I am taking pictures, and I'll try and get a good post up for a how to. I
haven't really seen one. There may already be one though. I did some
pretty good searching last night, and saw a lot of tips, and a lot of FAQ's
but no real how to. I don't have my truck back yet (a friend in need is borrowing
it) or it would already be installed.

This is what I have so far...

First things first, this thing has been sitting in a junkyard for no telling how long.
You gotta clean it up while it out of the truck.


I used some plexiglass cleaner to clean the outside glass. It helped with some
of the small scratches and what not. I deliberately took the photos with the
light hitting it to show the difference.



Take it apart and clean the faces with a micro fibre cloth so you don't scratch
them up. They are very delicate. Get all the dust, and clean inside the cover oo.



Put it back together and you get somthing that looks like this.



I'll edit this tonight, when I get done putting the gauges in the truck.

 

post pics when it's done

 

Coooooool....! If you get it to work, I will definitely try this one on mine.

 

don't forget to to change your oil pressure sensor.

 

Got it. $27.99 at Autozone. Not too shabby. Got my truck back from my
friend last night after I fixed her car. I can now commence on making my
truck just THAT much better. Should have pics this evening.

Tach may not work right, as the cluster is out of a V6 truck. I may have to
do some work on it.

 

I have that same surge protector. I have tape over the aux1 and aux2 instead of actually on the button. But its the same idea.

 

Arent the connectors totally different? How are you gonna make it work? Im doing an engine swap from my 86 5spd to a 87 automatic SR5 body and the wiring is sooo different :cry: Can someone explain the oil sensor to me? sorry for the hijack

 

Never mind... I just did a seach and it wont be a problem for me (Im using my old dash) But are your connectors the same?! Thanks!

 

I had to find one for a V6 with the automatic to make it work in my 88. I had to buy the sending unit and went ahead and installed new bulbs while I had it out. OH dont buy the autozone brand bulbs, they do not last! My tach works great. My temp gauge is goofy though it doesnt register till the engine warms up, then goes right to the middle!

 

Hopefully I will be able to document everything with photos for anyone else who might
want to do this. Oil sending unit and all. I was going to start tonight, but since I worked
on a car all night last night, I have to do the Valentine's Day thing with the wife tonight.



So maybe the day after. Either way, I am going to try and document it all.

edit: Oh, by the way, I didn't realize that this was a v6 truck the cluster
came from until I took it apart. If you look at the top of the speedo, you will
see the number 18. If you look at the top of the tach, you will see the number
19. It is a little smaller than the speedo one. Just to the right of that 19 are
red letters that say 6cyl. Its hard to see in the photo, but its there.

Anyone know the redline on the 22RE?

 

I am in the process of tackling the same as well.

My main concern is, where am I going to connect the tach?

Ilovemountains, where did you connect the tach wire to?

Are the odometers interchangeable?

I tried reseting the donor's odometer and was unsuccesful but in the process, I bended and scratched some digits. I am now hoping I can just swap the current odometer for the donor's one.

 

I can probably tell you how to do it via PM if you like. You'll notice I rolled 20,000 off
mine. I need to do another 2,000 to make it accurate. I don't know if I will go to the
trouble of doing it. I only put 5,000 a year on the truck.

 

Sure, that would be cool.

The donor has 144,457

I have 122,000.

I can spin all the digits in the donor's odometer except the four in the ten-thousands place.

Believe me, I tried.

 

Okay, it's complete. Here are the photos and the basic "how-to".

I'll just leave the first post with the preliminary photos of cleaning it up and
making it ready to go in the hole. I kept these photos kind of small. Can you
thumbnail on this site?

#1. The ugly, standard, boring old gauge cluster. At least I had orange lights.




#2. The new oil pressure sending unit. Autozone $26.99


#3. The stock location of the sending unit. There is a rubber boot covering it.
This is on the passenger side of the engine, just under the oil filter.


#4. Rubber cover removed to expose the stock "idiot light" sending unit. I used
a 1-1/16 socket to remove this after I unhooked the clip for the wire.


#5. New sending unit installed. I used teflon tape on the threads, and the
little clip that was hooked straight on the old unit, slid sideways on this one
perfectly.

 

#6. These photos show the locations of the screws to remove. I don't know if
you really have to remove the 2 little tiny ones on the top of the cluster, but
I hate having to find out the hard way. Out they came.








#7. Remove the fascia that surrounds the gauge cluster.


#8. Remove the screws that hold the gauge cluster into the dash.

 

#9. Reach behind the cluster and remove the cable that connects to the
speedo. This take a little effort.


#10. Speedo cable and empty dash.



#11. Can you tell the difference? It isn't much. I hope it works. This is where
you do anything like checking light bulbs or swapping your orange ones for the
stock green ones. I did that here. I needed 3 orange ones. I only had 2.


#12. New cluster re-connected with all the stock plugs. Plug n play. Don't
forget to re-connect the speedo cable. Again... it takes some effort.


#13. All connected, and its time to check the lights and gauges.



#14. Lights? Check. Tach? Check. Volts, Oil, Fuel? Check.


#15. Button the dash back up in the opposite order you took it apart. Check
all your screws, and watch the needle on the temp gauge rise. Pat yourself
on the back for a job well done, and grab yourself a beer. You deserve it!!



Take pictures!!! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions...

~castrol

 

For some reason I like that set of gauges alot more then the ones in my truck right now. Great write up and pictures. It looks great!

 

Are there any wires you have to run for the tach or are they already there from the original gagues but not used?

 

wow, thats awesome!

 

How did you connect the tach and where to?