tach dash question
 

I have a 1981 blazer.I want to put a tach cluster in it.It has a gauge cluster in it now.what do in need to swap this cluster in to it?IS The wiring harness the same exepted for the tach wiring?The cluster I have is from a 75 truck will it still work and macth the wiring in the 81?any help would be great Thanks DEAN

You can't use 75 gauges in a 81 truck. For further info on why look here:http://www.73-87.com/7387garage/inte...achometers.htm

Hey Dean!

Like mentioned earlier, the wiring between the 75 cluster and the 81 Blazer won't be the same. You can, however make it work if you wanted to take the time :)

You can replace the amp gauge with a volt gauge, and do some re-wiring on the truck's factory harness to make it all work. You'd need to modify how the volt gauge is hooked up, and you'd need to do some re-pinning of the connector to make up for differences between the two years. As far as the mechanical oil gauge goes, I can give you a sending unit / some piping to hook it up to your engine. Mechanical oil gauges are way better than electric ones anyways (I intend to make the same swap on my truck, my electric one bounces all over the place, and it's reading is affected on the amperage drain on the electrical system, turning on the headlights throws it off by 10 PSI, easy)

thanks Russell, for the help,as I do not know the 73-87 models well.

Dean, your best thing to do is find a 79 and up tach cluster. They are on Ebay, or even people on here have them for sale. I have a 73-75 tach cluster in my attic that I bought off Ebay(4 years ago), cause the guy said it would work :bs: ! Now, I know the difference. They are out there, you may have to pay more for them, but they'll work in your truck.

I think it's '78 and up, actually. And I don't know if it matters to ya, but if you want the same gauge faces as you have now (same style numbers and needles), you'd have to find an '80 or up.

There is an awesome writeup about interchangeability and such on www.73-87.com :)

BTW Joe -- You are right, 78 bolts right in, and still has the blue faced tach / speedo with the 160 km/h (100 mph) speedometer :)