LED's in Cluster

[ladorn45]

Hey Scottyboy have a question for you. I see tons of videos explaining the process of taking the needles out of a 2003 to 2006 correctly. So when putting back together the needles would read correctly. Do you have any experience with the 2000-2002 needles. I know they have different motors so was not sure if the procedure was the same or diff.

 

[ScottyBoy]

Hey Scottyboy have a question for you. I see tons of videos explaining the process of taking the needles out of a 2003 to 2006 correctly. So when putting back together the needles would read correctly. Do you have any experience with the 2000-2002 needles. I know they have different motors so was not sure if the procedure was the same or diff.

Hey Scottyboy have a question for you. I see tons of videos explaining the process of taking the needles out of a 2003 to 2006 correctly. So when putting back together the needles would read correctly. Do you have any experience with the 2000-2002 needles. I know they have different motors so was not sure if the procedure was the same or diff.

I have tried before on a 00-02 cluster and honestly I jacked it all up. The motors in the 00-02 clusters don't have a stop position like the 03+ clusters do.
The 00-02 needles can spin freely in a complete circle if you remove that little pin that stops the needle at the end of the gauge sweep.
The ONLY thing I have seen about changing the 00-02 needles, was to get your truck up to operating temperature, and have a full tank of gas. Then take a few pictures of the gauge cluster to show where all the needles rest when the truck is idling at operating temperature on a full tank of fuel. When you go to put the needles back on, you will have to do it in the truck with the lense bezel off. Plug in the cluster with the truck idling and re-install the needles to the same place as showed in the photo that you took.
Also, if you are not changing the gauge overlay then you can put a piece of tape neat the tip of each needle, and mark where the needles rest when the truck is idling with the engine up to temperature.
It's not NEARLY as easy as the 03-06 needles, lol.

 

[ladorn45]

LOl thanks for the input. I really appreciate you sharing your knoweledge I ended up purchasing 2002 2500 sierra cluster with the transmission temp. Part of me was thinking of just taking the trans temp motor and overlay and put it in the original cluster. I know that for the 03-06 that wont work cause the cluster would need programming, but hoping the 00-02 are different since they use different motors, but if that does not work then I would just simply use the other cluster i bought. Only reason trying to keep original is because the mileage on the current one has 120k. The new one has 126k so not to far off but im pretty ocd with the car.

 

[ScottyBoy]

IlI' save you the trouble. I tried EXACTLY what you describe. I used a 2500 cluster and tried to add a yranstransmi temperature gauge and overlay on to my stock 01 Suburban cluster. It didn't work. There's some extra microcontrollers and xhipc on the board with the transmission temperature gauge, things that are NOT on the stock clusters with no trans temp gauge. It's easier to just swap out the E-Prom chip from your stock cluster and solder it onto the 2500 cluster so the mileage transfers over.
It's a pain though, I have not been able to successfully do it.

 

[ladorn45]

Hahah sir you kick ass. Thank you once again. My plan was to hook up the new cluster make sure everything works on it, and then put back in the original one and just drive till i get close enought to the other clusters mileage since it is not that far off. In the mean time put on the escalade overlay i accidentally bought on eBay and do the led strip light conversion. Once again thank you.