Canadian Gague Cluster

[SanitysBane]

Hey all, what year gague cluster would fit in my 83 truck? not to worried about the oil gague. And does any one have one that reads in Kph that would fit?

thanks

[78SilveradoSWB]

Why do you want a Canadian gauge(correct spelling) cluster? Do you just want the 160 kph speedometer? Just look for the speedometer itself from a like year, 1983. Is yours a mechanical speedo, or electronic?

[Russell]

His speedo might have the little green thing for the cruise on it...

[SanitysBane]

russell-no it does not have cruise control

mitch-my gague is mechanical, and because none of my gagues work anyways, so might as well replace the thing as a unit. also besides e-bay, were can i get just the speedometer?

[SanitysBane]

Sanity, if you're wanting to do a conversion to an earlier style bezel, I could provide a dash bezel plug and the plastic wiring sheet from a 76. I also have the dash backing, its painted chrome, and missing one mounting tab (really doesn't matter though, the one in my truck also has the same missing tab with no issues...) I could throw in the fuel gauge for it, but you'd need to find a speedo that doesn't have any idiot lights on it though... It had a 100 mph speedo in it, but I sold it a long time, wrecked / sold the rest of the gauges too.

The gauge pod has two idiot lights, one big one in the place of the lower left small gauge for the parking brake, and the other as the seatbelt reminder light behind the fuel gauge. So yeah, you could technically use your current speedo, and just put the little mask for your current idiot lights in, and just have them do nothing...

Lemme know if you are interested here, and I can better describe what I am thinking as far as the gauge pod goes (for example, you'll have to convert the setup to / from amp to / from volts)

I can also throw in the sender for a stock oil pressure gauge, but I don't have the gauge anymore...

PS... I do infact have a 160 km/h speedo if you want it... But I'm not too sure why you wouldn't just get a 100 mph speedo-russell



what im mainly looking for is the 160 kph, but like i said none of my other gagues work, and the ones that do are extremly iffy, so i would prefer to get the hole unit. and would your 160 kph gague fit on my 83?

y'all can call me bo jangles, its my nickname that every one calls me by

[sixty8chev]

I'm willin to sell this hurtin unit, I might keep the temp, oil and amp gauge,to use in the cab I'm swappin on my truck though.
Its outta my 79, if its any use to you let me know.
And while I got the picture posted, can anybody tell me why my tach sits at 1200 when the trucks turned off?

[Russell]

If Sanity don't want it, I'm definitly interested! How much?

If you sell me that tach dash, I'll buy / build sanity a complete gauge setup with his mech oil pressure sender, and all electric other gauges with a labelled wiring harness for him so he just has to cut wires and swap them over...

I don't care about it missing gauges, I can stick gauges from my truck into it

[SanitysBane]

well THIS is interesting

russell-how much is a russell products gague cluster?

[Russell]

As much as it costs me to make (dirt cheap, my wrecking yard is real generous that way)

I'll set you up with a 160 km/h speedo (have it), oil pressure gauge (what pressure rating?), volt gauge (need to buy), temp gauge (need to buy) and a fuel level gauge (have)

It'll all be put into a chrome painted dash bezel from a 76 GMC 3/4 ton (have it) and will have two idiot lights -- Big brake light, and small seat belt warning light. It'll also come with a wiring diagram so you know what color on the bezel harness needs to be hooked up to what wire on your truck's harness. You'll wind up with some extra wires due to some idiot lights that will be dropped such as the choke light, and 4x4 light. The only thing that you'll need is the clear lense out front as those are near impossible to find without being fogged up and or broken... The bezel has a broken tab on the left, just like the tach dash bezel. Oh yeah, I'll also include a good oil pressure sending unit, and if I can find one in decent shape, the oil pressure line.

Basically, I'll need to buy three gauges, and a couple of light bulbs / holders and some gauge pole clips, which will be very cheap (like 20 bucks from the wreckers for everything, unless I can't find the oil PSI level gauge you want)

Depending on how much the shipping is, I may ask for some help in that area as well (something like half of it if its over 20 cnd)

[SanitysBane]

all right man, lets do it, i basically need the highest oil presure u can, a 80 psi would be great, it might be better to have an eletric gague, but im not to picky. just the highest that you can posibly find. and will the clear lense from my 83 fit on this 76 cluster? thanks a whole lot man,

[78SilveradoSWB]

Originally Posted by sixty8chev

And while I got the picture posted, can anybody tell me why my tach sits at 1200 when the trucks turned off?

