Modding My Cluster

[andresco50]

Awesome I like it well done

[1969stepside]

yea i want to make a tach dash for my 85 k-10 but i cant find a tach

[BLE 'BURBAN]

Here's one on Ebay right now.
http://cgi.ebay.com/1957-Chevrolet-T...QQcmdZViewItem

Or are you looking for one with a vacuum gauge in it?

[1969stepside]

no i am looking for a vach gauge for my 69 but i need a tach for my 85

[3r!c84]

whats that AIR for?

[BLE 'BURBAN]

Air tank for my train horns and on board air source for airing up tires on long trips if needed.

[3r!c84]

ohh nicee how did u make it look stock like that?

[BLE 'BURBAN]

Originally Posted by 3r!c84

ohh nicee how did u make it look stock like that?

You haven't read the entire thread, have you?

[3r!c84]

no its to long lol ill read it later

[JEM]

Hmmm...just gone done doing something similar for my '91 Sub. In my case I kitbashed pieces of about three different late clusters - a '90 electronic-speedo cluster from the local pick-n-pull, a tach (no fuel gauge) from some late '80s 6cyl truck that I had a local speedo shop recalibrate for the V8, and the standalone fuel gauge for the lower left hole from something-I-don't-remember-what.

I didn't have a usable cluster shell with a gauge pocket at the bottom left, so it took some quality Dremel-and-pliers time to clean out the idiot-light partitions down there, and I had to fabricate a mounting boss for the left end of the gauge from some scrap ABS plastic. And of course I had to cut the hole in the back of the cluster for the tach wiring.

You can solder to the traces on the printed circuits if you're careful about it. In my case I soldered some 22AWG wires to the fuel-gauge traces (+/-/sender) near the stock pie-plate fuel-gauge location, three matching wires on the back of the gauge, with the gauge in place the wires go out an unused idiot-light hole and mate to the wires from the printed circuit with a 3-pin mini Molex plug.

The truck's still apart for some other work (alarm updates and I've got a set of power mirrors on the shelf...) - I'll try to get some pics.

[BLE 'BURBAN]

By all means lets see your work!! Either add it here or start your own thread! Always interested in other peoples mods. Always inspires ideas for me if I like what I see...

[JEM]

Originally Posted by BLE 'BURBAN

By all means lets see your work!!

Here's the end result, no in-progress pix and I didn't feel like tearing it back apart right now:

I managed to break the gas-gauge needle, salvaged one from another gauge but it's just sitting loose right now until I can test empty-full positions with the sender:



The 22awg jumpers that run from the gas-gauge terminals to the new gauge location are soldered to the copper traces in the printed circuit, that's all covered with tape. I put a 3-pin .062 Molex plug in the circuit; if I were doing it over again I might just have made the wires long enough that the gauge could be pulled out and the wires unscrewed from the terminals on the gauge:

[68Timber]

I love this mod. Hat's off to y'all for the good work. I'd love to do it myself if only the factory tach went to 6000 rpm. Or better yet, 8000 rpm. Nice work.

[JEM]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

I love this mod. Hat's off to y'all for the good work. I'd love to do it myself if only the factory tach went to 6000 rpm. Or better yet, 8000 rpm. Nice work.

I can think of a couple shops that can probably recalibrate a factory tach for whatever redline you want, and even reletter the face. The recalibration might even be halfway reasonable $; I don't know about redoing the face.

[68Timber]

Originally Posted by JEM

I can think of a couple shops that can probably recalibrate a factory tach for whatever redline you want, and even reletter the face. The recalibration might even be halfway reasonable $; I don't know about redoing the face.

If someone did the complete conversion for you including supplying the tach, I'd spend the money if it were reasonable. But I do not want it bad enough to start bidding on these truck tach's hoping they'll work.

I've got an Auto Meter tach waiting for install.

[JEM]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

If someone did the complete conversion for you including supplying the tach, I'd spend the money if it were reasonable. But I do not want it bad enough to start bidding on these truck tach's hoping they'll work.

I got a 6cyl tach with the right gauge-face font pretty cheap ($30? Don't recall exactly) and paid about $100 (IIRC) to have it checked out and recalibrated for 8cyl use.

I've got maybe another $100 in parts, and about four or five hours of work into cutting and grinding and gluing and soldering.

[68Timber]

Post a pic, sounds sweet.

[JEM]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

Post a pic, sounds sweet.

Look up about four posts. But it's the one that wouldn't do you any good 'cause you need a 6000RPM redline. My stock-shortblock 120K-mile 454 isn't going up there.

[68Timber]

Very nice. I think the setup with the fuel gauge where the clock would be is the cleanest looking cluster. I hate to say this, but you're 99% already - I'd paint the needles to match. Shifter too. I know you can buy the shifter pointer separately if you need to but I'm not sure about the gauges.

Very nice conversion, though. I wish Chevy had made that cluster standard.

[JEM]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

Very nice conversion, though. I wish Chevy had made that cluster standard.

It's in, and it works nicely, the lighting level on the gauge is good and consistent with the others, I calibrated the gas gauge and pushed the needle on.

And the Bosch/Guide E-code H4 4703-replacement low beams (http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=4530) and the sourcing-unknown eurolights.com 4701 H7 high beams are in, with real Osram +50 bulbs fed by their separate 30-amp relay-switched circuits, work great.

The Bosch/Guide headlamps were what GM had to use to be able to sell vehicles with the 150mm headlights outside the US, where US-spec sealed beams are justifiably regarded as dangerously bad junk.

And the Vortec heads and 900cfm bored-and-sleeved TBI and the cam and so on, more tuning to be done but it's driveable.

Happy, happy, happy, or at least I will be when I get the bigger fuel pump in there so I can risk WOT. Guess I'm stuck with the thing a few more years.

Now if I could just find a good price on an uncracked blue dash pad...and Western Chassis 2.5in front drop spindles, and a little air for the rear suspension, and there's all the rear-disc hardware on the shelf waiting to go in.

Why do I get myself into these things?

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by JEM

Here's the end result, no in-progress pix and I didn't feel like tearing it back apart right now:

I managed to break the gas-gauge needle, salvaged one from another gauge but it's just sitting loose right now until I can test empty-full positions with the sender:

Any guesses as to what the gas gauge came out of?

I have never seen one that I can think of that it came from.

[JEM]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

Any guesses as to what the gas gauge came out of?

It came from the same cluster the tach did, IIRC, a mid '80s 6-cyl C10 I think.

John.

[MrBeast]

I've got to hand it to you man, you did a mighty fine job assembeling that thing.