information needed on factory guages installation

[83truck]

My truck has idiot lights in the dash. I am interested in finding out what i would need to do to install a set of factory guages into my truck.

I have another instrument cluster with factory guages and tach, but do i need to be on the search for a different wiring harness to make it work.

I am sure the sending units are probably different, but I dont know what else I need to do the swap with. Any help would be much appreciated.

[asphaltburner]

Yo! 83truck!
I've done this myself with a '76 Camaro instrument panel and factory tach and fuel guage. I used some nice Autometer guages to complete the panel. I drive the car daily and have over 30,000 road miles since I built it. Your's should be a similar situation. My cardomain.com site is down for maintenance right now, but I'll post a link ASAP tomorrow. That should give you some nice ideas.
My '78 FRANKENTRUCK has gauges, but I had to swap in a '73 fuel guage and speedometer from my donor to replace broken ones,...easy swaps, and work great.
Idiot light replacement may require some alteration, or obtaining a gauge instrument cluster, worse case scenario (junkyard, I see them ALL the time!). And if the floppy circuit connections don't match up,...I hard wired my Camaro's with plug in electrical connections.
Yes, you'll need guage senders,...I can post pics to show you how I got my relocated '78 truck's oil pressure sender to fit nicely.
Manyana, Todd.

[Captkaos]

What year is the cluster out of? If you want it to drop in, only certain models will fit with only minimum repinning of the plug. If yours is a 78-up truck as your ID indicates this is the range that will work this way.

[83truck]

Originally Posted by Captkaos

What year is the cluster out of? If you want it to drop in, only certain models will fit with only minimum repinning of the plug. If yours is a 78-up truck as your ID indicates this is the range that will work this way.

What do you mean when you talk about repinning the plug?

[asphaltburner]

Yo! I'm Baack!
The different year panels had different floppy circuits and the plug connection locations are different,...so ya can't plug a '73 plug into a '78 instrument panel, for example. The connections are in different locations on the male and female parts of the plug. That's why I said I hard wired my Camaro's, so that I could eliminate the floppy circuit and the multi-pin plug (they're notorious for failed connections anyway!).
Here's that link I spoke of, the pics will show you how I rewired the instruments and used individual electrical plug connectors to connect the Camaro's panel. Much easier than trying to retain the multi-pin plug and floppy circuit:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/639261/3
(you can click on each picture for a larger view)
It also shows how the instrument cluster can be altered using a hot blade, some polyesther bodyfill for repairs, and how I managed broken tab repair. I'm happy to field questions.
This is REALLY easy to do! I don't see anyone attempting it either,...most replace the whole dash with aftermarket panels and instruments. I really like the factory appearance with custom function. Todd.

[Captkaos]

There is a plug that connects to the back of the cluster. Going from dummy lights to actual guages requires repinning that plug.

[asphaltburner]

Or changing it the way I did. Todd.