AYC gauge in centre clock

[scott.mohekey]

I've been thinking about something like this for some time.. gradually obtaining the various parts for it. I have a couple of long term projects like this. They get there in the end.

[apeman69]

Look what I made today. Can you spot the difference?

[Turbo_Steve]

Buttons went away?

[apeman69]

Sort of correct Steve. The button holes went away = more room for other gauges!

[Mark 4]

No, tell us.

[MarkSanne]

VR4 logo! Cool!

[Wodjno]

Sort of correct Steve. The button holes went away = more room for other gauges!

The answers here

[Nitephyre]

I like this idea, funnily enough I was thinking how to do this exact thing the other night driving home. Have you got any more pics? Was it difficult to hook up to the dash cluster?

[apeman69]

Very very simple to connect to dash. Remove dash (which isn't too difficult: there's a guide on here) and you can access the four screws that attach the AYC gauge to the dash clock housing. These mounting screws just happen to connect to the PCB for the AYC. Connect a wire to each of these mounting screws in the back of the dash (unscrew, connect wire, tighten one of the four screws at a time so the AYC gauge in the dash doesn't fall out) and connect each of these wires to the same screw in the donor AYC gauge that goes into the clock.
If you remove the dash clocks then it all becomes clear and very simple. The difficult part is getting the donor AYC gauge to fit into and attach to the clock mounting.
I was thinking of writing a guide but TBH I don't think many people would actually do it. For me it was a learning experience and a stepping stone to doing something more involved with the clock space and then another gauge-related project I have in mind.
I'll stick some more photos on here in a bit.

[apeman69]

A few more photos and a bit of babbling....

[chris g]

So do you have 2 AYC displays - dash and clock ?

[apeman69]

Yes, there's no way I'm going to butcher my dash!
I bought a donor dash cluster from a breaker and chopped that up.
From the donor dash I have used the AYC gauge (it is a separate unit screwed into the clocks housing so no real cutting required except for the matt black 'dial' graphic), the VR-4 logo, the tinted plexiglass: see post 42 above.
I also bought a donor clock so I could chop that too.
If it ended up botched then I still had my original clock to plug in and no modification to my own dash.

[apeman69]

I've been working on a few gauge ideas, amongst other things, over the last month and I'm at the point where I'm alsmost ready to wire one of them in to the car. I'll be adding three gauges altogether, at two different locations. I don't want to give much away until they're in the car and I can put some pics up.
What I intend to do is use the clock wiring (ground, illum, acc 12v, battery 12v) and I've (probably) got a bit carried away with making up a wiring loom that will split the clock wiring into four separate sets of connectors, one for each gauge and a spare for the future.
What I was hoping to do was take the clock wiring downwards and to somewhere behind the stereo/centre console for ease of access and where there should be a bit more space to play with.
When I had the dash clocks out for the AYC in the clock thingy I noticed that the clock wiring was accessible from a hole to the left side of behind the dash clocks. When I briefly looked under the passenger side centre tunnel panel I couldn't see any easy way of getting the clock wires down from the passenger side. Clearly I would rather just pull the clock wiring into a more usable position but the only definite option I have stumbled across, though I haven't removed the driver's side centre tunnel/stereo panel yet, is from behind the dash clocks which would involve a lot of messing about.
I don't want to use any old ground, illum, acc 12V connections as I think that what I've come up with (and using the, now defunct, clock wiring) will result in a cleaner solution that will only aid any future wiring follies behind the stereo.
Also, the existing wiring behind the stereo facia is quite complicated and bulky due to the fitting of the car PC.
Has anyone experience of accessing the clock wiring from behind the stereo area before I start ripping the whole of my dash out to figure it out?

[John TheAntique]

You are heading in the right direction. Just thread the clock wires down towards the drivers footwell. There is tons of room behind the panel directly in front of your left knee to hide all sorts of connectors, relays, wires etc I stuff mine in an old toilet roll centre to keep them all in one place and velcro it there so its easy to get at. All my gauges including the pillar one are run off the clock wireing. There is a large hole on the right where the cock was to enable you to do this. If you want to do something on the passenger side it is easy to knock a similar hole through on the left side in the clock space.

I'm doing something with my AYC display as well. I've just taken spur wires off from the ECU , see pics

[apeman69]

Cheers John. I've been driving around for a week with the glove box, clock and left panel off. Didn't want to take right panel off until I had enough time to do some fitting. Had the facia off tonight and ran out of daylight. I've got plenty of ideas just not enough continuous time to execute them. I learned from the PC install that planning is the key and the more info the better before tearing things up. These gauges are taking me too long to do and, with work and now the Skyline project I seem to be getting nowhere fast. I think a bit of prioritising is in order... along with less beer of an evening and thus a couple of early starts to the day! He says opening another beer at 1.36 am.

[John TheAntique]

You don't need to take any panels off. Its quite easy to thread through.

[apeman69]

For what I've got planned and with the phenomenal amount of cables and connectors (VGA, 8 USB, keyboard receiver, EvoScan,RCAs, plus the usual speakers/stereo gubbins blah blah) already tucked away, the more panels off the better! I have considered taking the whole dash out to do a proper job of it and this is after I spent a good 2 hours tidying and separating the existing cabling in readiness for the gauge installations.
After this I don't ever want to wire anything else up behind the dash of this car because it really is getting to the stage of being ridiculous.
I've even had to label each wire and connector.

[apeman69]

Finally got around to finishing this off, well... part 1 of 2 anyway.
The pictures don't do it justice. It looks really nice in the car and I'm pleased with the result.

Watch this space for my next gauge venture which is near completion. I just need a Little Mann to fit my wideband O2 sensor first.

[andyleaves]

that looks really nice now.
Top marks...

Just wish I had the guts to do something like this to mine.
"Caught myself trying to look at the AYC lights the other day, until wifey said your running out of bend!!!!" Doh!!!

[scott.mohekey]

That is top notch! I really like it.