Whats the best way to change out a panel/gauges? I haven't looked closely yet, but is there a wiring harness that just unplugs?

depends on what gages your putting in, if livorsi there is an adapter for the harness>

As far as I know,they are hard wired. Unless they changed
them on later models,my 91 used eyelet connectors that
were attatched to the gauges with nuts. Just mark them
and start wrenching !!

I think that Fountain has almost always had a harness connector under the panel. 2 connectors for a single and 4 for the twin. There may be a few things connected directly but for the most part, remove the shifter, steering wheel and helm, disconnect the harnesses and unscrew the panel and remove with the gauges intact.

Once you have the panel on the bench, you can switch out the guages. The guages are wired with eyelets and secured with nuts but the guage harness does have connectors.

Took mine out last week. 30min job.
6 main harness disconnects, a few butt connectors for my compass, side panel power, saftey switch, shifter trim switch and warning buzzer. Everything unpluged. The main plugs were located in the side compartment area under the dash.

Is there anything about a fountain that you don't know! Thanks for the response, I was dreading it. Do you think the crt trim station can be chromed? How did your throttles turn out?

All Fountains have a standard Merk plug behing the right panel. As was said earlier, one round per motor and one square for trim. They do hardwire a few things but the job is a slam dunk. The hardest part is pulling the cables off he throttles and trim indicaters.

progress

Do you have to re-tie all the wires in the back of the panel after everything comes out?

I left my wires still in the assembled bundles, just unhooked the gauges from the wiring. Didn't undo all the wire ties.

Edited: 6 harness plugs, with a few bundles of butt connectors. But all still just a plug -n-play.

twins