Mine does the same thing when I turn the engine off. But when I turn the key to the position before start, it goes back to 0 rpm. Must be some residual voltage in the line or something.

[sixty8chev]

Well ain't this interesting, maybe we can start a bidding war? Jokin, I have no idea what its worth and i much prefer havin a big aftermarket tach on the column where i can see it, I'm probably not gonna have time to pull it out till next week but if you want any of the wiring or stuff with it let me know cause this whole cab is goin to the crusher. So make me an offer or if ya wanna do some junkyard huntin and find me a decent size aftermarket tach and one of those underdash units with the three gauges in it we could work something out.
And like i said before, when its off the guage sits at 1200 but when ya fire it up the tach works fine.

[Russell]

Hmm, I hate giving offers... Got an asking price? I'm only really interested in your dash's small fuel gauge and the tach, along with the tach's complete wiring harness.

I'll look and see what I can build you when I get some free time tommorow afternoon.

[SanitysBane]

ok, thanks a ton man

[NeCrOmAnCeR]

The reason our tachs "drift" up after the power is turned off has to do with the movement. The circuit that drives the "movement" is a frequency to voltage conversion circuit. It drives the twin coils of the tach movement in opposition to give the appropriate needle reading for the speed of the engine. When power is cut various components discharge at slightly different rates (capacitors) and cause the two coils to be unbalanced, thus the needle drifts. Newer cars which use digital movements have a self zero (for lack of a better description) feature which "parks" the movement at zero when the power is killed.

[dswancutt]

Russell & Bo Jangles

I hate to rain on your parade, but I checked the GM parts manual, and the cases for the instrument cluster are different between a truck with gauges and one without gauges. Also, 1976 is a transition year where the speedometer went from one warning light at the bottom to two warning lights at the bottom. And a word of caution on the wiring harnesses. I know for a fact that on 78-79 Chevy’s, the wire locations are different on the cluster plug between a truck with gauges and one without. I don’t know if this is true for other years, but it is something to consider. I would suggest that you pull the entire harness from your parts truck, and remove the wires if possible from the junction box on the firewall instead of cutting wires. I don’t want to sound like it’s not possible, but to let you know of some of the problems might face.

Doug

[plumbcut]

Ive never seen the metric (canadian) guages.. anyone got a close-up?

pc

[SanitysBane]

doug, what are you talking about exactly, a truck with or with out gauges?

[Russell]

Hey Doug, thanks for the heads up, but I've already taken all of this into consideration

I'll be dropping a few of his idiot lights, and setting him up with a custom wiring diagram that will be correct. It'll be a complete custom job =)

The gauge setup I have now has an amp gauge, that will be converted to a volt gauge to be correct with his 81, and I will send him a wiring diagram that he cannot possibly mess up to hook it up safely, and correctly =)

[SanitysBane]

lol, don't doubt the power of backwoods enginering russell! and its an 83

[1FaastC10]

i guess i'm still not completely understanding this mod. Sanity, you live in Texas, Texas is part of the United States. we measure our distance here in miles, not kilometers. the speedo is going to be way off.

[SanitysBane]

it has miles in the inside, its mainly to confuse people

[Russell]

Ok, got your cluster almost together. I need a volt gauge, oil gauge and temp gauge to finish off the gauges part of it. I'm also needing a couple lights & bases, one lense to fill in the idiot light hole in the speedo (this dash won't have any lights in there, just putting a lense in to make it look that way.

So yeah, now I can figure out your wiring as soon as I get my wiring harness plug =)

BTW -- I dunno if I can get you your 80 PSI gauge, they came on Diesel C30 trucks, and I'd need the Diesel sender as well, which I cannot find anywhere, unfortunately... will a 60 PSI mech gauge with a sender be alright?

[SanitysBane]

yeah a 60 will be fine. i would prefer if you could find one an eletrical gague, because it won't hurt the eletrical gague to much if i peg it out, like it will a mech gague, but im not picky.

[Russell]

Hmm, Just thinking here -- I won't be needing the dash from my 80 after I get the tach dash setup, and my 80 has all electrical gauges, why don't I just send you the one from my 80?

I can put the 160 km/h speedo into my dash, along with the color matching fuel gauge, then ship it all down after my tach dash is installed... Technically, it should be plug and play, the only difference that I can think of is that if your 83 has cruise, the speedo won't have the little green box on the back for you to be able to use it.