Volt gauge in Stock cluster under 15 min

With the help of a few posts and for $20 I installed a Volt gauge in the stock cluster and it turned out great and only took 15 min. And it works!

I picked up a 3 gauge package of SunPro gauges from eBay for $20 shipping included. I popped the glass face off the volt gauge and pulled the guts out. After a few min of fabrication with some sheet metal and drilling a few holes it lined up just like the old amp gauge and looks great in the stock cluster.

The hardest part was drilling the holes in the right spots to get the new gauge to line up in the display.

It still uses the stock light bulbs in the cluster and I did not have to modify the stock cluster at all.

In the pics it may look like the gauge is kind of obstructed but when you mount it in the stock location from the drivers view it looks good.


I will post a couple pics in a min.

Images below.

That looks great. Good work. I plan on doing this mod some day soon as well.

That is awesome, thanks for posting up.

that's sweet.

Have you tried it out yet. You may be disappointed.

I did the same thing 4 years ago. Gutted a cheap volt meter, mounted and installed it just like you did (look like your mounting is very similar to mine). Even went so far as redesigning the face to match the other gauges.

But when I went to test drive it I found the needle bounced a lot! I thought the meter was so sensitive it was bouncing over rough roads or it was the stiff suspension. NOPE, found that the spinning magnet on the speedo is too close to the volt meter movement and influenced it each time the magnet spun by. This made the needle bounce in rhythm with the spinning speedo magnet. UNREADABLE at freeway speeds! Tried various shielding materials but could not find a suitable one (Mu metal, etc). CHEAP MOVEMENT = FAIL!

Even considered some high end name brand gauges but could bring myself to tear apart an expensive gauge just to harvest the movement.

Interesting post by PonchOv, I am attempting to mount 4 autometer gauges in my hacked up cluster. I will take a test drive tomorrow and see if the autometer gauges have the same problem.

You may have better luck with the AutoMeter gauges if you left them in their original enclosures. The AM gauge are a more precise movement (I think they are an air gap design) with better shielding.

A quick test on any gauge....just wave a .5 lb magnet near it and see if the needle deflects.