emtspitz
Registered
First off DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT attempt this unless you are sure of your soldering and desoldering skills and are a patient person. If you are not then have SOMEONE ELSE do this for you!!!!!
Here is a picture of an '08 guage cluster and below is the LED's in their package. They are small square LED's with 2 small metal contacts on the
Soldering iron - with a FINE POINTED tip
Tweezers
Solder
Small screwdriver set - phillips
Medium sized spoons
Small curved pliers
Now you need to remove all the silver screws from inback of the cluster
Picasa Web Albums - Mark - Project Blue ...
This is where you should now be at:
The cluster should now come right out:
Take out the black screws:
Now is ONE of the harder steps.....use two spoons to take off the needles. You do need to use a good deal of pressure.....just do it slowly. You will hear them "POP" off. Don't worry that's normal.
Now you need to desolder the LCD screen in the picture above. If you look at the back of the cluster, there are 2 rows of 11 & 14 small pins. You need to heat those pins up and take off the solder. Do this CAREFULLY!!
Once this is done. here's what it should look like:
Now if you look at the picture above, you can see these tiny white squares. Those are the LED's! They are solder to the board on two sides. This is where the POINTED tip comes in handy. Heat up one side while trying to turn it with the curved pliers. Once you are able to pull up one side, then desolder the other side and take it off the board. MAKE A NOTE WHICH WAY THE LED IS FACING!!! You need to solder the new LED the EXACT same direction the old one was is or else the board won't work at all!!! There should be 15 LED's that you replace.
Now comes the TOUGH part. Putting those pins from the LCD back into the board. I'm sorry I don't have pics of these steps. The easiest way I put them back in was to clean up the holes in the board and the pins of ALL old solder. Then I straightened them out with pliers, not pulling them but just making them straight by squeezing the pin between the pliers. I then fit one side into the board, note that some pins are slightly longer than others and will cause the pins not to go in until you get that longer pin through the board. Now that you have all the pins through, solder them back onto the board. Once you have both sides on you'll probably have to go back and press down on the pins from the LCD SIDE and heat the solder up from the back so the pins make a FULL connection.
Once this is done, hook the board back up to the bike and make sure the ENTIRE LCD display looks good. This is because if any of those pins aren't making a good connection, you will have blank spaces in the LCD's display. No worries though, just go back and make sure that the pins are making a good connection.
After this is done, disconnect the cluster and put the gauges back on the board, black screws, and white plastic and srews back into the cluster and plug the board back into your bike. Push the GAS and TEMP needles back into their places at exact empty and 0. Then turn the bike on until the initial cycle check is done, DO NOT START THE BIKE, leave it at the finish of the initial check and press the TACH and SPEEO needles back into the board making sure that they are at exact 0. Then start the bike up and everything should run smoothly. I have my bike up os stands, otherwise jack your bike up so you can test the TACH and SPEEDO needle. If they're off by alittle, then just pull the needle out and push it back in to where it should be.
Here's the finished product!!!!
Now just put things back together that way you took it apart....Put the plastic front face plastic and remaining few screws and there you go!!!!
IF you have qny questions feel free to PM me!!!
Here is a picture of an '08 guage cluster and below is the LED's in their package. They are small square LED's with 2 small metal contacts on the
Soldering iron - with a FINE POINTED tip
Tweezers
Solder
Small screwdriver set - phillips
Medium sized spoons
Small curved pliers
Now you need to remove all the silver screws from inback of the cluster
Picasa Web Albums - Mark - Project Blue ...
This is where you should now be at:
The cluster should now come right out:
Take out the black screws:
Now is ONE of the harder steps.....use two spoons to take off the needles. You do need to use a good deal of pressure.....just do it slowly. You will hear them "POP" off. Don't worry that's normal.
Now you need to desolder the LCD screen in the picture above. If you look at the back of the cluster, there are 2 rows of 11 & 14 small pins. You need to heat those pins up and take off the solder. Do this CAREFULLY!!
Once this is done. here's what it should look like:
Now if you look at the picture above, you can see these tiny white squares. Those are the LED's! They are solder to the board on two sides. This is where the POINTED tip comes in handy. Heat up one side while trying to turn it with the curved pliers. Once you are able to pull up one side, then desolder the other side and take it off the board. MAKE A NOTE WHICH WAY THE LED IS FACING!!! You need to solder the new LED the EXACT same direction the old one was is or else the board won't work at all!!! There should be 15 LED's that you replace.
Now comes the TOUGH part. Putting those pins from the LCD back into the board. I'm sorry I don't have pics of these steps. The easiest way I put them back in was to clean up the holes in the board and the pins of ALL old solder. Then I straightened them out with pliers, not pulling them but just making them straight by squeezing the pin between the pliers. I then fit one side into the board, note that some pins are slightly longer than others and will cause the pins not to go in until you get that longer pin through the board. Now that you have all the pins through, solder them back onto the board. Once you have both sides on you'll probably have to go back and press down on the pins from the LCD SIDE and heat the solder up from the back so the pins make a FULL connection.
Once this is done, hook the board back up to the bike and make sure the ENTIRE LCD display looks good. This is because if any of those pins aren't making a good connection, you will have blank spaces in the LCD's display. No worries though, just go back and make sure that the pins are making a good connection.
After this is done, disconnect the cluster and put the gauges back on the board, black screws, and white plastic and srews back into the cluster and plug the board back into your bike. Push the GAS and TEMP needles back into their places at exact empty and 0. Then turn the bike on until the initial cycle check is done, DO NOT START THE BIKE, leave it at the finish of the initial check and press the TACH and SPEEO needles back into the board making sure that they are at exact 0. Then start the bike up and everything should run smoothly. I have my bike up os stands, otherwise jack your bike up so you can test the TACH and SPEEDO needle. If they're off by alittle, then just pull the needle out and push it back in to where it should be.
Here's the finished product!!!!
Now just put things back together that way you took it apart....Put the plastic front face plastic and remaining few screws and there you go!!!!
IF you have qny questions feel free to PM me!!!
