1969 3-hole instrument cluster to 7-hole converstion?

[Fults1971]

Hey guys, im new to this site. I just got back from a deployment overseas and finally bought my dream truck. A 1969 Cheyenne SWB straight 6. It has the 3 hole cluster and I'm interested in converting it to a 7 hole. What all is needed to do this? How should I go about converting it? I plan on installing a V8 in it at some point.

[VetteVet]

We've done this so many times I can almost do it off the top of my head.
It's an easy conversion but there are some complications with re-wiring the dash plug. You will also have to get a temperature sensor for the dash gauge because the idiot light sensor is different.

The charging gauge will have to have wires run to it and fuses put into the harness to protect it. It almost takes a complete thread just for that.


Here is the changes to the dash plug that need to be made.



This diagram shows the added wires for the battery charging gauge with the fuses. Your wiring should be the same except for these two small 20 gauge wires.





Here are the two ways the cluster plug is pinned so you will have yo remove the unused wires and move the others to match the gauge cluster. The blue wire at no.2 and the green wire at no. 5 will be removed and the gray wire for the dash lights and the pink wire for the fuel gauge need to be moved.

[VetteVet]

I went past my edit post time so I had to make another post to show the differences in the cluster plug pinning.


Here are the two ways the cluster plug is pinned so you will have to remove the unused wires and move the others to match the gauge cluster. The blue wire at no.1 will be removed and the green wire at no. 5 will be moved to no.6 and the gray wire for the dash lights and the pink wire for the fuel gauge need to be moved. The fuel gauge pink wire goes from 7 to 3 and the ground wire goes from 6 to 7. Thr gray wore gpes from 12 to 8.
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Idiot light




Gauge cluster--Notice the 2 added wires at 1 and 12 for the battery charging gauge.

[Fults1971]

Wow.. Good Info! thanks So Much For The Help! MaybeWhenI Get Back From Oversees Again. I'll Be Able To Do This.
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[jjzepplin]

This is good info! VetteVet is so darn smart.

[Bkndsdl]

Very good and useful info.

Two things I would add:

1) Swap the 9 and 11 pins on the connector so that your turn signal and your bright light indicators work.

2) You no longer need the 8 pin so you can remove it along with the 5 pin.

Hope this bump helps someone with this swap as much as it did me.