Gauges question

[68shortstep]

Sorry for such a long-winded multi-question, but here goes:

Been reading-up on this great forum about Camaro tachs & other almost 30-year-old used gauges being installed into our dash panels. Got to thinking; why use such old & possibly already nearly worn-out hardware, or pay such huge prices ($ 500-plus) for new gauges ???

Sitting in line at a drive-in waiting for a burger & was looking at my '96 Grand Cherokee dash panel & snapped a digital picture - yes, it says 215,500 miles. I use the Jeep hard, but change the oil faithfully every 3000 miles. It never misses a beat. My truck is my "fun weekender" ride.

The big gauges - tach & speedometer - are approx 3-3/4" diameter & the small ones are 1-3/4" as best I can measure them, across the inner black bezel. I know they're somewhat larger diameter than our truck dash opening holes, but not much. The backside pic is an image I copied from an auction listing.

The Jeep gauges & tach are pretty accurate, & obviously they're very long-lasting. This same type dash panel has been used in almost all models of Jeeps for the last 10 years or so, with the newer ones being white-face dials. I see them on "flea-bay" sometimes as low as $ 25.00 or so, and ending with no bids made.

With two large gauges, & four small ones, this would nearly fill a dash up (cheaply), with space left for maybe a moon-eyes clock in the factory center tach-hole, as I've seen some threads discussing.

I'm such a rookie, I don't know enough at all about dash electricals &/or digital issues to try something like this myself (yet). Can gauges like these be put into our dash panels, and how would a digital odometer work with a mechanical-drive like in our trucks ? Or, can a gauge face like these be applied over our old one, still using the mechanical odometer ? Would everything on these gauges have to run through the new car's built-in computer "brain" & be totally unusable in our trucks ?

I know anything's possible if you use a big enough hammer, or throw enough $$$ at it, but is something like this feasible, or just stupid to consider ??? Could be a good project for some of you "experienced" guys.......

[Longhorn Man]

I wouldn't call it a stupid idea. Looking around like that is the best way to make your truck stand out from all the others.
However, you hit the nail on the head when you asked about all the guages reading off the computer. Onless you wanna install your inline four point slow into your truck...it will pretty much never work.

[70c10]

My neighbor is an electronics wiz and he made a custom cluster for his 78' F%$D truck and it was bad @ss. He used gauges out of a mid 80's T-Bird super coupe and Mustang. He had about 100 hours figuring out wiring scematics but everything he does on all his vehicles is one of a kind. I just wish he was into Chebbies,lol.

[FirstGen]

You'd be much better off getting a third gen camaro guage set, you could relatively easily make that work considering that most are cable driven speedo just like your truck and use GM sending units for standard chevy V8's... Your jeep is most likely using an electronic speedo sensor (VSS) instead of the cable drive speedo you have, almost any guage that has an LCD or LED odometer will be electronic...

[modifiedGMC]

Originally Posted by FirstGen

You'd be much better off getting a third gen camaro guage set, you could relatively easily make that work considering that most are cable driven speedo just like your truck and use GM sending units for standard chevy V8's... Your jeep is most likely using an electronic speedo sensor (VSS) instead of the cable drive speedo you have, almost any guage that has an LCD or LED odometer will be electronic...

I don't know about third gen camaros but second gen ones will work with a little work. I done mine in a weekend. You have to get the fuel gauge from one that had the indicator lights so it will be the big type but there is one small wiring change on the back of the truck cluster to make it work. The speedometer will bolt right in place of the truck speedo BUT you have to change the cable to camaro because the truck cable screws on and the camaro cable clips on but they will fit just fine. I've not had any problems with them. The hardest part is getting the old truck numbers off the cluster lense. Here's mine installed.