My camaro tach cluster-done!

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 78-5.3

mine didnt have the clock !!! but i have a cluster with a clock out of a 77 will my 90-91 speedo still fit the same??

The 90-91 electronic speedometer housing is different than the mechanically driven speedo housing of the 77 so I don't think it will fit without a bunch of epoxy work.

Somebody did a pretty in depth write up of modifying one of the 90-91 housings but I can't remember who it was.

[BLE 'BURBAN]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

The 90-91 electronic speedometer housing is different than the mechanically driven speedo housing of the 77 so I don't think it will fit without a bunch of epoxy work.

Somebody did a pretty in depth write up of modifying one of the 90-91 housings but I can't remember who it was.

Me? Maybe?

[78-5.3]

Originally Posted by BLE 'BURBAN

Me? Maybe?

i read your right up it was great but!!! can i use the whole cluster out of a 91 in my 78 and do i need the factory harness with it !!

[BLE 'BURBAN]

Originally Posted by 78-5.3

i read your right up it was great but!!! can i use the whole cluster out of a 91 in my 78 and do i need the factory harness with it !!

Is your speedo cable driven or electronic? If it's an electronic one then you'd do best to get everything you can off the donor to use in your 78 model. Less hassles and headaches trying to figure things out that way.

[ghettoluxury]

look at both printed circits and see if everything matches up. If so just plug and play, if not re-pin your plug to work with the 91 cluster.

[78-5.3]

Originally Posted by ghettoluxury

look at both printed circits and see if everything matches up. If so just plug and play, if not re-pin your plug to work with the 91 cluster.

i brought one recently but it didnt come with the harness so i will try make it work i would love to put a tacho in as well i love the camaro tacho but i need a gas gauge to so at heavy truck would be nice only thing is that it only goes to 5000 rpm!

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by BLE 'BURBAN

Me? Maybe?

Yes, it was your write up I was thinking about. Great job. Thanks for all the detail and work you did showing the rest of us what needs to be done.

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 78-5.3

i brought one recently but it didnt come with the harness so i will try make it work i would love to put a tacho in as well i love the camaro tacho but i need a gas gauge to so at heavy truck would be nice only thing is that it only goes to 5000 rpm!

Take a look at post #64. I found a van fuel level gauge that fits the truck cluster and can go in the place of the stock truck oil pressure gauge. This way you can use the Camaro tach unmodified with the integral oil pressure gauge in it.

Just some minor re-pin work at the harness connector is all that is needed to swap out functions.

[78-5.3]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

Take a look at post #64. I found a van fuel level gauge that fits the truck cluster and can go in the place of the stock truck oil pressure gauge. This way you can use the Camaro tach unmodified with the integral oil pressure gauge in it.

Just some minor re-pin work at the harness connector is all that is needed to swap out functions.

ok so i can use the truck fuel gauge (year??) and the camaro tacho with buit in fuel gauge in my 91 cluster ?

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 78-5.3

ok so i can use the truck fuel gauge (year??) and the camaro tacho with buit in fuel gauge in my 91 cluster ?

The van fuel level gauge is the small diameter one that will fit to the left of the truck cluster speedo. The one I grabbed was from a 1990 full size van. Don't know what other years are similar.

The Camaro tach comes with the oil pressure gauge built in so replacing the stock truck oil pressure gauge with the van fuel level gauge makes the most sense and will require the least amount of work.

[68 TT]

Some of the mounting studs on the back of the Camaro tach hit the truck cluster housing since they were designed to fit into the wiring clips like the truck gauges.

I would advise threading a standard nut onto the studs and cutting them down to about 1/4" above the top of the nut.

When you back the nut off the stud it will clean up the threads where it was cut so you can get another nut back on there when you wire it up.

This way you don't have to modify so much of the truck cluster housing to get it to fit.

[78-5.3]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

Some of the mounting studs on the back of the Camaro tach hit the truck cluster housing since they were designed to fit into the wiring clips like the truck gauges.

