Changing Needles - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

XRLENT · 03-12-2003, 05:34

I want to change my dash lights to the Blue Leds like shown on the fordmods site. However i currently have orange needles and it says the needles may not be visible at night with the blue lights. My dad has a ef fairmont with white needles, what i would like to know is if the needles simply pull off the old dash without damaging them? So that i can give him my orange needles and i will take the white ones. IF anyone has tried this please let me know. Thanks

EDXR8 · 03-12-2003, 05:46

Yeah, they just pull off, just be carefull not to bend them while doing it.

What car is it going in, because if it is an EA-ED, it won't work. The EA-ED numbers and lines are in yellow which don't pick up the blue light and turn out very dull. Apparently red looks good though.

XRLENT · 03-12-2003, 06:17

THanks for that. The Needles are comming out of an EF Fairmont and goin into an EL XR. They both have the same dash set up. just the fairmont is white and the XR has the tickford one with the orange needles

kryzak260 · 03-13-2003, 00:07

All Els except the Fairlane/LTD have Orange Needles. My Futura does.

03-13-2003, 04:19

Quote:

Originally posted by EDXR8
Yeah, they just pull off, just be carefull not to bend them while doing it.

What car is it going in, because if it is an EA-ED, it won't work. The EA-ED numbers and lines are in yellow which don't pick up the blue light and turn out very dull. Apparently red looks good though.

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

you cant just pull the needles off and put new ones on it doesnt work that way. The needles have to be weighted and correctly drilled for fitment otherwise you will stuff up the speedo and it wont read accurately, take it from somewhere who recently forked out 50 bucks because he learnt the hard way. If you must do it, take it to a professional and pay them to do it right, the first time. It should only cost around $25 to change the needles.

XRLENT · 03-13-2003, 04:49

Quote:

It should only cost around $25 to change the needles. [/B]

$25 does that also include the needles or do i need to supply them? Would you be able to tell me some places that change the needles. I inquired at ford they told me i had to buy the whole dash which was over $700

EDXR8 · 03-13-2003, 04:50

According to VDO, changine the needles like that is not a problem, well at least in an ED it's not. I have done it twice without problems, but if it is only $25 to have it done, its probably worth it.

XRated · 03-13-2003, 06:22

EDXR8 - I get the impression that you changed your needle(s) in the ED. Just curious as to what you style you changed your needles to? Could you post pics too?

Cheers.

EDXR8 · 03-13-2003, 16:30

I changed my needle with a white one, to try and improve the blue LED effect. The needle looked great, but the rest of it was crap, so I put the orange one back in. I am told red LED's look good in EA-ED's so I will try that in the next couple of weeks.

Mr Sparkle · 03-13-2003, 17:01

Funny you should start this thread, I'm looking at doing just that with mine! After a stroke of luck, I got a contact from my local Ford specialist wrecker, of a place that deals exclusively in repairs / etc. on dash clusters. Have rung them and they are going to do the conversion for me, and also do the balancing etc. which is absolutely crucial.

Can't wait to see the finished product!