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Old Oct 12th, 2002, 10:57 PM   #1 (permalink)
PrOxLaMuS©
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Instructions on Cluster Removal and Swap

Here are some detailed instructions on how to remove the Instrument Guage Cluster for a B13 chassis.

Great thanx to who ever wrote this up....
I found this at http://attila.stevens-tech.edu/~jwong3/instrument.html


But I will make this simple i copied and pasted it for ya.



Intrument Cluster Swap
This section detailed the step to swap the intrument cluster in my 92 Nissan Sentra XE (one without the tachometer) with the intrument cluster from a GXE (one with the tachomter). Special thanks to autogator for getting me the parts and wires, Bryant Marroquin for helping me find the wiring diagram and The Sentra Network in giving me the idea to do this project. Thanks people.

First off, let me start with some introduction to the original XE intrument cluster.

The XE intrument cluster consist of a speedometer, a fuel gauge, a temperature gauge and other warning lights depending on the equipment in that car. There are three wire harnesses connected to the back of the intrument cluster, one white and two black. In addition a black box is attached to the back of the intrument cluster, that's the box that gives you all the noise when you don't buckle up. Lastly there is a big black speedometer cable.

Now for the GXE/XE cluster, the obvious different is on the present of the tachometer, also the temperature gauge is on the right side of the intrument cluster. Number of Connections are the same, all the harnesses fit into the terminals perfectly but if you just plug them in without carefully study the wire arrangement, you'll notice nothing works except for the speedometer, that's because all the wires connection are different! So a good hint for anyone planning this swap, ALWAYS ASK FOR THE CONNECTION WIRES FOR YOUR NEW CLUSTER! You need to re-wire everything in order to get things to work.

One good news at this swap is that the only real trouble is the connection to the tachometer. For that you'll need to rip your font apart and get to the ECU, you'll notice the tachomter is pre-wired! The only thing is, which one is it? There are thousands of wires going to the ECU, and that where the Wiring Diagram comes in handly. I personally recommand you to call Nissan and get a factory wire diagram book, although they're expensive ($40 just for the book) but I say it's worth it.

Now that you have everything shipped in, time to do the work! If you're clever at wiring stuff, I think you can finish this swap in less than 2 hours, I spent 3 hours on it cause I'm a little stupid at wires (even though I'm a EE student) and let me try to explain the step to swap below:

The first step is to ge the old intrument cluster out. This is a good time to remove all the panels, breezels in the front (refer to your repair manual on this) cause it'll save you trouble removing things later. Pull the intrument cluster out and you'll notice the intrument cluster won't go any further and you can't reach to the back to unplug the connectors, that's because the speedometer cable is too short. (Note: DON'T FORCE THE CLUSTER OUT, YOU'LL BREAK THE SPEEDOMETER CABLE.) The solution, pop the hood and locate the speedometer cable, trace it down and you can unplug it with your own hands, no tools needed. Now you shold be able to pull the intrument cluster far enough to unplug everything. But instead of unplug the connectors, just unplug the speedometer cable and you can see the printed circuit board at the back, with labels on every circuit lines explaining where they're going. Now trace them to the harnesses and label all the wires. Cut all the wires out and re-wire them to the new cluster's wires, be careful not to connect to the wrong one, trace every wires and make sure they go to the right place.

Now the trickly part. The tachomter wire. As same of you may know aftermarket tachomter (like the one from AutoMeter) connect the tachomter straight to the ignition coil. But for the factory tachometer, don't connect it straight to the ignition coil, you'll burn the tachomter bye-bye. Instead look up on the wiring diagram for the E.F.I. Harness, locate wire MF01 L/B from the E.C.C.S. Control Unit, trace it to the F17/M36 connector, it's located just below the left side of the heater control, you'll notice there is a blue/black wire going in to the connector on one side but there is no wire going out that that slot, that's the tacometer wire, run the wire from the intrument cluster to this wire and bingo, job done.

Put everything back in place (remember to connect the intrument cluster side of the speedometer cable before connecting on the engine side) and test to see if all the gauge and lights works the way they are suppose to be. Project finished, enjoy the tachomter in your Sentra!
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