Where to find factory tach?

[SMiller]

I really like the look of the factory tach in these trucks. I have never seen one in person but have caught a glimpse of a couple in pictures on here. What trucks are you guys getting these out of and what all is involved in installing\swapping out? Did you have to get a certain combo in a truck to have this option? Thanks guys!

[old Rusty C10]

most of us are finding tach dashes in our local boneyards or on Ebay and going that route.... sometimes youll find em in our classified section here

[b454rat]

I have 7 sets of factory tach dashs. Want to keep one set for my crew cab, but the others are all for sale.

One is from an 82 truck, which is the newer font, and the others are all 79 and older.

[N2TRUX]

b454rat- If you want to list the items you have For Sale please do it in the Classified Forum. Do not turn this in to a "Wanted to Buy" and "For Sale" post or it will be locked.

[b454rat]

I wasn't trying to sell them, since he never saw one, thought I post some up.

[3r!c84]

PM sent

[truckfan]

lots of C60 and C 65s have them. i do not know how compatabale they are. i also know there are compatability issues among different years

[b454rat]

I swapped a cluster from a 79 into my old 87, only wiring issue was the tach wires. IIRC I had to mix and match gauges, the 79 had the mech oil gauge whereas the 87 was electric.

Funny you say C60 and such, all but one are from regular pickups. There is still one tach dash in a yard here that is in a big truck that I need to get. Big trucks are easy to spot, only ones to have the fuel gauge with the tach.

[sierra4x4]

My truck came with a factory tach but I swapped it for one from a c60. I perfer the c60 clusters better becouse the fuel gauge is easier to read and they offer either a vacuum gauge or a air pressure gauge. Here is mine.

[b454rat]

I think the C60s are cool as well. The one that I have has a bad tach motor, and one company wants $200 to get it fixed. I want to get one from my crew and put the factory clock, or maybe the vacuum...

[68 TT]

There was a post on here where a guy retrofit an 82 to 89 Camaro tach into his truck. They showed everything you need to so to install it and make it work.

The gauge is the same diameter and fit the look pretty well. Not exactly a bolt in but not too bad considering how common the Camaro's are and how rare the functional truck tach's are. All Camaro's of this vintage had the tach and gauges so all you have to do is find a V-8 car so it is calibrated properly.

Biggest problem is the Camaro had the oil pressure gauge integrated into the tach so he swapped in the fuel level gauge from the Camaro after a little trimming work.

I found that a van fuel gauge fits right into our cluster in place of the stock truck oil pressure gauge and will allow you to run the Camaro tach & oil pressure gauge untouched in our dash.

When I finish all the work I will post up some pics of what has to be done to go this route.

[grinch4om]

that C60 gauge package is the cool

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by SMiller

Did you have to get a certain combo in a truck to have this option? Thanks guys!

They were available to anyone who knew which box to check; sadly, I can't remember which box that was!

I know gages were RPO Z53 but I can't remember the RPO for the tach itself.

EDIT: U16 - I believe that was the tach RPO for my truck.

Here's mine:

Originally Posted by 68 TT

There was a post on here where a guy retrofit an 82 to 89 Camaro tach into his truck. They showed everything you need to so to install it and make it work.

The gauge is the same diameter and fit the look pretty well. Not exactly a bolt in but not too bad considering how common the Camaro's are and how rare the functional truck tach's are. All Camaro's of this vintage had the tach and gauges so all you have to do is find a V-8 car so it is calibrated properly.

Biggest problem is the Camaro had the oil pressure gauge integrated into the tach so he swapped in the fuel level gauge from the Camaro after a little trimming work.

I found that a van fuel gauge fits right into our cluster in place of the stock truck oil pressure gauge and will allow you to run the Camaro tach & oil pressure gauge untouched in our dash.

When I finish all the work I will post up some pics of what has to be done to go this route.

I did something similar: my Chevelle came with the gage cluster but it did not include an oil pressure gage. I retrofit a Chevy truck diesel gage into the location where the Chevelle clock used to reside. You can see it in the upper RH corner of the cluster. I had to paint the needle orange and then cover the bottom portion of the gage with those little "covers" (that you can see in the gas gage and temp gage). I took that little cover piece into "AC" (as in "AC Spark Plug") and had them letter it to match the originals



Also - the tach shown in the car has 82-89 IROC tach guts loaded onto my original tach face, FWIW. They had the same RPM range and sweep (ie, 7000 rpm through 270 degrees) as my original tach, so I used that as a repair when my original tach quit working.

