HOW-TO-> fix 03-04 SVT Cobra Gauge lights

[caveeagle]

I have been dealing with non-working gauge ligts (intermittently) on my cobra for the last 6-8 months. Sometimes they would work for a few hours or days and sometimes they would not work at all. I even left the car with the local ford dealer for a few days, thinking that surely they would know how to fix them. No luck and a lot of frustration..

The fused were all good and the light switch proved to be working fine. A few threads on here suggested that the 'inverter' might be the problem. I was reluctant to beleive this since the issue was intermittent and thought it was more likely to be a 'ground' issue. I went through the wiring as much as possible and did not find any bas grounds or connections. A fellow poster here, helped out with the part# inverters he has used from Speedhut.

So last weekend I swapped out the aftermarket inverter and my lights are working great!! They seem to be just as bright and look as close to stock as I would expect. I thought I would post some pics of the process, since I had a difficult time finding a good source for a gauge tear-down last weekend.

 

[caveeagle]

04 Gauge cluster tear town

First of all.... Many thanks to 03sm3341 (Jason) for the help on this job!!

The removal of the guage cluster it pretty straight foreward. You need the torx bit or driver and thats about it.

With big hands, I had a little trouble removing the two electrical plugs and the blower gauge feed tube, but was able to work it out in the end

 

[caveeagle]

Hereis the back of the gauge cluster
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o107/caveeagle/04gaugecluster1.jpg

With the torx srews removed, the back cover plate comes off.

You then unplug the odo connector (carefully) and the inverter plug. That allows the circuit board to be removed by gently pulling upwards.

That leaves you with the backs of the guages and the inverter exposed.

Unplug the two connectors and remove the two screwa and the stock inverter comes right out.

 

[caveeagle]

Here is the stock inverter. Notice the two connectors that I cut off and will re-use ont he Speedhut inverter.

Here is the Speedhut inverter. It comes with the jumpers to power several gauges. This just gets cliped off and spliced into the factory plug.

I soldered and shrinked the connections. Sometimes wire-to-wire connections can be tricky to solder.
>to power the inverter, connect black to black, and splice the blue&green wires to connect with the white.
>For the inverter-to cluster wires, the black & black/white wire connect to either white wire. (They are reversable)

I used an old hotel club card to fab a braket to hold the speedhit inverter in place. I started to just velcro into place, but decided that might not hold forever.

This inverter is about a 1/16" deeper than stock, but it fits ok and does not prevent the cluster from going back together.

It all went back together fine and is now working well. This was much easier than I was anticipating.

I hope this help somebody else down the road. Much, Much better than spending $200-$350 on a replacement gauge cluster!!!

 

[ColorMatched]

Great writeup and should help a lot of people out. Nice work!

 

[04cobra88]

not to hi-jack your thread but im aving a issue with my dome light staying on when i shut my doors? i have no clue where to start...

 

[caveeagle]

My guess, is its either a problem with your dome light switch or one of the door jam switches. I would trouble shoot those three items using a multimeter first.

 

[08mojo]

Thanks for the follow up and pics. I embedded photos for you (I had to remove the quotes in order for the pictures to show up full size):

Hereis the back of the gauge cluster

With the torx srews removed, the back cover plate comes off.

You then unplug the odo connector (carefully) and the inverter plug. That allows the circuit board to be removed by gently pulling upwards.

That leaves you with the backs of the guages and the inverter exposed.

Unplug the two connectors and remove the two screwa and the stock inverter comes right out.

Here is the stock inverter. Notice the two connectors that I cut off and will re-use ont he Speedhut inverter.

Here is the Speedhut inverter. It comes with the jumpers to power several gauges. This just gets cliped off and spliced into the factory plug.

I soldered and shrinked the connections. Sometimes wire-to-wire connections can be tricky to solder.
>to power the inverter, connect black to black, and splice the blue&green wires to connect with the white.
>For the inverter-to cluster wires, the black & black/white wire connect to either white wire. (They are reversable)

I used an old hotel club card to fab a braket to hold the speedhit inverter in place. I started to just velcro into place, but decided that might not hold forever.

This inverter is about a 1/16" deeper than stock, but it fits ok and does not prevent the cluster from going back together.

It all went back together fine and is now working well. This was much easier than I was anticipating.

I hope this help somebody else down the road. Much, Much better than spending $200-$350 on a replacement gauge cluster!!!

 

[702lightning]

Great write up I'll be doing mine next week after I replace the clutch ! Thank you

 

[Walker03]

great write up..... just finished reassembling my cluster and about to put them back in the car.. thanks for the instructional, you saved me a lot of cash!

 

[aoc racer]

Is this it the speed hut inverter-04 or 05?

 

[DocSVT]

thanks

Great write up..... Just did mine this weekend, worked like a charm. Thanks for the instructional.

 

[aoc racer]

SUCCESS!! Thanks to this write up

 

[yosemiddysam]

Is this the only other thing it can be? Also would a GT gauge cluster have the inverter?

 

[caveeagle]

I think the inverter is specific to the 'indiglo', white face gauges.

There might be another ford model that uses the same inverter, but I don't think the GT is one of them.

 

[Nickrap9]

Awesome write-up! I did mine last night and gauges lit right up!

 

[Lefty10]

I know this is an older thread, but does anybody have a part number for the SpeedHut inverter? Or is a general inverter from them fine?

This happened to me a few years ago, but I found a resistor to be blown on the board. 10 cents from Radioshack.

 

[caveeagle]

The part # I used was: A-INVERT-04

http://www.speedhut.com/ecommerce/p...Revolution,-Legacy,-Speedhut)-multiple-Gauges

I have had a couple requests for a better description of the wiring.

I hope this helps:

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o107/caveeagle/cobraInverterwiring_zpsde6e31bb.jpg

 

[Lefty10]

Here's the hosted version of the diagram Mark - thanks again.

 

[caveeagle]

Any updates Lefty?? Hope it worked out.