I replaced the 13 surface mount led's in the instrument cluster on my 14 to green yesterday (to match the bike). If there's interest I can post a how to but be warned - this involves pulling the gauge needles and desoldering/soldering small surface mount led's. It's an $800 part if you screw it up.

My total cost was $33. $8 for a practice kit so I could practice desoldering and soldering surface mount leds and $25 for 25 green 627.5mcd (millicandela) surface mount led's ( https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=475-2685-1-nd%20 ). I actually bought two additional sets of lower output leds as well. After I desoldered the first led off the gauge circuit board I compared its output to the 3 different brightness led's I had and decided to use the brightest ones. I also had no idea how many I was going to need so I ordered 25 each just in case.

Everything went off with no hitches and I was happy to find that the lighting for the lcd came from surfaced mount led's. Because of that I was able to change the lcd color as well. If your interested in a how to I can write one up (with a bunch of warnings, proceed at your own risk, etc).

Before:

After:

* Last updated by: SteveStLaurent on 6/30/2019 @ 1:15 PM *

Very nice! Looks great.

Required a lot of patients!

Not bad really, took me about 4 hours start to finish and about half of that was figuring out how to get the gauge faces off without breaking anything. I was going very slow and cautious because I couldn't find where anyone else had torn into these gauges (and posted about it). I've done a ton of soldering in my life and I have a soldering station with very precise temperature control that helps too.

I have a soldering station with very precise temperature control

That's a big part right there.

Did you happen to take a pic of the circuit board?

Yep, I took pics all along the way in case there was interest in a how to.

Soldering stations are really affordable these days. The one I have was $60 off eBay.

The LED's look pretty easy to get to once you get it all apart.

I took pics all along the way in case there was interest in a how to.

Kudos! Nicely done.

Interested. Post the steps in 'how-to'... I'd also like to see a how-to of the dash photo idling in 1st and captured that shot.

The idiot lights were making it difficult to get a good pic because of their brightness. So I rode far enough for the abs light to turn off, stopped, put it in neutral, grabbed my cell phone out of my pocket, put it back into gear, held the clutch and took a quick pic with the other hand ;).

Will put something together on a how to and post in the next few days. Schedules really busy today and tomorrow.

The LED's look pretty easy to get to once you get it all apart.

Yes, very easy. Right out in the open once you get the gauge faces and lcd out of the way.

Wow! NICE! I have always felt that the OEM lighting is too weak, especially when I am riding in bright sunlight and my Transition visor is dark because of the sunlight. I find I cannot read the small panel content at all.

I'd love to have this mod done to my instruments, but don't have the manual dexterity, small fingers, and disassembly and soldering skills needed. :(

Jim G

Yeah, I would be very interested in seeing a How-To on this. I have Illuma-Glow faces waiting to go in my Gen1 but I would like to do custom faces with custom LEDs instead. Love the 200 mph speedo with the IllumaGlow but Ninja ZX-14 logos they put in are a bit obtrusive if you ask me.

Are the stock faces flexible like a thin sheet of plastic?

Here you go:

http://zx14ninjaforum.com/messages.cfm?threadid=1500BB0B-B9A7-4F1E-BE33F2292FEA1602

Rook - not sure, they came off with a clear frame. I'd have to say I (think) so. The 2nd post on that thread has some pretty good pictures of the gauge faces from different angles. I have no clue what it's like inside a gen 1 gauge package.

Thanks, Steve. That is a great tutorial!

Looks great I would love to do this to mine I hate the dash on the bike and it is hard as hell to read..... Wonder if this would help me.

During the day, no. The lights aren't bright enough to light it up in daylight.

* Last updated by: SteveStLaurent on 7/12/2019 @ 8:08 AM *

Thats a great job man! i had mine done as I was not brave enough to tackle that job myself, lol. I had Bluegauges.com do mine in blue.