Gauge Cluster Swap

[LateOnTheBrakes]

Forgive me if this has been covered before but I am not coming up with anything when I search. My truck is an 86 CUCV. The "diesel fuel only" gas gauge and the dummy lights for the two generators are of little use to me. I want a setup with the unleaded gas, oil pressure, water temp, battery voltage, and ideally a tach. I was able to find a gauge cluster from a gas truck that has most of the gauges I want.

I hoped each gauge would have a harness going to each gauge. But it looks like a printed circuit board on the back of the gauge cluster.

Is the gauge cluster plug and play or do I need to swap the wiring?

Can I leave my stock cluster/odometer and swap in the individual gauges? Do they all use a common sending voltage like 0-5V or 4-20mA so that the gauges are interchangeable?

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Bextreme04]

The answer to all of that is... it depends. I am doing an L29 Vortec 454/4L80E using an LS1 0411 PCM swap and wanted the electric speedo w/trip gauge and Tach. I managed to find a 90 Suburban speedo cluster locally for $60 and a Tach cluster locally for $70. I ordered a new clear gauge lens for $35 from LMC and when that arrives I'm putting it all together into one cluster and will need to re-pin and rewire the factory connector to match. I'm still cleaning and modifying it, but I can probably post up some pics later today or tomorrow.

You can just re-pin what is currently there for the fuel gauge and cluster lights. Other than that, you probably dont have the wires in the connector for any of the other gauges. You will probably need to run a signal wire for the oil pressure and coolant temp sensors. Generally chevy motors have the ECU coolant temp sensor in the intake manifold and the gauge temp sensor mounted in one of the cylinder heads. You should be able to just get the correct gauge sending units for a square body truck and wire them all the way to the gauge cluster.

 

[LateOnTheBrakes]

Oh, I know where the sensors and senders are. I just don't know what to do with the gauge cluster and the printed circuit board. What do you mean by re-pin? The connector that goes into the gauge cluster or the actual board where the gauge attaches?

 

[HotRodPC]

Oh, I know where the sensors and senders are. I just don't know what to do with the gauge cluster and the printed circuit board. What do you mean by re-pin? The connector that goes into the gauge cluster or the actual board where the gauge attaches?

It means you move the pins and the wires in the cluster harness connector so the correct wires are in the correct location in the connector.

 

[Vbb199]

Forgive me if this has been covered before but I am not coming up with anything when I search. My truck is an 86 CUCV. The "diesel fuel only" gas gauge and the dummy lights for the two generators are of little use to me. I want a setup with the unleaded gas, oil pressure, water temp, battery voltage, and ideally a tach. I was able to find a gauge cluster from a gas truck that has most of the gauges I want.

I hoped each gauge would have a harness going to each gauge. But it looks like a printed circuit board on the back of the gauge cluster.

Is the gauge cluster plug and play or do I need to swap the wiring?

Can I leave my stock cluster/odometer and swap in the individual gauges? Do they all use a common sending voltage like 0-5V or 4-20mA so that the gauges are interchangeable?

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

I just went thru all this on my k5.

For oil pressure, gas level, and coolant temp, you have a negative, positive, and a sender/signal wire.

Follow the printer circuit boards on each gauge, you'll find a large area with "+" on it, and a large area of "-" on it.
And then at each gauge on the printed circuit you will find "oil" "temp", "fuel"

Follow those circuits back to the primary bulkhead where the cluster plug goes.

In order to repin your harness, stick a paperclip in behind the copper pin on each of the cluster plugs, pull it right out, you can then bend the tab back up to re-pin it.

I can tell you, at least on the NON cucv trucks, pink wires with a black stripe will be your ignition's 12v source, black will be ground.


To answer your question on voltages, they're all 12v input to the gauges except the GAS gauge, which uses a 0-90 ohm's reading to move the needle.
0= empty
90= full,

Still has a 12v ground and hot, but the signal wire moves the needle using resistance.

 

[Ron Sebastian]

Will something like this work for you. You provide the volts, water temp and oil pressure and speedo, kit provides tach and small gas gauge and all other pictured. I have a brand new kit for ya if it works.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[AuroraGirl]

Will something like this work for you. You provide the volts, water temp and oil pressure and speedo, kit provides tach and small gas gauge and all other pictured. I have a brand new kit for ya if it works.

You must be registered for see images attach

Where is that kit from

 

[bucket]

Where is that kit from

Looks like an LMC diagram and part #.

 

[Ron Sebastian]

Where is that kit from

LMC Tach Conversion Kit. When available they are listed for $299.95. Since the guy that was making them for LMC passed away, who knows when they would be available again.

 

[Ron Sebastian]

I still have a complete brand new kit if someone needs it.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Oh

 

[gmachinz]

I just ordered an 81-up style tach from LMC last week for a cluster I restored for a customer so they are getting them from somewhere.

 

[TPISly-C10]

i try to find a C60-C70 cluster for tach with small fuel gauge!

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[AuroraGirl]

I just ordered an 81-up style tach from LMC last week for a cluster I restored for a customer so they are getting them from somewhere.

the website says backordered

 

[gmachinz]

Theres one on Ebay still.