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Old 01-09-2006, 11:49 PM   #1
67Fleet
Outlandish Trends - FL
 
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Orlando
Posts: 1,396
In-dash tach install

Well, I started my project of installing an in-dash tach tonight. I had purchased a 3-3/8" Autometer Sport-Comp 3991 tach on ebay. The wife went out w/ the girls tonight so I started in on it.
1. First, I had to remove the entire gauge cluster. Since I have a '67, I had to remove the choke cable. I disconnected it at the carb and then undid the nut on the back of the bezel
2. I then had to disconnect the light switch & wiper switch assemblies. The wiper assembly was a little confusing until I found the little lock screw up under the knob to remove that.
3. Once the above was done, I disconnected the main wiring prong from the printed circuit. This just pulls out after you squeeze the 2 prongs together. Then disconnected the speedometer & oil pressure lines. That's it for everything behind the cluster. All that's left is to unscrew the bezel screws and the clip that wraps under the column and it just comes right out.
OK, that was the easy part! Time to start disassembling the cluster. There's a bunch of 1/4" hex head screws that hold the bezel onto the cluster. I removed them and separated the bezel from the cluster. There's basically 4 main pieces to the gauge cluster, the bezel, the glass (plastic), rear main piece (the printed circuit is on the back of this) and the front inner frame (black on one side & green on the inside) <----this is what guys are painting white to reflect the light better. I'll be doing this as well.
Here's pictures of everything separated (keep in mind I've already cut stuff so yours won't look like this at first:

OK, now the fun part begins. LET THE CUTTING BEGIN!! My tool of choice was a dremel with a cut-off wheel.
First I cut the inner metal bezal that sits right behind the plastic bezel. I used the cut-off wheel on the dremel and then rounded it out with a drum sanding disc.

After this is done, I realized that the prong for the lights on the back of the tach was going to stick out too far for the rear of the cluster so I had to notch that out as well for clearance:

I thought I'd be able to just get away with that, and not have to cut the printed circuit, but it wouldn't stretch much and I didn't want to damage it so I had to notch that as well. I used an exacto knife for this, being careful to stay away from the circuitry.

After this, I still need to cut the clear plastic panel in the tach area. I put it behind the bezel and scribed a line around with a Sharpie. Not sure exactly what I'm going to use to cut the plastic without damaging it. I have to think about that a little. It's pretty brittle at almost 40 years old.
I then fit everything together as sort of a mock-up to make sure it would all fit back together. Here's where I'm at now:
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-Bret
67 short-fleet sold!

Last edited by 67Fleet; 01-10-2006 at 08:10 PM.
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