lightbulb only lights when electricity is flowing through it regardless of direction, so their solution was wire parking lights to one side and turn signal to the other. So if the parking lights are off, it blinks on. If the parking lights are on, it blinks off (because the electrons from the turn signals cancel out the flow from the parking lights). Problem is the parking lights are always back feeding the turn signals with a little bit of electricity (not a big deal with bulbs, but enough to turn on LEDs). To solve this, I made some simple little dimmer modules out of some diodes and resistors to make them function like motorcycle DRLs (get brighter when turn signal blinks instead of turning off) and stop the back feeding. I feel like this should've been called out in the instructions as I can't be the only one who would be driven crazy by the indicators behaving like that.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the result. I still need to replace the oil pressure sending unit and water temp sensor with the ones included in the kit. I'll post more pictures when I finish cleaning up and painting the dash.
TL/DR: This kit is very much a kit. I think it's a decent value considering the hardware included, but the instructions are next to worthless and significant modification and cutting are required. I've got about 10 hours in this swap probably so far (although I'm a bit OCD, so someone less detail oriented might have an easier time). I believe this kit was designed for an 80s rig with a plastic instrument bezel, and although it is advertised as a 73-87 kit, the metal bezel in my cluster was a pain to trim to fit this kit. If you want a bolt in solution, pay up for dakota digitals or something.
Background:
I went to school for electronics engineering, and while I don't do that for a day job, I still enjoy it as a hobby. I started making my own gauges with x27 steppers to replace the mechanical gauges in my 76, but after seeing this kit for $400, I realized this was just another project keeping me from finishing the truck and I should just pay up and be done.
The first problem I encountered with the installation was actually fitting the boards in the housing. I had to dremel away a fair bit of plastic just to get the boards to sit in place flush. Next, I noticed there was no way the metal reflective bezel would fit over the boards. Although trimming being required was called out in the instructions, the video linked on their site was for an 80s rig with a plastic bezel, and all they trimmed was the holes for the small gauges with a razor blade. I had to remove probably a good 40% of the metal bezel with sheet metal shears and a dremel to get it to sit flush with the gauges. Also, I had to make my own standoffs for the top two gauges (about 18mm tall) out of some nylon standoffs I had lying around. Otherwise, the gauges would sit lower and appear smaller/dimmer/farther away than the bottom gauges (again, OCD).
The next issue I encountered was the generic documentation. My board didn't match what was described in the instructions, as it appears to be generic instructions for multiple kits (things like "If you have a red wire or a pink wire, those are ignition hot. If you have both, pink is ignition and red is 12v constant. If in doubt, the board is marked with what each wire is.") My board had no markings, and so I connected the red wire to fused 12v constant resulting in the brake warning light always being on (due to a short to ground in my brake warning connection). After following the traces on the board, the only purpose for that wire is for the brake warning and check engine LEDs, which seems strange to put on 12v constant to me. I can't think of a reason either of those should be on when the ignition is off (and it's a carbureted 400sbc), so I left that wire disconnected.
A lot of the guides use Weatherpack connectors, but that seemed overkill to me since it's interior, so I used a Molex 18pin Mini-Fit Jr connector
The next issue I had was with the turn signals. When the parking lights are on, the turn signal indicators are always on, and turn off with the turn signal. This is due to the way the front side-marker lights are wired. They only have 2 wires, neither of which are ground. A lightbulb only lights when electricity is flowing through it regardless of direction, so their solution was wire parking lights to one side and turn signal to the other. So if the parking lights are off, it blinks on. If the parking lights are on, it blinks off (because the electrons from the turn signals cancel out the flow from the parking lights). Problem is the parking lights are always back feeding the turn signals with a little bit of electricity (not a big deal with bulbs, but enough to turn on LEDs). To solve this, I made some simple little dimmer modules out of some diodes and resistors to make them function like motorcycle DRLs (get brighter when turn signal blinks instead of turning off) and stop the back feeding. I feel like this should've been called out in the instructions as I can't be the only one who would be driven crazy by the indicators behaving like that.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the result. I still need to replace the oil pressure sending unit and water temp sensor with the ones included in the kit. I'll post more pictures when I finish cleaning up and painting the dash.
