wanting advice

[runabout71]

wanting some advice how do change idiot lights to gauges in a 71 chey truck

[blackdawn]

well you will need to do 3 things to accomplish this:
1. new cluster with gauges
2. replace the sensors that where setup for idiot lights with the proper gauge sensors
3. you have to swap a few wires around in the cluster connector of the wiring harness. i believe that the instructions for this are hiding somewhere on the faq of the eletrical forum

[runabout71]

gauge sensors dont the dash with gauges have sensors already

[VetteVet]

Originally Posted by runabout71

gauge sensors don't the dash with gauges have sensors already

Yes they do, but they are different in how they work. The coolant and oil senders have different resistances to ground.

We have covered this hundreds of times in the electrical forum. Typing (dash gauge conversions) in the search box above by your Pm notices, will give you hundreds of threads on the subject.

What Blackdawn says is correct but there is more to it than just that. I.E. if you want to run the stock ammeter then you will have to run wires and fuses to the dash plug. There is an alternative to buying a complete gauge dash if you don't want a completely stock looking dash. see the picture below.