Changing color of cluster gauges from black to white

[Travis Brown]

I recently swapped my gauge cluster color from black to white to improve visibility in bright conditions. I thought it might be useful to some people. Here's what I did:
1) Find a white-backed gauge cluster at junkyard follow removal instructions here
2) Disassemble the white cluster, it's mostly just a bunch of plastic snaps. I ran into some trouble because the center LCD display had some glue holding it to the black plastic trouble light filter. Watch out for the delicate ribbon cable when you remove the circuit board. The hardest part is removing the needles from the tach and speedo, you have to pull frighteningly hard to get them to separate from the shafts. The temperature and gas indicators are easiest to remove by separating the motor from the circuit board. You just push the center of the white mounting pins inward and then they'll pop off the board. When you're done, you'll have something like this.

3) Once you have the circuit board and needles removed, the gauge faces themselves come off easily by just lifting them off their alignment pegs and rotating a few degrees to clear the center. you should now have something like this:

4) Disassemble your old black cluster and just swap the gauge faces over.

5) Put your cluster back together. This isn't too bad, but it can be a little tricky. First, remove the white pegs from the center of the coolant/gas indicator mounts. Then snake the coolant/gas indicators into the body, and move the circuit board into position, snapping the coolant/gas indicators into the board as you go. To secure the mounting, reinsert the white center pegs. The next part is probably the trickiest and I had to do it a couple times to get it right. You need to make sure the speedo/tach motors are all the way to their left most position, then push the new needles down onto the shafts. I got it wrong a couple times, so I suggest pushing them down part of the way, then plugging the cluster into your car and checking their position. Note: you could probably use this technique to do a crude adjustment of your speedo for bigger tire sizes.
6) Once all of the needles are back on and in their correct positions, reassemble the cluster and put it back in your dash. Viola! High contrast gauges!!

 

[94Eddie]

Thanks for posting this. I have the same black gauge faces on my Mountaineer and don't like how difficult they are to read in the daytime. I like that the donor cluster will give some practice removing the gauge faces. If you have any other photos to post if would probably be helpful.

 

[Travis Brown]

Thanks for posting this. I have the same black gauge faces on my Mountaineer and don't like how difficult they are to read in the daytime. I like that the donor cluster will give some practice removing the gauge faces. If you have any other photos to post if would probably be helpful.

Yeah, so far the white gauges have been a big improvement over the black ones during the day, and look identical to the black at night. The gauge faces aren't glued or anything, they come off very easy. The only hard part is pulling the speedo/tach needles off. As for more pictures, these are all I have. It went a lot quicker and easier than I expected so I forgot to take more.

 

[apoctank]

Is your interior color scheme factory? I like the tan center on the black wheel

 

[Travis Brown]

Is your interior color scheme factory? I like the tan center on the black wheel

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. It's not factory, I just pulled a black steering wheel out of a junkyard and swapped in my tan airbag. I was going to swap over the black airbag cover too, but my wife liked it better this way and I was a little leery of disassembling the airbag. It's grown on me over time and now I like it a lot.

 

[94Eddie]

I just want to add a comment that if anyone is looking to do this mod make sure you get the right donor cluster. There are two information displays and the smaller one has a hole for a control stick near the zero indicator on the speedometer that does something like restting a trip odometer. The cluster with the larger information display doesn't have this protrusion.

 

[Travis Brown]

I just want to add a comment that if anyone is looking to do this mod make sure you get the right donor cluster. There are two information displays and the smaller one has a hole for a control stick near the zero indicator on the speedometer that does something like restting a trip odometer. The cluster with the larger information display doesn't have this protrusion.

Good point, I forgot to mention that. The cluster I found had the larger display, so I had to cut a small hole to allow the control stick to pass through. Takes a careful hand and a sharp exacto knife, but it's not too bad. I wish my truck came with the bigger display, pushing that stick is kind of a pain (and maybe a little unsafe) while driving.

 

[94Eddie]

Good point, I forgot to mention that. The cluster I found had the larger display, so I had to cut a small hole to allow the control stick to pass through. Takes a careful hand and a sharp exacto knife, but it's not too bad. I wish my truck came with the bigger display, pushing that stick is kind of a pain (and maybe a little unsafe) while driving.

I was getting ready to buy one from ebay and at the last minute I saw the stick on it. I found another one without it for $50 shipped which is well worth the cost to change the gauge faces to something that is easier to read. I don't know how these black face gauges made it through Ford's vetting process in the design stage. They are horrible.

 

[MotorCityFats13]

just make sure you are careful not to break anything since the actual cluster swap would require a pcm, cluster and abs controler from a matching year and option list vehicle and a subscription to forscan..... been there done that

 

[94Eddie]

just make sure you are careful not to break anything since the actual cluster swap would require a pcm, cluster and abs controler from a matching year and option list vehicle and a subscription to forscan..... been there done that

This is why I like the idea of practicing on the donor cluster before disassembling the one in the vehicle.

 

[MotorCityFats13]

This is why I like the idea of practicing on the donor cluster before disassembling the one in the vehicle.

it helps but even a veteran kicker still misses the PAT once in a while

 

[94Eddie]

I swapped the gauge faces but there is an issue that bit me in the behind. Apparently, the 2006-2007 Explorers/Mountaineers had the fuel gauge on the left side of the cluster and the temperature gauge on the right side. The 2008-2010 Explorers are reversed. I bought a 2006 donor cluster for my 2010 Mountaineer. When I reinstalled the cluster I found the problem this causes. The "temperature" gauge was spiked (i.e. the gas tank is full) and gas tank was on empty (i.e. the engine was cold). After some head scratching it became apparent that I could not use the white fuel and temperature gauge faces. So anyone planning to do this mod make sure you have the proper year donor cluster for your vehicle. After seeing how it looks in the daytime and works in the dark I think I actually like having the smaller gauges with a black face.

Also, as MotorCityFats13 stated, doing this can easily go off the rails. Removing the indicator needle is nerve wrenching as it takes a lot of effort. Just make sure you are pulling them off perpendicular to the gauge face. The plastic stems can break off easily if you don't. Reinstalling the needles is also difficult in order to get them in the right location. This said, the improvement in visibility of the gauges during the daytime is very much improved.