I would advise threading a standard nut onto the studs and cutting them down to about 1/4" above the top of the nut.

When you back the nut off the stud it will clean up the threads where it was cut so you can get another nut back on there when you wire it up.

This way you don't have to modify so much of the truck cluster housing to get it to fit.

ok great i was working on the cluster and my girls little boy flicked the speedo needle on the 91 speedometer could that cause damage????

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 78-5.3

ok great i was working on the cluster and my girls little boy flicked the speedo needle on the 91 speedometer could that cause damage????

It shouldn't hurt it. When you power it up it should zero out. Most that are electronically controlled the needle wanders around with the power off so don't worry about where it sits when no power is applied.

[78-5.3]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

It shouldn't hurt it. When you power it up it should zero out. Most that are electronically controlled the needle wanders around with the power off so don't worry about where it sits when no power is applied.

there only one wire with a funny terminal on it is that all i need to hook up the speedo to my ecm i only have 1 wire (white) coming from the ecm

[78-5.3]

here are a couple of pic the 91 cluster is what im taking about with the one wire and the other is the camao cluster i brought off ebay i dont have the large terminal block that plugs into cluster !!!
i wonder if i can use te camaro fuel gauge i havent got the camaro cluster yet god knows where it is some people are slow at shipping!!!!

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 78-5.3

here are a couple of pic the 91 cluster is what im taking about with the one wire and the other is the camao cluster i brought off ebay i dont have the large terminal block that plugs into cluster !!!
i wonder if i can use te camaro fuel gauge i havent got the camaro cluster yet god knows where it is some people are slow at shipping!!!!

You could use the Camaro fuel gauge but it needs to be turned 90 degrees due to the back side terminal layout and the housing trimmed to clear the light reflector housing. It is also smaller in diameter and would let direct lighting shine through most likely.

You could drill out the rivets in both the Camaro fuel gauge and the old truck oil pressure gauge then rivet or screw the Camaro fuel level gauge control section to the truck oil pressure gauge face. They both share the same rivet spacing so it would drop right in.

You would need to re-mark the truck oil pressure gauge face to read for fuel level but that's no big deal. I have already been working on gauge face overlays to make the Camaro tach match the truck speedo in appearance, get rid of the KPH markings on the speedo & increase the range and loose the moon gauge fuel level markings on the van fuel level gauge so I already have the fuel level gauge overlay nearly ready to go onto the truck oil pressure gauge face plate.

I have a couple spare gauges so I will mess around with it and see if I can get it working.

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 78-5.3

here are a couple of pic the 91 cluster is what im taking about with the one wire and the other is the camao cluster i brought off ebay i dont have the large terminal block that plugs into cluster !!!
i wonder if i can use te camaro fuel gauge i havent got the camaro cluster yet god knows where it is some people are slow at shipping!!!!

That one wire is actually a fiber optic light for the ash tray that feeds off of the bulb in that socket on the gauge housing. Your speedo is controlled through the main cluster connector like the rest of the gauges.

[78-5.3]

oh ok !! so i need to find out where the socket wire go to tacho speedo extra i will try to track down a schmatics for the 91 cluster !!!

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 78-5.3

oh ok !! so i need to find out where the socket wire go to tacho speedo extra i will try to track down a schmatics for the 91 cluster !!!

You can just trace the circuits on the back of the cluster to see which terminal does what if you can't find a diagram.

Unfortunately you don't have the connector pigtail to get the wire colors off of so you know how to repin your dash harness to match. Hopefully the connector isn't different. You will need at least one extra wire possibly more to put into the connector so it can feed the speedo the signal from the ECM.

I know mine have several unused positions on the plug so there is room to grow.

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

You could use the Camaro fuel gauge but it needs to be turned 90 degrees due to the back side terminal layout and the housing trimmed to clear the light reflector housing. It is also smaller in diameter and would let direct lighting shine through most likely.

You could drill out the rivets in both the Camaro fuel gauge and the old truck oil pressure gauge then rivet or screw the Camaro fuel level gauge control section to the truck oil pressure gauge face. They both share the same rivet spacing so it would drop right in.

