Well, it is too cold outside to be riding my motorcycle these days, so I decided that instead of just walking by it each morning wishing I was riding it, I should keep on hacking it. Have you ever wanted to replace the backlight color of your gauges? The stock color of the Kawasaki Ninja gauge is a strange "off-orange" color, that I didn't particularly like. I have seen websites that offer to change your backlight color for a fee... But I don't want to pay someone to do it -- Lets hack on my bike.

From looking around, it appears that this process is VERY similar for a LOT of bikes, I would check out the list of bikes that Bluegauges.com will modify. If your bike is on that list -- more than likely you should be able to follow this guide along well enough to change your backlighting. Oh while we are at it, although I have never personally used Bluegauges.com, I hear they do good work. If you are looking to pay someone to do it for you, I would start there first.

Tools Needed:

• Pencil-Type Soldering Iron (I use a 15/30 watt one)
• Phillips head screw driver
• Needle nose pliers

Parts Needed:

• 3.5mm x 2.8mm Surface Mount Leds (see note below)
• Thin Rosen-Core Solder (electronics solder like Radio Shack 64-009)
• Solder Wick (Radio Shack 64-2090)

When purchasing replacement LEDs, We need to make sure that we order both the correct brightness, and number of LEDs for this project.  For my project, I wanted all blue except for the redline area (which I wanted red).  Before we go any further, you need to decide what color you would like.  At the end of this document, I will post some examples of gauges that have been made in different colors to give you ideas. 

For the 2005/6 ZX-6R you will need 12 LEDs to completely switch out all the backlights. Another option is if you only want to switch out the tach lights or the speedo lights separately. Each one uses 6 LEDs and you can mix and match also, it will be easier to understand when you take a look at the pictures.

There are several places online with the correct LEDs.  I personally ordered mine from eled.com using the following part numbers:

Blue: EA3528PBC
Red: EA3528SRC
Green: EA3528SGC
Orange: EA3528SEC
Yellow: EA3528SYC

However, it was pointed out that when you are ordering electronic parts online, it is nice to make a big order of other components to help save on shipping.  Since eLed.com only stocks LEDs, may people wanted the digikey part numbers.  Member jcd4878 of Kawiforums hunted down the following:
 
Note they have three shades of green, most use True Green (523 nM wavelength)

Digi-Key Part#, Manufacturer Part#, Description
475-1007-1-ND, LB T67C-P2R1-35, LED BLUE 465NM CLEAR 2-PLCC SMD
475-1009-1-ND, LV T67C-S2U1-35, LED VERDEGRN 503NM CLR 2PLCC SMD
475-1008-1-ND, LT T67C-S2U1-35, LED TRUE GRN 523NM CLR 2PLCC SMD
475-1004-1-ND, LP T676-L1M2-25, LED PURE GRN 562NM CLR 2PLCC SMD
475-1006-1-ND, LY T676-R1S2-26, LED YELLOW 591NM CLR 2-PLCC SMD
475-1003-1-ND, LO T676-R2S2-24, LED ORANGE 610NM CLR 2-PLCC SMD
475-1002-1-ND, LA T676-R1S2-1, LED AMBER 622NM CLEAR 2-PLCC SMD
475-1005-1-ND, LS T676-Q1R2-1, LED SUP RED 645NM CLR 2-PLCC SMD
475-1010-1-ND, LW T67C-T2U2-3C5D, LED WHITE DIFFUSED 2-PLCC SMD

And finally for those people who are clumbsy (ie me) you will find that the plunger tactile switch used for the Ninja Mode and Reset button ends up as digikey part number "TL1105DF250Q". =)

Ok, now that we have all our parts and tools together, lets start soldering.

Note: Please take your time and be extrememly careful! Soldering irons used incorrectly can ruin your gauges if you not careful. Also I am only telling you what I did so you can do it yourself, if you mess up don't blame me. This is not a very difficult thing to do, however if you have never soldered before, this probably shouldn't be your first project.

The following steps are specific for a 2005/2006 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, however you should be able to follow along the bolded steps with your bike.

Step One: Remove gauge cluster:

First remove both mirrors using the 10mm Allen wrench, next use the 4mm Allen to remove the windscreen.  Two of the screws will have a bolt on the back instead of the rubber nuts, you should be able to remove these by holding them with your fingers. Now with the windscreen and mirrors off, remove the mirror bracket, it is held on by 4, 10mm bolts, one on the bottom left, one on the bottom right and 2 on the back. To remove the 2 bolts on the back you have to have the windscreen removed to access them with a 10mm socket. Now you should have the mirror bracket with the gauges attached, unclip the wire harness from the gauges, the rubber cover will pull back to let you get to the clip. Now you can remove the 3 Phillips head screws to remove the gauges from the mirror bracket.

Step Two: Disassemble gauge cluster:

Remove the 5 phillips head screws from the back of the gauges and lift the back cover up and off, now remove the 4 phillips head screws that hold the circuit board,

The circuit board can now be lifted up and out of the front cover of the gauges,

Next you will need to carefully pull the 2 circuit boards apart, they are held together only by the one white connecter as seen in the picture,

Step Three: Remove stock LEDs:

Heat up your soldering iron (I suggest the 15w setting).  Use the solder wick to help "suck-up" excess solder on the edges of the stock LEDs.  You may find that you have to heat and lift one side of the LED, and then do the other side to remove them.  Be very careful at this step.  Never leave your soldering iron touching the PCB for longer than 1-2 secs. In this picture, you can see the outlined leds.  The green section is the Tach, and the blue section is the speedometer.  If you want a red "red-line" as I have made mine, you would replace all of the LEDs in the blue box and all but the last one (above the other red led) with blue LEDs.  The last LED in the tach section would be red.

Here you can see I removed all the speedo LEDs,

Step Four: Install replacement LEDs:
I would only do a few LEDs at a time because they are easy to lose, and remember the LEDs have polarity so the they will only work if you installed them the correctly. LEDs are a diode the current must flow the correct way. You will notice that In one corner, there is a small trianglar molded notch, this is the Cathode or negative end. If you forget which way just take a look at the other LEDs on the board, they all go the same direction. Once you have the LED the right direction solder it back into place where the old one was.

The circuit board has this clearly marked on each LED with a small black triangle and also a K printed next to each of the triangle marks of the LEDs that are currently on the board. Its real easy, just match up the marks.

Step Five: Test:
You can test the LEDs at any point to make sure they are working, you just have to connect the 2 circuit boards again and then plug it back into the wire harness and turn the key on. If some of the LEDs are not working check you direction and the solder job, it may be on the wrong way or have a bad connection. Once everything is done and everything tests ok then continue.

Step Six: Reassemble gauges:
Reverse order of step 2

Step Seven: Re-Install gauges:
Reverse order of step 1

Step Eight: Smile and be amazement at the job well done

	This is my finished Gauge.  As you can see I used all blue except one Red LED to make the RedLine section red.  (in real life there it does not look as pink).
	You can see that after this modification, the gauge still looks stock in the sunlight.

Below are some pics of other Gauges that have been done. Most are on Kawiforums.com member's bikes.

 Special Thanks to willyr1er, Kailanialoha, jcd4878, and all the other Kawiforums.com members who contributed to this great article.