Mine stranded me yesterday, battery finally had it. I expected it though. Bought a new Interstate 875cca for $163 including core exchange. More than I wanted to spend but I wanted a good battery. Hopefully I'll have it in the next truck even lol.

 

That looks sharp. Debating on doing that to mine. I'll admit, I'm a little scared to cut into my bumper though. How difficult was the instal?

 

Well I knew it! Noticed over the past week I've developed a tick of play in my steering wheel, not much just a tiny bit. I thought it was maybe a bolt loose somewhere in the steering shaft joints but after a little digging I think it might be inner tie rods going out. It's either those or the steering rack but I doubt it. I JUST replaced the whole front suspension (well pretty much) a few months ago and replaced EVERYTHING EXCEPT THOSE! I was running out of funds for parts so I had to cut something off my shopping list and those were it. I think I'm most upset about having to get another alignment done after just paying $80 for one. Biggest problem is going to find the time to do it, wife got pissed last time because it took me 2 days to do everything. :-/

 

Now with a new battery and BTP you'll never be left stranded ever again.

 

Certainly! This one should last an easy 10 years. I hope to have it in the next truck.

 

Today, well yesterday, I ruin my instrument cluster. Ha. Back when I replaced all the bulbs with LEDs, I had removed the needles for some reason. I'm not sure why, but it was a dumb mistake. When I put them back on, I didn't press down the needle hubs far enough down and light was escaping and shining below. Well, yesterday, I thought I'd fix that. I pressed down the tach needle too far and it was rubbing on the screen. I tried prying it back up, but ended up pulling up the gear mechanism that moved the needles. I fully opened up the cluster and put that part back together but it no longer worked. I took it apart and tried a few more times and unfortunately, it just won't work. So that's my story. Learn from my mistake and do not mess with the needles if you don't have to. The parts are very delicate.

Ordered one from an xlt. milage is within 50 of mine which is nice. Only need to remove the PRND21 and stick in the black plastic filler piece from mine.

I will never ever take one of these apart as long as I live.




Part that broke is the motor for the tach needle.

New one I just ordered.

 

Yeah -- I've seen quite a few gauge overlays that I have really liked but have never wanted to mess with mine since I am certain something will get screwed-up and there I'll sit with a worthless cluster......

 

Indeed! Now you can learn from my mistakes and never have to go through the the hassle. Haha.

 

Didn't really do to much to the truck, but let it sit in the garage the past 4 days. Its been snowing and salt on the road. Truck is very clean! Don't want to get it dirty!

 

The past few days I've been dealing with my own stupidity by messing up my gauge cluster.

A year ago I swapped all bulbs in it to LEDs. Not sure why, I guess out of curiosity, I removed the needles. It was a pain to get them back to the right spot.

For the past year I'd had a little light escaping around the needle hubs because I didn't push them down enough. Fast forward to last week, I attempted to fix that. Unfortunately, when removing the tach needle, the steeper motor (that's what drives the needle) fell apart internally. I put it back together, but I must have lost part of the gear as it didn't work.

Ordered a new cluster, worked, except now my interior lights don't come on when the door is open. Looked into having the as build data put into the new cluster, but that was going to end up costing too much.

Yesterday, I finally found that the motor that drives the needle is called a steeper motor. They cost about $20 and are soldered in at 3 points. I'm going to replace that, get my cluster back together, return the new cluster and never ever ever touch one of these again.

Bottom line, don't mess with your gauge cluster and know they're not all a simple plug n play.

New cluster currently in the truck:


Old cluster waiting to be fixed:

 

Install was not bad. Took a couple hours taking my time and measuring too much lol

as for today, nothing yet. About to do a total audio revamp and have the gears swapped to 456 F&R from the 373. Oh and waiting for a SCT X4 to arrive so I can tune the truck and adjust the tire size in the computer

 

Where did you get these headlights ?

 

Wow -- this whole episode sounds as if it was a real "cluster-****".......

 

Haha. Indeed!

 

Still daily driving, salt covered & all. Remote start begun working again all on its own, i'm still baffled. Not complaining however with 5 degree mornings. I wonder if the new battery is at all responsible for the remote start to function properly again?