You would need to re-mark the truck oil pressure gauge face to read for fuel level but that's no big deal. I have already been working on gauge face overlays to make the Camaro tach match the truck speedo in appearance, get rid of the KPH markings on the speedo & increase the range and loose the moon gauge fuel level markings on the van fuel level gauge so I already have the fuel level gauge overlay nearly ready to go onto the truck oil pressure gauge face plate.

I have a couple spare gauges so I will mess around with it and see if I can get it working.

I took apart the Camaro fuel level gauge and the truck oil pressure gauge. The rivets in the housings line up perfectly. I need to refine the overlay a little to cover more of the flat area on the oil pressure gauge face panel but it reads right.

I still need to come up with some tiny fasteners to tie the Camaro fuel gauge mechanical section to the truck oil pressure gauge face panel to replace the rivets I drilled out.

I like this a lot more than monkeying around with the hard to find van fuel level gauge that is smaller and doesn't bolt in.

[68 TT]

I finished the Camaro tach overlay, actually four or five versions, and have the one I liked the most installed onto the Camaro tach.

The numbers I made match the stock truck speedo lettering exactly but the version I chose for my truck I enlarged the numbers a little and changed the x100 to x1000 like an aftermarket tach.

I decided to make an overlay for the speedometer to get rid of that 85 mph range, lose the kph junk I will never need and make the numbers match my tach overlay exactly. There is enough room on the 85 mph speedo to get 95 mph markings on it so I revised the numbering to even numbers only.

Once I get the fuel level gauge done and installed I will spray the whole set of gauges with a satin clear coat so all the gauges have the same sheen. The only sticky back printable paper I could find in stock locally was matte finish so it doesn't match the stock semi-gloss gauge faces. It comes off if you want it to without leaving any residue but it hangs on pretty good so I don't see it coming off when I don't want it to.

[78-5.3]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

I took apart the Camaro fuel level gauge and the truck oil pressure gauge. The rivets in the housings line up perfectly. I need to refine the overlay a little to cover more of the flat area on the oil pressure gauge face panel but it reads right.

I still need to come up with some tiny fasteners to tie the Camaro fuel gauge mechanical section to the truck oil pressure gauge face panel to replace the rivets I drilled out.

I like this a lot more than monkeying around with the hard to find van fuel level gauge that is smaller and doesn't bolt in.

im a little confused but that doesnt take much !!! i can take my fuel gauge out of the camaro cluster and put it where the oil gauge is on the 91 cluster and use the oil gauge on the tacho of the camaro in the 91 cluster???

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 78-5.3

im a little confused but that doesnt take much !!! i can take my fuel gauge out of the camaro cluster and put it where the oil gauge is on the 91 cluster and use the oil gauge on the tacho of the camaro in the 91 cluster???

Use the Camaro tach with its integrated oil pressure gauge in place of the stock truck large fuel gauge. Then take your now un-needed truck oil pressure gauge and use its face plate as the new support for the Camaro fuel level gauge mechanism. Drill out the rivets in both gauges that hold the face plate to the mechanism (after marking the Camaro fuel level gauge housing where E, 1/2, F should be so you don't assemble it upside down) and fit the Camaro fuel level gauge mechanism to the truck oil pressure gauge face panel. Now the Camaro fuel level gauge will bolt into the truck cluster perfectly. You will need to re-mark the gauge face to show fuel level markings but that is pretty easy.

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 78-5.3

im a little confused but that doesnt take much !!! i can take my fuel gauge out of the camaro cluster and put it where the oil gauge is on the 91 cluster and use the oil gauge on the tacho of the camaro in the 91 cluster???

The Camaro fuel level gauge does fit into the truck housing but the readings are turned 90 degrees and the face panel needs trimmed for clearance. It is also small enough I think you would get bright while light passing by the edges and making it hard to see.

[menace121978]

WOW! that looks sweet!! very nice job man!