67-72 Electric speedo

[ls1nova71]

Originally Posted by cjohnson6772

What is the purpose of sticking the new decal to the old (S10) gauge face? Why not stick the new decal directly to the clear plastic?

I'm still working on this, but just real busy, so it's hard to find time to do the work, photograph it and post it on here. But it will get done in time.

To answer your question, you can't put it straight on the clear plastic part because it's not flat, and the openings for the odometer and trip odometer are way too big. Using the S-10 face gives you something to work with.

It may seem like some of the pics are out of sequence, but I'm taking them as I go. The face has been put on and taken off several times, so that's why it looks that way.

[ChevyCruizer]

Plus looking clooser I see that the S10 clear plastic has mold marks that would definately show through the decal especially since specks of dirt show up.

Sorry to double post, i tried to edit it into my last comment but too much time elapsed.

Originally Posted by cjohnson6772

What is the purpose of sticking the new decal to the old (S10) gauge face? Why not stick the new decal directly to the clear plastic?

[ls1nova71]

I just have a few pics for today.

Put the lens back in the bezel, and drill straight down with a drill bit the same size as the trip reset button. This hole may have to be enlarged later if you don't get it exactly in the right sopt, so it's best to use a small bit to start.



Moving back to the face. Drill the holes for the 2 needle stops (knife pointing to hole). Make sure that the hole isn't too big, the needle stop needs to fit snug in the face, NOT the clear plastic part behind it. Also drilled the hole for the high beam indicator, and the 2 little screws that held the original speedo face on.



Needle stop installed at 0 mph, I also put one at 120 mph.



Now comes a part that can be tricky. When you put the face on the clear plastic part, it needs to be shifted slightly 'up' from center like in this pic. This is important or it won't look right. The reason is because of the angle that the s-10 dash was at versus the straight up angle of the 67-72. Trial fit it and hold the cluster straight up at the angle you will veiw it when it's in the truck and you'll see what I mean. You'll be looking slightly down at it, and if the face is up, you'll be able to see the odometer completely.



Once you have it where you want it (after you've double and triple checked whare the face is going to be) Mark the needle stop holes and the screw holes.



Then take the face back off and drill out the holes where the needle stops and screws go. You want them to be bigger than the stops and screws, since they will just push into the face, the holes are just to allow for the part sticking out the back of the face to have somewhere to go. If you look at where they were originally on the S-10 you will see what i mean



This is all for now. I'll post more in a few days.

[67c10rustbuket]

I just noticed my speedo has a sheetmetal mounting bracket while yours (as seen in post 114, pic 8) the mounting holes are part of the plastic casting. The hole pattern is the same but it may have a little influence on the depth of the gauge once installed. Have you seen or used one like I have? it is from a 97 S10.

[ChevyCruizer]

hard to tell from a face on photo, but they look to be the same depth. I am looking at the small grey gear (between two gold screws) on the right side at it appear to be at the same height as the holes that are used to mount the homemade sheetmetal plate.

Originally Posted by 67c10rustbuket

I just noticed my speedo has a sheetmetal mounting bracket while yours (as seen in post 114, pic 8) the mounting holes are part of the plastic casting. The hole pattern is the same but it may have a little influence on the depth of the gauge once installed. Have you seen or used one like I have? it is from a 97 S10.

[ChevyCruizer]

I went to the junk yard this weekend and looked at several S10 speedos. I found several 95-97 that had the metal bracket like pictured above. The last truck (I think it had a 10 of 97 build date) finally had the all plastic mounting bracket. Looking at them side by side they seemed the same but I cant say for sure if all of the electronics were the same.

[ls1nova71]

Originally Posted by 67c10rustbuket

I just noticed my speedo has a sheetmetal mounting bracket while yours (as seen in post 114, pic 8) the mounting holes are part of the plastic casting. The hole pattern is the same but it may have a little influence on the depth of the gauge once installed. Have you seen or used one like I have? it is from a 97 S10.

The first one I did had the metal mounting bracket, but I mounted it differently. The way I do it now works much better. The only difference is going to be the difference in the thickness of the metal versus the plastic. It probably won't be noticable, but if it is, all you would have to do is put some thin washers between the mounting plate and the speedo bracket. The electronics are the same. BTW, it's good to see someone actually doing one of these, and yours looks really nice! What did you use to cut it out?

[67c10rustbuket]

Originally Posted by ChevyCruizer

hard to tell from a face on photo, but they look to be the same depth. I am looking at the small grey gear (between two gold screws) on the right side at it appear to be at the same height as the holes that are used to mount the homemade sheetmetal plate.

