Idiot lights be gone

[Abrams]

Hi, I've been wanting to swap out my current idiot light dash with one with those little gauges. Does anyone know what the actual wiring differences are? Also anyone know if I would need to change the senders as well?
Thanks
A

[Nitekruizer]

Hi, I've been wanting to swap out my current idiot light dash with one with those little gauges. Does anyone know what the actual wiring differences are? Also anyone know if I would need to change the senders as well?
Thanks
A

You would have to change your oil sending unit and temperature sending unit for sure. The fuel gauge and sender should still be the same. The alternator (charging circuit) is wired slightly different in trucks that have gauges than in trucks with idiot lights, so you would have to do some rewiring there. I don't know if the wiring harness to the dash is different though.

[mnkeeking]

Two ways to accomplish what you desire. For about $40 you can get a set of aftermarket gauges at Oreilly's or similar. The kit has an ammeter, and mechanical oil pressure and water temperature gauges. Easy to wire, instructions included, but I recommend you either visit a hardware store and get proper copper tubing or buy a premade braided stainless AN hose from JEGS or similar because the cheap mechanical gauges come with plastic tubing which is terrible under the hood. Upside: no rewire required, you'll have two sets of warnings, the lights and the gauges. Downside: cheap gauges made in China, but I will replace with quality gauges when the time comes. In the meantime, I can monitor pressure and temperature without breaking the bank. This is what I've done. Second way, you can replace the idiot lights in the instrument cluster with actual gauges. I have a few instrument clusters around and noticed that putting gauges in an idiot light configuration will require some modding of the gauge housing unless you have a gauge cluster to swap out. Gauges are powered, but once again not a really big deal unless you want to wire the new gauges into your existing wire harness. You can wire the new gauges directly without disturbing your harness, but you'll have a few extra wires to tuck away. Main difference is that lights ground themselves and gauges have to be grounded with their own wiring.

Easiest thing to do is use aftermarket gauges, although it's not the cleanest looking install you'll ever do. If you use the cheap gauges keep in mind that they're cheap gauges and you'll be fine. Been running cheap gauges for over a year and they work fine. Mid-range in ease of installation would be finding a cluster at the junkyard that has the gauges you want, add a few wires for power and ground, change your sending units over to gauged vice warning light models, leave the harness alone and drive on. Toughest would be using an idiot light cluster, fitting gauges (which are very expensive new) that you can find at the junkyard, modding the cluster housing, changing your sending units (which you'll have to do either way) and rewiring ground, power and sending unit through your instrument cluster connector so you have no extra wiring. Doing it this way is the cleanest. I wanted to do the same thing you want to do, but realized the mod was too much work for too little return. I like having lights AND gauges so I won't miss anything important happening. You can buy an adjustable oil pressure sending unit so you can set the light to go off at whatever pressure you like as an early warning and then you'll have the aftermarket gauge to show where the pressure is at numerically, more or less, you remember they're cheap gauges, right?

Take care,
Joe

Lisa: Because I used a Craftsman model 1019 Laboratory Edition Signature Series torque wrench. The kind used by Caltech high energy physicists. And NASA engineers.
Vinny Gambini: Well, in that case, how can you be sure THAT's accurate?
Lisa: Because a split second before the torque wrench was applied to the faucet handle, it had been calibrated by top members of the state AND federal Department of Weights and Measures... to be dead on balls accurate!

[sargentrs]

I can save you a trip to the junk yard. I've got my '70 cluster sitting around getting dusty. Everything worked when I pulled it out. I'm putting in an F600 panel so I don't need it. Pay for the ride and its yours.