Auto Meter Marauder Gauge Conversion

I converted my stock oil gauge to a working one with the correct face plate. Here’s how. The pictures will be in the Gallery. I bought an extra gauge and sender to work with. You don’t have to and can use the ones in your car, but I learned with my Shelby that it’s not a bad idea to keep the stock parts. And I can convert it back simply by changing the gauge and sender if a warranty issue comes up. The stock oil gauge is part # 3W3Z-9G272-AA and the stock sender is part # 1U5Z-9278-DA. The Auto Meter gauge kit is part # 4327.

To remove the gauge pod gently pull down and forward on the outer ends of the pod. It is held in with two snap clips. Work it out between the dash and console until you can remove the mounting studs and wires. Once out you can start on the gauge (next post will cover the sending unit mods as this is getting long). The round outer bezel is crimped over the edge of the cup. It is aluminum so it is very easy to very gently uncrimp it. I used a small screwdriver and worked around the edge. Then you can slip the front off the gauge. It is the same for both gauges. The glass and inner trim stay with the front. The only change you are going to make is to take the Marauder face off the Ford part and put it on the Auto Meter one. The hardest part is removing the pointer without breaking it. If you don’t want to try this yourself, just bring both gauges to a gauge repair shop and tell them you want the MM face on the new gauge. Have them return the old gauge disassembled as you need the wires from the MM gauge. To remove the MM gauge, the face screws hold it in the cup. On the AM (Auto Meter) one it is the three screws that the wires mount to on the back. Once the gauges are out of the cups, I took the screws holding the face plates off . Grasp the center shaft below the pointer with needle nose pliers just below the shoulder of the bottom of the pointer and then push it off with a small blade screwdriver. It may take a bit of force to come off. Use care to not bend the center shaft or the gauge is ruined. Practice with the MM gauge. Do this for both. There are two small aluminum washers that are under the face screws on the AM gauge, save them for reassembly. Swap the MM face plate for the AM one. I then took the longer MM brass mounting screws out of the rear cup, they are just pressed in, and put them in the AM cup. On the MM gauge the three wires run up and have round terminal ends under three metal pins running through the white plastic gauge body. They just push out from the opposite side of the wire end once you push off the metal cup covering the inner gauge. This is the wire harness you will then attach to the AM studs when the AM gauge is back together. It allows the AM gauge to just plug back into the MM dash harness. Before you put the needle back on the AM, I hooked up the wires and set the pointer loosely on gauge. The wire to the modified sending unit should be hooked up. Turn the key to on and the gauge should set to the zero mark. Gentle put the needle on at the zero mark and then unhook the wires. Installation is the same technique as removal of the pointer. Grasp the shaft with needle nose pliers and then using a clean plastic handle end of a small screwdriver, tap the needle back on. The pliers are to take the force off the guts of the gauge. It doesn’t take much to put the pointer back on. You can use a drop of Locktite if you like, but I haven’t had a pointer fall off of other gauges on other cars. Once the pointer is set, put the face plate screws in and the AM gauge back in the cup and secure the screws. I then put the glass cover back in place (make sure it is clean). Put the gauge face down on a soft towel. I used a large wide blade screwdriver and gently bend back over the crimp while holding slight downward pressure on the cup. It is soft so it goes back together easily. Take the old gauge harness and put the ring end on each wire. Black is ground, White/Red stripe to sender and so forth. I coat the exposed studs with liquid insulating tape, but it’s not necessary as the dash is plastic. Reassemble the gauge into the pod and pod to dash. That’s it. The gauge looks exactly like the old one and works great!