Start by removing the three screws (circled in yellow) that hold the fairing in place.

Next, you will find two bolts on the inside of the fairing with 10mm heads that need to be removed.(The left one is circled in the photo).The fairing can now be pulled forward a number of inches…

Where you’ll see that only the turn signal wires are holding it as shown.  Disconnect the four turn signal wires (two sets of two) and set the fairing aside.

Below the instrument panel, you’ll see a cover, retained by two screws.  The left screw is shown in the photo.  Remove both of them and set the cover aside.

You’re almost ready to remove the instrument panel.  The blue box shows the speedometer cable already unscrewed.  Also, noted in the yellow box is the one electrical connector that must be separated, and in red are the two nuts and two washers that must be removed.  Once that is done, you can lift off your entire instrument panel from the bike.

This photo shows the back of your instrument panel.  Remove the three screws that have a blue circle drawn around them.

This photo shows one final screw that must be removed, down in the center of the trip odometer reset knob.  Once the screw is removed, pull the knob straight out of the housing… it’s a friction fit on the shaft.

Finally, turn the instrument panel upright again and you can lift off the protective cover.  You’ll note that the tach and water temperature gauge share a common face, held down by four screws.  You only need to remove the two screws in the water temp face, one on each side of the needle.  Take your new, calibrated face and align the two holes in the face with the two screw holes and reinstall the screws.  Be careful to allow the new face to lie flat.  If you torque the screws too much, the face will curl slightly.

Before closing everything up, check the calibration of the new face.  If you reconnect the electrical wiring, you can turn on your ignition key in a dark garage and look through the new face as shown.  The new face is placed properly if it looks like the photo, where the 150° line is in-between two red stripes on the factory gauge, and the 270° line is just off the right side of the red stripe on the right side of the factory gauge.  If you wish to move the face, loosen the screws and move it slightly, then re-tighten and check your work.

NOTE: So far, I’ve had success with holding the face down with the two screws only, and after 24 months of use over both wet and dry days (and a number of other users around the U.S.), none of the faces have ever curled or lifted.  But if it would make you more comfortable, you could take some small pieces of clear tape and restrain the free edges of the new gauge face to the original gauge face. Your call. 

Since you have this all apart, now would be a great time to consider recalibrating your speedometer because the KLR speedometers are notorious for reading too high by 5 to 10%. Click here to see the process.

Reassemble the instrument panel and reinstall it on the bike by reversing the steps above. When reinstalling the trip odometer reset knob, note where the flat side is on the knob and shaft before pushing the knob on.

This photo shows the finished product.  Enjoy your new gauge face, you’ll be surprised how accurately you can now call the temperatures!