K

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

They were available to anyone who knew which box to check; sadly, I can't remember which box that was!

I know gages were RPO Z53 but I can't remember the RPO for the tach itself.

EDIT: U16 - I believe that was the tach RPO for my truck.

Here's mine:





I did something similar: my Chevelle came with the gage cluster but it did not include an oil pressure gage. I retrofit a Chevy truck diesel gage into the location where the Chevelle clock used to reside. You can see it in the upper RH corner of the cluster. I had to paint the needle orange and then cover the bottom portion of the gage with those little "covers" (that you can see in the gas gage and temp gage). I took that little cover piece into "AC" (as in "AC Spark Plug") and had them letter it to match the originals



Also - the tach shown in the car has 82-89 IROC tach guts loaded onto my original tach face, FWIW. They had the same RPM range and sweep (ie, 7000 rpm through 270 degrees) as my original tach, so I used that as a repair when my original tach quit working.

K

I was thinking about making a vinyl overlay for the Camaro tach that pulled the numbers in closer to the center so it matched the truck speedometer better and cleared the dash trim plate a little better.

The Camaro's came with 60 psi and 80 psi oil pressure gauges too so if your motor has been fit with a high volume oil pump you can find the higher pressure gauge to use so its range matches your engine better. The LS series engine swaps could use the 80 psi range too.

[Keith Seymore]

Yep - that's an 80 psi gage in there (that's what the diesel trucks used).

K

[68 TT]

That just got me thinking. You could take the Camaro tach guts and place them behind a spare truck large fuel level gauge with a vinyl overlay to show the tach markings. This way it would completely bolt into the truck gauge carrier. You could leave the truck oil pressure gauge where it sits stock and just add the van fuel level gauge in the blank spot in the corner where the optional clock goes. Much simpler wiring changes but you wouldn't be able to run the dash mounted clock.

I will try to get another Camaro tach and another truck gauge cluster to play with. Most modern radios have a clock built into them so it's not like you really need the dash clock any more.

If none of my quartz clocks work I might just go this route instead.

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Yep - that's an 80 psi gage in there (that's what the diesel trucks used).

K

The diesel trucks also used a 240 degree water temp gauge instead of the 260 degree range one in the gas trucks.

Any idea of the range that the older C - H temp gauge senders operated in?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

The diesel trucks also used a 240 degree water temp gauge instead of the 260 degree range one in the gas trucks.

Any idea of the range that the older C - H temp gauge senders operated in?

Not for sure, but probably the same.

K

[68 TT]

I just noticed that the Camaro tach has the hash marks on the outside diameter and not the inside like the trucks. It would be pretty simple to put new hash marks on the inside edge of the numbers then scrub the hash marks off the outside edge and repaint the area.

Install the shorter stock truck fuel level gauge needle and you could still read the numbers and it would match the speedometer needle.

[bobwires]

I need one! I'm looking for a '78 dash w/ tach for a customer's truck I'm building up. Anybody have one, or know of one? Ebay hasn't had any for a bit....

[b454rat]

I just listed one...

[bobwires]

got a link?

[SMiller]

Just go to e-bay and type in Chevy factory tach gauge cluster, with a little work you will pop it up, I found it real easy. I won't put a link up because the mod. on here is our everyones a$$.

[DBLSPRT68]

Here's a pick of mine before I installed the new bezel. It's from a C40 big truck. You'll notice I removed the air pressure guage on the left and installed my factory clock. It looks factory and works perfect. This was a bolt in plug and play set-up. The clock install was a little more, adding a mount from another cluster for the clock screw to hold on to. I was afraid to do this years ago, but had a fellow member here help me out. David

[SMiller]

Looks great! Could I just swap the tach into my pre existing cluster? I would like to keep my original speedo. The fuel gauge looks like it would be less effort to keep a eye on being under the tach.


Any pictures of it finished up with the dash put back together?