The Black Knight

Sorry -- this got posted twice

Thanks to a lot of research and work done by others (esp. Estrada and Godspeed) I put HUD into my 99 coupe this weekend. Not hard to do at all. Scariest part was cutting the dash. For those thinking about doing this mod, there is one big caveat which you may have heard about already. The cars that were not originally equipped with HUD (at least the 99's) have only 7 wires between the gauge cluster and the rotary dimmer switch. The non-HUD connector on the switch side has 7 openings while the connector on the cluster side has 11 openings.The HUD dimmer switch/page control requires 11 wires for the proper connection. Note that the connectors on both ends of the HUD harness (at the switch and at the cluster) have 12 openings.

I contacted the cluster manufacturer who was kind enough to send me a HUD harness. Only one small problem -- it was wired completely wrong!! When I hooked it all up, nothing good happened. (Could see the HUD on start up, and when depressing the down display, but nothing else worked right. No adjustment or scrolling, etc. After 3.5 second test, HUD would disappear). After thinking about it for a while and looking in the book, I figured the first 7 wires must be the same as the non-HUD dimmer switch which meant I only had to figure out the sequence for the 4 wires that make up the HUD part of the connection. Through a bit of trial and error, I finally got the right sequence and now everything works just right. It's a neat mod, and pretty easy to do, really a lot easier than I thought it would be, not counting the wiring snafu.

Below is the wiring scheme for those of you who may want to try this. Of course the color of the wire isn't important (unless you are tracking it with the manual as I was doing trying to troubleshoot the problem), but the position of each wire in the harness is. There is no picture in the assembly manual of this particular harness.

Cluster (as connector is installed, from top to bottom):

Red
Black
Yellow
Dark Blue
Brown
White
Green
Gray
Orange
Light Blue
Purple
Open

Page Control/Dimmer Switch (as connector is installed, from top to bottom):

Black
Yellow
Dark Blue
Green
Red
White
Brown
Orange
Gray
Purple
Light Blue
Open

(Only the last 4 wires control the HUD, the first 7 control the rotary dimmer switch. Bottom opening in both connectors is empty.)

I hope this helps somebody. Contact me if you need more info.



[Modified by The Black Knight, 5:34 PM 3/18/2002]

adam12

I am about to install a hud and new cluster into my 97? Could I call you to get some info on what to do and what not to do?

The Black Knight

Sure thing.

Shoot me an email.

Troy

titleist07

I have a 97 with the windshield tinted and I was wondering if you would think that it would project onto the tinted windshield. Where did you acquire your HUD?

THanks :)

Godspeed

Congrats, I'm glad to hear you got it working. :cheers:

-Jeremy

Jammon1

What is the approximate cost to add HUD? I know you did the install your self so just the parts price is fine.

Vetts Forever

Congrats on your engineering finess!! :cheers:

I was wondering if you used a template for cutting the dash? I agree this would be a high stress event. :eek:

Thanks for passon the info.

99 Corvette

So could/did you just make your own harness to connect the gauges to the switches if you already have the right cluster (like all 99+ do) :confused: I'm not sure I understand how you did this. Can you buy just that harness from the cluster manufacturer? I would like to do this and the way I understand it I only need the projector, switches, bezal, and the harness that connects the switches to the cluster. I've been told I have to buy a new cluster to get the harness if this is incorrect please let me know as it would save me a lot of money?

Jerry

EMDExpress

The HUD cars have a more expensive and different windshield. How does HUD work on a non Hud shield? :rolleyes: :crazy:

99 Corvette

Several people have done it without changing the windshield. It works fine :cheers:

Jerry


[Modified by 99 Corvette, 8:10 PM 3/18/2002]

The Black Knight

titlelist07 - I don't know about the windshield question. I DO NOT have the HUD windshield and (like many others apparently) I can't tell much of a difference. Maybe the HUD windshields make it a bit clearer, but mine is fine for me. I got the projector at a swap meet (Corvette Expo) in the fall, bezel from local GM, and switch from gmpartsdirect.

Godspeed - Thanks Jeremy. Your step by step dash emoval was a great help. Made it MUCH easier!!!

Jammon1 - $75 for the projector, $15 for the bezel and about $70 for the switch. I'm not counting the money rab386 stole for the HUD dash that he never sent. :mad

Vetts Forever - the template is already in the dash. Once you get it out you'll see it. Cuts easily, just have to make sure the cut is wide enough to let the dash sit down over the HUD.

99 Corvette - I didn't make the harness. I got one from the cluster manufacturer. The problem is, without the harness, there has been no info on the Forum on how to hook this thing up without getting the factory connectors that fit into the harness. My point is, if you can't get the connectors, one could always use the stock dimmer switch harness and then add the 4 HUD wires. It would essentially boil down to a 4 wire installation. Of course that approach would be a last resort only if the HUD connectors were totally unavailable. The easiest way is to buy a cluster with switch from a car that already had the HUD. Add the projector and go! This is what I would have done had I known about the wire harness issue last fall.

EMDExpress - see above. I have looked at cars with factory HUD and cars with added HUD and can't tell much of a difference, and certainly not enough of a difference to justify the price of the HUD winshield.

The HUD does work great and for what little money I have in it (and, yeah, a little delay and aggravation) I would certainly do it again.

Vetts Forever

Black Knight,

Thanks for the info...again, a great mod! :cool:

Mean Green

might be getting a new dash pad and might have to cut it for HUD...any advice there and removal of the dash pad :cheers:

The Black Knight

Mean - You'll definitely see the outline when you get the dash out for the cutout. The holes where the bezel towers go are clearly marked. The only thing I did that no one has mentioned was to cut the bezel towers down approximately 1/8 inch to let the bezel sit tighter against the dash when it was all together.

As for the dash removal, you won't find a better "how-to" than Godspeed's post on his install. Do a search for HUD in the archives and you'll see it. It is excellent. Only tools you'll need are 7 and 10 mm sockets, flat screw driver and teh right size torx driver.

My brother lives over in Oldsmar. If you don't get it done by the end of June (and I hope you do b/c it's easy) I will help you with it since I am supposed to visit him for several days then.

Tiger Shark

Sounds great! Good job.

Just curious, who makes the cluster? I heard that Nippon Seiki manufactures the actual HUD unit (not confirmed), but never heard who manufactures the gauge cluster.

Thanks for the info,
Keith


:cheers:

Smoke-N-Shot

To me personally, that is a major accomplishment! Congrats... :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

Nick

The Black Knight

Keith - Nippon Seiki makes the HUD and the cluster. I dealt with the american comany, N.S. International, Ltd, which has a Corvette HUD/cluster division, believe it or not. They are in Michigan.

Tiger Shark

:cheers: Their consumer product division, Defi makes a really nice "Field Compass" heads up display device.














Since you've had recent conversations with the American company, let me bounce this idea off you. Do you think they could modify an existing HUD (mine for example) to make a "one-off" that incorporates their Field Compass? It would be very useful. If you don't mind, could you IM or e-mail me the contact information for their American company?

I apologize for getting somewhat off topic.

rcwalters

So, am I understanding this right? You can add a HUD for $160 + labor? That's unbelievable! I gotta look into doing this. Where do you buy these parts? I haven't looked around on extensively on this issue, so forgive if this has already been posted somewhere.

The Black Knight

RC - I sent you an e-mail on this. Let me know if I can help with questions.

Troy