Tach or Not to Tach, gads what a question

[johnmw]

Been trying to work all the bugs out of this 97 Ranger. The Instrument cluster has been some what damaged and some of it don't work, could be the amount of glue the previous owner used putting it back together. Looking at the local salvage yards the clusters I'm being offered all have a tack, the one in my rig doesn't. Can I install a gauge set with a tach where the one that came out did not have one ?. I'm kinda surprised that a 1997 XLT did not have a tach. Maybe the 4cyl and 5 speed didn't deserve one ?.

Thanks for any input

John

 

[sgtsandman]

The wiring and connections should be the same whether your truck had a tachometer or not. It's cheaper for the manufacturer to make one harness for every trim model than separate ones. So, they minimize that as much as possible. A tachometer equipped instrument cluster should just plug in and work. Before you do the swap. make sure the previous owner didn't damage the wire harness in some way. If the cluster is broken, they might have broken more than just the cluster.

 

[RonD]

+1 ^^^^

1996 to 2003 Ranger/mazda clusters are play and play with or without Tach, wiring is there regardless

Since yours was a 4cyl from the factory the Tach ground wiring should be plug and play

 

[Shran]

It's cheaper for the manufacturer to make one harness for every trim model than separate ones.

I wish this was true for first gens... tach swap would be very easy... but nooooooooo! They were wired differently and the plugs are even different.

I think second gen trucks and up no longer have this issue but I could be mistaken.

 

[RonD]

1st gen's had "real" oil pressure gauges