The Installation

Some of the most common concerns installing multiple gauges in an A-Pillar Pod are as follows:

Q. Will there be enough Temp Sender Wiring and Boost tube to allow the user to choose the location of specific gauges within the A-Pillar Pod?
A. Yes, Auto Meter provides more than enough boost tube and wiring to the senders to locate any gauge in the top position of the A-Pillar Pod


Q. How to you wire multiple gauges without having a "birds nest" behind the pillar or under the dash?
A. Wire the gauges in "Parallel". We will walk you through this process later on in the installation. You will have 3 final connections to the truck (excluding temperature senders and boost tube). They will be Key on Power, Ground, and 12 volt Light connections.


Q. What do you use to paint the Pod in order for it to match the factory interior?
A. VHT and Ford Motor Company both make interior trim paint to match your factory interior. The interior trim code can be located on the information plate in the driver's side door. There is one caveat to this, and it applies to the Harley Davidson Editions. Ford Motor Company tracks the interior trim of Harley Davidsons as "Ebony". We found out early in the installation that it did not match the A-Pillars at all (which were more of a "battleship gray"). The solution was to pull a tab that covers the bolts in the grab handle and submit it to a local paint shop that specializes in mixing and matching paint.


Q. Where do you mount the Pyrometer Probe, Transmission Temp Sender, and where is the best place to tap into for the boost tube?
A. This will all be addressed during the installation later in the article.

The first step to installing gauges is test fitting the components. Place the gauges into the Pod in the order desired. Make sure to remove any stickers that may be on the gauge body. Some slots on the Pod may be tighter than the others. Gauges should fit snugly in the Pod but not so tight that they cannot be inserted all the way or so tight that it requires a lot of effort to get them seated. The gauge should be snug enough so it will not rotate and is seated firmly, but just "loose" enough to where you can pull them out with a little effort for maintenance purposes (light bulb/LED on some models).

If a particular slot is too tight simply take some sandpaper and run it around the slot until the desired fit is achieved. If a particular slot is loose you can wrap the gauge body below the bezel with some tape until it fits snugly in the Pod. It is recommended that you use "painters tape" over electrical tape because electrical tape can end up degrading and getting "tacky" in hot environments.

Once the gauges have been test fitted in the Pod the next step is to test fit the Pod with the gauges on the A-Pillar. This is required for a few reasons:

1. You may find that you need to remove the mounting bracket screws from behind the gauge in order to prevent them from hitting the factory A-Pillar cover and causing the gauge to seat improperly. On gauges such as the D-PIC, the mounting bracket screws can be removed by unscrewing them. On gauges such as the Boost, Pyro, and Trans, the screws must be cut or snipped off.
2. This will ensure the closest possible interface of the A-Pillar Pod to the factory A-Pillar and facilitate pod/pillar fasteners being hidden by the weather stripping on the driver's side door.

Factory A-Pillar Pod Removal: Remove the weather stripping by pulling it straight off. You will need to take off two tabs to access the bolts which secure the grab handle to the A-Pillar. Use a 15/16" socket to remove the four bolts. Once the bolts are removed, pull the factory A-Pillar cover straight down. The only thing left securing the factory A-Pillar cover is two clips which are guided in place with guide pins. Once the clips are free it will be necessary to squeeze the bottom portion of the cover to dislodge the assembly from the corner of the dash. Once the factory cover has been removed you will note that the grab handle is still secured to the cover. There are two Phillips head screws that will need to be removed in order to completely remove the grab handle.

Determining the location of the Pod/Pillar fasteners: Attach the A-Pillar Pod over the factory pillar making sure the two clips are seated properly and reattach the weather stripping. Place some tape on the top and bottom of the Pod where the weather stripping meets the Pod. This will let you know how much surface area you will have behind the weather stripping for the Pod/Pillar fasteners later when you drill the 3/16" holes.

Running wires through the Pod: For the closest possible interface, and to ensure a proper fit of the Quad A-Pillar Pod to the factory pillar, it is necessary to drill two ½" holes in the number 1 and the number 3 locations (counting from bottom to top). These holes will be used to run the wires behind the factory cover from the gauges at these locations. Mark the location where the holes will be drilled using some tape. Ensure that the location is marked further back in the Pod to prevent wires from "kinking" when the perspective gauges are inserted. The holes from the grab handle will be used to run the wires from the number 2 and number 4 gauges. This is what the factory A-Pillar Cover looks like marked and drilled. Here is what the holes look like with the A-Pillar Pod over the factory pillar cover.