67-72 Electric speedo
 

This is my 120mph electric speedo mod for 67-72 trucks. I got the idea from another member on here, brad_man_72, when I saw his truck at the All Truck Nationals several years ago. He had it in his truck, but it wasn't working. I took the ball and ran with it.

What it is, is the guts from a '96-7 S-10. They made two speedos in those trucks, one with a tach and one without. You need the one without the tach. The S-10 speedo goes from 0 to 100mph, but the numbers start at what would be the 8 o'clock position and go to the 4 o'clock position. 67-72 trucks, the 0mph is at the 7 o'clock position and goes to the 5 o'clock position, so for it to work right and to have the exact same sweep, the needle needed to be put on in the 7 o'clock position, but what that does is put the 100mph mark at 3 o'clock, so I added 110 and 120 to even everything out. I had a new face made up that has the correct lines on it, one for every 10 mph, and then had a "mask" made to be able to repaint on the numbers on the lens.

Mounting the guts behind the original face is probably the hardest part. Actually using the original face didn't work out as well as just using the S-10 face and putting the new face I had made right on top of it. Once I put the new face on, I cut out the odometer and trip odometer holes. I had to move a couple of the dash light bulbs, and I did away with the printed circut and just hard wired them with a plug so I can unplug the whole cluster to remove it. I also put a small red LED in the factory spot for the high beam indicator.

You wouldn't need to keep the trip odometerm but I figured since it was there I would try and keep it. It is just barely noticeable, but the reset knob is just to the right of the speedo in the bezel.

The pics here are of it when I was working on it, it's not done in the pics and I have since had the lines on the face changed to more of a greenish tint to match the other gauges because the first ones looked too white next to them.

I have tested this speedo by hooking it up to my 2003 Sunfire, and it was right on with what the sunfire speedo read, so I know it's going to work when I get my truck on the road.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Very nice! Can you go into more detail about where you got the printing done?

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more pics

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more

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more

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and more

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more

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It was a local sign printing place, but I had to go to a graphics design place that the printer reccomended to get the face "redesigned" because he doesn't have the ability to do that part. That was the most expensive part of the whole thing.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Very cool!

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Genius!

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

That is great work man!

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Excellent work. I am going to do this.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

one of the coolest ideas and execution i've seen in awhile :gi:

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Great job, I love these diy jobs, make it work.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Thought I'd post a quick update. I had the tune in my truck finalized yesterday, and now the speedo is dead on the money! I drove the truck to my buddy's house in Topeka, and when he was done with it, driving it home, the speedo was within 1 mph of what my GPS was saying. I clocked the odometer by the mile markers on the turnpike, and with every 1 mile on the odometer was 1 mile exactly with the markers. And the needle is SMOOTH! Not at all jumpy like the original speedo, or with a Cable-X.

I'm putting together another one for my beater truck (avatar pic) that's getting a 5.3 4l60e swap real soon!

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Very impressed man. I hate to be that guy, but I guess I will: any interest in making one for me? ;)

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

I'm not ashamed to be that guy, any interest in making more of these? I have a 5.3 4L60E going in my burb.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Found this from your thread on ls1tech. Incredible work!

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

You should see the next one he built...

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Link?
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Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Gotta see it in real life, I think. At the speed he builds, I'm not sure Eric has time to mess with all the pictures and posting. Imagine the blue one only orange and white and badder-asser.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Thanks!

I think there's some confusion here! I posted a link to this thread on my new build thread which is where y5mgisi most likley found this. There's pics of the orange truck at the end of my blue '72 build thread. I put a link in my sig for the green truck that I'm working on now. Is that clear as mud now? :lol:

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

For anyone thinking about doing this, I thought I would update the pics a little bit. These are the pics of the finished cluster, the backside showing it all hard wired with no printed circut, and you can also see the plugs I put on it so I can unplug the whole cluster to remove it. The last pics are of the back tin where the speedo mounts. This is on the one I am currently working on and I changed how it's mounted, works out better this way.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

The back tin.

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/i...et_202259_.jpg

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/i...et_202258_.jpg

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Nice work. PM sent.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

dude thats sweet, subd!

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

this speedo you made does it do a full sweep? or does it stop at 100 like they do in a s10?

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

It stops at 120, that is where the little stop thing is. At least I think it should, to be honest I have never had the truck above 100. When you say S-10's stop at 100, is that all the faster the truck will go before the speed limiter kicks in, or does the needle just stop there? I can't remember if there is a stop at 100 on the S-10. EDIT; I just looked at my S-10 speedo pic, and there is a little stop at the 100 mph mark that keeps the needle from going any further.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

so we then assume with the needle bump stop moved down that the speedo will then go up to 120?

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Yes, it should. I do know that if you remove the stop the needle will go all the way back to the bottom of the first stop, but they can sometimes get stuck, that's why there are stops.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

Nice job. Another thing to add to the ever growing list of projects. Thanks for taking time to share this great mod.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

I'd be interested in buying one of these as well.

You could easily have a business on your hands with not just these, but other classic vehicles that are popular with LSX swaps.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

I think you need to remove that stop and go out and do a real world test to see if the needle can actually go to 120. : ).

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

The problem is they're labor intensive. If I was to charge by the hour to convert one for sombody, by the time I was done, you could have bought a set of new aftermarket gauges. You only make this practicle if you do it yourself, which is why I do it.

The needle is at the 120mph mark, if I removed it, I'm sure it would go past it, but I'm probably not going to want to go 130mhp in my old truck!

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

I really like this modification. Any more specifics on how to wire it? How expensive is it to do this? Guesstimate? Do you own the graphics you had done? Thanks for sharing
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Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

There's only 3 wires to hook up to the speedo to make it work, power, ground, and VSS signal. Wiring up the whole cluster since you can't use the printed circut takes a little longer though.

As for cost, I have about $200 in the first one I did, that's for the speedometer, doesn't include the whole cluster and the tach. I spent most of the money on having the graphics part done and getting it printed. I do own the graphics I had made, but I can't do anything with them, so the guy at the print shop has them on his computer and can print them whenever I need them. The speedometer parts came from a pick a part as did the sockets for all the lights and the plug to be able to unplug it to remove it. The main reason I went ahead and spent the money to try it is I knew I would be doing more for future projects and when you spilt the costs up, it's not that bad. The other reasons are that Cable-X's are getting more expensive and don't work as well as they used to, and I cant stand the look of aftermarket gauges in an otherwise stock looking truck.

I probably have around $50 in the dash I put together for my beater truck and that's including the clock and voltmeter mods too. Here's some pics of the one I just got done putting together for the beater.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

hey i have more questions lol where would you suggest i go to get that 120mph sweep made? is it just done on paper? sorry for the questioning everything but i am just unsure where to have it done

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It's printed on a vinyl sticker that's put directly over the S-10 face.If you're serious about wanting to try it, I can have some more made. You would have to find a graphics place around you to have the graphic part done, then take it to a print shop to have it printed. Those two steps ran me about $150.

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

i am very interested in that. I you would really make another one how much would you want for it? and do you still have any ribbed cruise control switches?

Re: 67-72 Electric speedo
 

LS1nova,
would it be possible to have say 10 speedos cut, then resell them to make up some of you investment? I would buy one of the speedo overlays, and I am sure others would.