Originally Posted by ChevyCruizer

I went to the junk yard this weekend and looked at several S10 speedos. I found several 95-97 that had the metal bracket like pictured above. The last truck (I think it had a 10 of 97 build date) finally had the all plastic mounting bracket. Looking at them side by side they seemed the same but I cant say for sure if all of the electronics were the same.

Thanks for checking that out, great info to share! I checked the ebay auction it said 96 S blazer and had all the cross reference compatability models. If you look from the end (pic) it looks as though the green plastic is at what would be the same height above the plate so I guess it was just a different version. I was suspecting a replacement part due to the low mileage??

Originally Posted by ls1nova71

The first one I did had the metal mounting bracket, but I mounted it differently. The way I do it now works much better. The only difference is going to be the difference in the thickness of the metal versus the plastic. It probably won't be noticable, but if it is, all you would have to do is put some thin washers between the mounting plate and the speedo bracket. The electronics are the same. BTW, it's good to see someone actually doing one of these, and yours looks really nice! What did you use to cut it out?

Thanks I used a Whitney punch press, just nibbled it out with a .5 square punch. That is just a rough model. I actually located the centerline of the needle on the OE gauge and the centerline of the S10 speedo and combined the hole patterns. Notice the 3 extra holes? they line up to the factory back tin. screw it in and bam, perfect alignment. Now for the pretty work and designing a gauge face plate out of sheetmetal. Once I get it all worked out I am going to have another guy in the shop model it in ProE and write CNC programs for our turret press and then I will form the face and rear cover box on our press brake.

[67c10rustbuket]

Some pics of my progress... just alignment and rough first model stuff.

[67c10rustbuket]

My first attempt at centering the S10 needle. got it half a hole off, about .040" now it is dead on.

[ls1nova71]

Wow Dan, that really looks good, but you're going to have to stop, you're making me look bad!

I also thought of making the face out of metal, but didn't have a way to cut out the odometer opening neatly enough. The up side to doing it is you could eliminate the trip odometer and ot would make things a little easier. One tip ill give you though, if you do it, the metal will need to be really thin. If its too thick, the odometer will be too far from the face of the speedo and won't look right. When I first started trying things I tried to use the original face, but since it kind of tapers in around the odometer opening, it just didn't look right.

Keep up the good work, and later this week I should have some more progress and some more pics of the process to post.

[chevytrucking]

Are you still shipping out your kits? I'd really like to try this. Is the signal from the transmission the same on all GM trannys? Is there a need/way to calibrate the S10 speedo to match a particular type of trans? I did a NV4500 swap and haven't had a speedo since.

[ChevyCruizer]

Just in case anyone was wondering why you cant use a speedo from a tach S10...

There is not an odometer attached to the speedo, it is in the tach.

The one you want is in the top of the picture.

[chevytrucking]

Originally Posted by chevytrucking

Are you still shipping out your kits? I'd really like to try this. Is the signal from the transmission the same on all GM trannys? Is there a need/way to calibrate the S10 speedo to match a particular type of trans? I did a NV4500 swap and haven't had a speedo since.

As I was re-reading the old posts, are you saying this will only work with a signal from an ecm? I had hoped the signal from the trans was all that was needed, but..... My swap was just a NV4500 behind the 454 I already had in the truck. Electrically, my truck is pretty much stock. Will this mod work without an ecm?

[ls1nova71]

Originally Posted by chevytrucking

As I was re-reading the old posts, are you saying this will only work with a signal from an ecm? I had hoped the signal from the trans was all that was needed, but..... My swap was just a NV4500 behind the 454 I already had in the truck. Electrically, my truck is pretty much stock. Will this mod work without an ecm?

Pretty sure it won't work with out the PCM. It needs a 4000ppm signal, and with out the PCM I don't know how you would wire it or calibrate it. THe PCM has a single wire coming out of it for the speedo to hook to, where as the VSS has two.

[ls1nova71]

So far you should have something that looks like this.



Up next is painting the numbers on the lens, this is where it starts getting a little tricky, but not impossible by no means.

Start by cleaning the side to be painted. I use Dawn dish soap, and clean it good so that the paint will stick properly. Then, once you've marked the front side so you know where to put the mask, hold the lens up to some light and line it up on the inside of the lens. I used some tape to hold it in place.





Once it's exactly where you want it, tape the bottom so it cannot move.



