Glove Box Gauges
When I bought the Stealth, it already had gauges on the front face of the glove box. Half the gauges didn't work half the time and the install was sloppy with wood screws holding the box shut. I liked the idea of having gauges on the glove box but wanted to keep it functional. So I purchased a used glove box (2nd gen) and two new 60mm Greddy EGT gauges and decided to keep the old 60mm Greddy oil temperature gauge that still worked. The first pic shows the back side of the glove box as I disassembled it. I wanted to keep all the mounting screws intact which made placement of the three 60mm gauges difficult.
Because a majority of the front face is now going to be taken up by gauges, I had to "re-engineer" how the glove box latched. After a little searching, I decided on the DSM glove box mechanism (donated by a '92 Eagle Talon). The pic below is already opened up for the new latch mechanism. After several careful measurements, I placed the cross-hairs down for the new gauge centers.
Before cutting out the new holes I practiced on the old box until I was comfortable.
Here is the tricky part that will make or break the install. For 60mm gauges, I recommend a 2 5/16" hole saw (slightly undersized which is what you want). To get the hole saw and it's 1/4" arbor to drill where you want, carefully place a couple inch length of 5/16" tubing (1/4" ID - actually my old fuel feed line) on the cross hair centers. The best way to do this is to start with a small drill bit and work your way up to 11/32" drill which will allow the 5/16" tube to fit snuggly. Don't go up in size too quickly or it won't drill on center. You are drilling through vinyl, foam, a thin sheet of steel (on 2nd gens only), and two different layers of plastic. While drilling, it is important to stay perpendicular to the glove box.
Now the hard part is done, lets cut some holes!
As I indicated above, the 2 5/16" hole saw is slightly undersized. I then took the die grinder after it to remove ~1mm of material until the gauges could slip in. Don't open up the vinyl any since you want that to fit tight against the side of the gauge.
And now the back side. Note that the new Greddy gauges are shorter in depth. Because of this, the two EGT gauges will not use up much glove box space. Also notice how the far left gauge cut into the side of the glove box (no avoiding this). You can see that all four mounting screws to the backing plate were retained. At right is the modified DSM latch. The top plate with the two weld nuts mount on the top side of the dash lip that surrounds the glove box opening. I surprised myself during the install by not needing any shims to make it close smoothly and maintain desired gaps.
Another shot of the glove box latch installed and the glove box itself. The warning limits can easily be set since the data link unit is stuck (velcro) to the back of the box. I think an MSD DIS4-HO will find it's way into the floor of the glove box soon.
And a nice front shot showing the end product. I must say it took longer than expected, but it shuts beautifully with perfect alignment and in my opinion looks good.
since August 7th, 2002
Last Updated: 08/08/02 07:50 PM