Cougar Instrument Cluster

L

lulzyboy

Active user
Sep 19, 2014
68
1
Pärnu, Estonia
Hi again.


I am looking to buy a replacement backing paper with KMH rather than MPH but I was wondering if its possible to change just the paper and not the whole dash. Also, does anybody know anywhere that sells these if so?

Secondly, I would have to change the odometer to display kilometres rather than miles as it does now (the computer display works fine with the units button). Does anybody know if this is possible to do?
 
If you could source a set of kmh clocks Ian, it is easy enough to pull the front of the dials off, including the needles, and push them back onto the front of your dial cluster. There are 3 or 4 small Torx screws to undo and the face will detach from the rest of it.
 
Theres one cougar at the scrap yard that has a KMH clock, I just wasn't sure if it would lift off or I should take the entire dash and just swap it (which owuld be easier?)

And do you know about the miles > KM convertor?
 
If you want to retain your mileage then it is easier to just change the front of the dials.
You have to take the HVAC surround and dash binnacle off no matter what you decide to do but to save having to remove and replace the needles it would be far easier, IMO, to pull the dial plate off as a whole and replace it with the kmh one. Behind each of the 4 dials are 4 metal prongs that push into the back part of the cluster.

I think the info for swapping from Imperial to metric is in the handbook?
 
lulzyboy said:
That's only for the onboard computer, not the actual odometer.
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I would imagine it would need hooking up to a Ford Diagnostic kit in that case.



The Zetec and V6 dial clusters are calibrated differently so the kmh replacement will need to be the correct one.
 
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I wonder if making the odometer to read in km instead of miles is really that simple.......the dials can read in furlongs if that's what's printed on them, where is the signal to the clocks coming from?

If it was me I'd swap in a set of KPH clocks and note the odometer reading, then drive a known distance to see if it's counting correctly.
 
spjmorris said:
I wonder if making the odometer to read in km instead of miles is really that simple.......the dials can read in furlongs if that's what's printed on them, where is the signal to the clocks coming from?

If it was me I'd swap in a set of KPH clocks and note the odometer reading, then drive a known distance to see if it's counting correctly.
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Well I have the kmh under the MPH but the problem is its not as accurate as its designed to be used on a temporary basis of travelling to a KMH country. I have to go around 34mph to get 50kmh even though the dial tells me im doing 60. I think that the swapping of dials should work as it's the same, it's still the same speed regardless, just displaying it in kmh instead


EDIT: Oh you mean the odometer... Well thats the thing. I can set it to kmh in the diag system but that doesn't allow me to keep it in km. Is the counter setting per dash or is it on the onboard computer?
 
lulzyboy said:
Well I have the kmh under the MPH but the problem is its not as accurate as its designed to be used on a temporary basis of travelling to a KMH country. I have to go around 34mph to get 50kmh even though the dial tells me im doing 60. I think that the swapping of dials should work as it's the same, it's still the same speed regardless, just displaying it in kmh instead


EDIT: Oh you mean the odometer... Well thats the thing. I can set it to kmh in the diag system but that doesn't allow me to keep it in km. Is the counter setting per dash or is it on the onboard computer?
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that's exactly my point...don't know the answer...I suspect you're probably best placed to experiment though :)
 
Steve hits on an interesting point.

I imagine the clockset is pulse-counting to calulate a distance driven, I can't see why a KM designed clockset would record miles as it's just looking at pulses.

These systems are "pretty easy" to hack now, there will be a specialist about who can adjust the recorded value if that's what you require, I've had to have it done before on digital clocksets.
 
I've read that the car reads the pulses in KM then converts it to miles as per the on board computer. I'll get a KM clockset and try it but I don't know if it will work
 
OK I got a km clockset, I've connected it up and it shown me the KM of the car it was previously taken from (which is over double mine). I decided to swap the backing labels so I can at least have a kmh reading that's more accurate however I can't get the needles to go back to be correct. Everything is now saying over what t actually is and no matter what I try I can't match them back to normal
Any ideas? Also what should I use to stick the backing plastic? I'm thinking a prittstick or something
 
The way I calibrated mine was to open the binnacle up then go for a drive (on a, ahem, 'closed/private road', naturally!) at an exact 30MPH according to my satnav, then carefully push the needle onto the splines at exactly the right place.
 
Daft question is it just matter of changing the dial front to kph as uk cougars also read kph on the inner scale all it means kph is scaled up to the outer if you can see what I am getting at?
 
Quicksilver said:
Why didn't you just swap the whole dial face, needles included, as I suggested in post no.2?
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Honestly, I forgot about that method and assumed this was the correct way to do it. Now I realise i've made more problems for myself.

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Scarborough said:
Daft question is it just matter of changing the dial front to kph as uk cougars also read kph on the inner scale all it means kph is scaled up to the outer if you can see what I am getting at?
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Sure, but it's not accurate as it's not meant as a constant use every day thing. The idea was to replace the clock with KMH clocks and then get the odometer set to km but apparently it isn't possible to do
 
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