Fold it back at the tape and remove the backing.



Then carefully put it on the lens, starting at the bottom and working your way up.





Once it's on the numbers should match up with the marks made on the front side of the lens.



Then carefully pull the backing away.







THis is the paint I use. It's just green and white. It takes some time to get the right color, but these two colors will do it.

[ls1nova71]

This is what I used to spray it. I've had this thing for years, like 15 or so and was suprised the propellant can still worked!



Then mask it off and start spraying. Don't put it on heavy, several light coats will work better than one or two heavy ones.



I unmasked the front to see what it looked like, and if there was enough paint on it.



When you're done painting, wait for it to tack up, but not fully dry. Then take a sharp knife and stick the centers of all the numbers and pull the mask off. If it's completely dry, this will be really hard to do. The paint should be dry enough that it doesn't come off when you touch it, but wet enough so that it will leave a fingerprint in it.





Do all the centers first before pulling the main piece off. Then carefully remove the last part.





Done!



Once it's dry, you can put it in the bezel and put the back tin in and see how it looks. This is where you really start to feel a sense of accomplishment.

[eagleuh1]

Awesome work. You guys are real inovators.

[chevytrucking]

Originally Posted by ls1nova71

Pretty sure it won't work with out the PCM. It needs a 4000ppm signal, and with out the PCM I don't know how you would wire it or calibrate it. THe PCM has a single wire coming out of it for the speedo to hook to, where as the VSS has two.

I've been trying to figure out exactly what type signal is coming directly off the VSS on the tailshaft and I came across this:

http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.c...roduct_id=126/

Looks to me like this device would make this swap work without a pcm/ecm and it's only $89. Is so, it should work with any electronic trans with no computer. Anybody have any first hand experience with this?

I'm really trying to find a way to make this work!

[Tinkermc]

very nice

[67c10rustbuket]

Version 1.2, without ODO reset. Simple rectangular cutout sneak peek.... ODO reset will be added and other revisions before I go full cnc production... Rear cover box will be up next week.

[67c10rustbuket]

Originally Posted by ls1nova71

Wow Dan, that really looks good, but you're going to have to stop, you're making me look bad!

I also thought of making the face out of metal, but didn't have a way to cut out the odometer opening neatly enough. The up side to doing it is you could eliminate the trip odometer and ot would make things a little easier. One tip ill give you though, if you do it, the metal will need to be really thin. If its too thick, the odometer will be too far from the face of the speedo and won't look right. When I first started trying things I tried to use the original face, but since it kind of tapers in around the odometer opening, it just didn't look right.

Keep up the good work, and later this week I should have some more progress and some more pics of the process to post.

I was thinking I could make a steel face to attach the decal to but now that I look at it it would be a PITA. I was thinking of eliminating the clear plastic and the black face but it would not be very easy due to the thickness of the clear plastic. The depth would be out of place as you said. arrrrrgh well for now I will go forward with the S10 clear plastic and black face. How do you re-attach the face with the decal? glue??

[wgeyer88]

Originally Posted by 67c10rustbuket

Version 1.2, without ODO reset. Simple rectangular cutout sneak peek.... ODO reset will be added and other revisions before I go full cnc production... Rear cover box will be up next week.

Does this mean they will be available for purchase? You can add me to the list if they are! That is one clean looking plate! My fabricated plate didn't turn out nearly as nice as yours, I think I lack some of the patience involved in fabricating a nice plate.

[67c10rustbuket]

Originally Posted by wgeyer88

Does this mean they will be available for purchase? You can add me to the list if they are! That is one clean looking plate! My fabricated plate didn't turn out nearly as nice as yours, I think I lack some of the patience involved in fabricating a nice plate.

Yeah I will make some more. I initially wanted to design and program these so I could knock them out whenever I needed (hypothetically as if I built anything fast ) I can make enough for everyone who ordered a kit from ls1nova pretty cheap. I am not a businessman or trying to get rich just a hyper anal guy with access to some machines. It will be cheap, I have to pay for the raw material but otherwise its just me goofing around in my spare time at work. I usually make parts for air conditioners....I should have my design finished in two weeks. Anyway sorry for the hijack, back to the instructions from ls1nova.

[ChevyCruizer]

Originally Posted by 67c10rustbuket

How do you re-attach the face with the decal? glue??

I think he is reusing the two tiny screws from the C10 speedo.

If you do end up making some of those plates please add me to the list. I picked up the S10 cluster/parts but am on the next list to get the "kit" from ls1nova71