Yes, I changed mine this week, yes they still glow, yes it was easy. The problem is that in my haste and curiousity, I got the needles spun around every which way while I was handling them. Only one did I manage to keep in place through the whole process of investigation and only one is working properly. Lucky for me it is the gas gauge. All the others are either going too high or flat lined. I think I might be able to get them back to where they were before. If not I'll have to recalibrate them. Anyone know how to do this?

Looking back I'd say that right after you remove the needle clusters, you can apply some light scotch tape to keep the needles from rotating. This should work. I wish I'd done that. Oh, the speedo needle and the RPM needle are different somehow. You can still use one to replace the other but you have to change the circuit board on the cluster for it to work. That's what I did. Basically, the RPM has two wires coming out of it and the Speedo has three.

On the 90 LS like mine where the odometer is not digital, you can replace the whole instrument panel complete with needles without changing the milage reading. It stays in place while the light board comes out. Amazing piece of technology. I took pics. Be on here in a few days.

 

Here is the back of the removed instrument cluster. You have to take the main circuit board off to get to the needles.

 

After the circuit board is removed, you can take the face plate off with the needles still attached. Notice the roundish fluorescent lights for the dash display. The needles come out by unscrewing them from the back and pulling the needle part through the hole. Be sure and tape the needles down so they don't spin around. Never never pull the needle out from its little cluster. You'll never get it back in right. The contacts for the needle lights are wound around the shaft and will come undone- leaving you with dark needles. Remember, if your instrument lights aren't lighting up right away, it's not the bulbs or the needles, it's the tiny capaciters in the main circuit board. Send the cluster to Jim Walker to fix that. This is only a fix for non-lit needles.

 

These are the RPM and Speedo needles after removal from face plate. They are the same needle but different circuits. I swapped mine by switching the little circuit boards on top. Remember, don't pull the needle off the shaft. It doesn't work that way.

 

This is the circuit board that you need to swap when using an RPM needle for the speedo needle. The point of this is so you can buy used instrument clusters for their needles without having to worry about whether all of them work. Anymore questions you can ask me on this forum. Good luck!

 

I can now fix those needles for you too!

That's right, I have devoloped a process by which almost any of those 90-94 LS400 needles, the Cold Cathode Flourescent Lamp types can be repaired!

If the needles are broken or cracked, there is nothing that can be done.

Most of the time, needles usually fail by failing to light all the way out to the end of the needle.

Just as kamtra has pointed out, the needles are very delicate and easily broken. You should not attempt to remove a needle. You need to send the whole instrument cluster to me to restore the needles.

Jim Walker
jimlwalker@sbcglobal.net

 

Jim - do you replace those needles or do you add special paint & a thin copper wire down the backside of needle to illuminate them to the end.

My instrument cluster is fine except that speedo needle is not illuminated all the way down.

Any light you can shed is greatly appreciated.

Pic attached.

Jeff

 

Just wanted to mention that conductive paint (the rear window defogger kind) works for fixing the partially lit needles syndrome. It doesn't even require the black film that goes on the back (or at least partially). My tachometer needle is missing about 1" of the film in the middle. A complete broken connection. I just painted the conductive paint to bridge the gap and painted it to where it resembled the stock configuration, leaving the thin exposed strip of the glass tube in front. It works like a charm. I then painted the conductive paint black to further conceal that it was there.

I hope this helps those that were on the fence about whether conductive paint works or not. When I first got my Lexus, my cluster had all the problems. The gas gauge not working, nothing illuminating at all. Now it works perfectly thru DIY from the tips and reading I gained from this board.

 

yea i was informed by another CL member here that it works also..going to try it!

 

you get a free bump for searching

 

i bought the caps to fix my non working gas gauge today, and the only needle not lit is the speedo, though the speedo and odometer do not even work, so i prolly need the speed sensor first. im afraid the previous owner pulled the needle off the speedo when he tried to "change the bulb" himself. so if this was done on a 93 cluster, will it still work at all? or is it like the 90-92 cluster and it messes up the coiled wire on the shaft? if so does anyone have a spare cluster for parts that can sell me the speedo portion? thanks.

 

does anyone know where i can get replacement needles? i to my cluster off to replace one of the lights on it and my son got ahold of it in the back seat and snapped them all in half.

 

I attempted and somewhat completed my instrument cluster repair today. While I was inspecting the tachometer needle, it snapped. I was, however, able to fix the partially lit speedometer, gas and temp needles.

Each of these needles would light up only about a 1/3 of the way. I didn't/haven't had any other issues with the dash cluster.

I purchased a rear window defogger repair kit and some black touch up paint. I was going to mix the black paint with the repair kit to make it look more like the stock setup. My 8 year old daughter says "why don't you just use a sharpie?" So, I save the $7 or so for the touch up paint and proceed to repair with the defogger kit and sharpie the needles.

If anyone has an extra (working) needle, please let me know how much you would like for it, shipped to 95758. Thank you.

Pics attached:

Brown gunky conductive paint:


More conductive paint:


My daughters brilliant idea!


More genius!


The aftermath looks great, except for the dead needle. Hopefully that gets fixed soon as well.

Frank

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1334086...in/photostream

 

Not off like unlit, but off as in the speed I am traveling. I was cruising with traffic today and my speedo showed that I was doing 52. My estimate would have been between 65 to 70 mph. It seems like the defogger paint that was applied is weighing the needle down.

Is there a way to calibrate this myself? Should I just start looking for a used cluster?

Thanks for any help.