The answer to one of our burning questions

[Twister]

Ok, so I'll update this at the request of 85_Ranger4x4.

My ultimate finding was that the plugs were wrong. The left hand head is part of the cluster body and cannot be removed for individual replacement. Also, the plug cavities in the body were different between the two. The pinouts were all sorts of wrong and the plug bodies were barely even the same shape, it wasn't even possible to jam the plug into the hole.

Given that I already wanted to take my dash out to clean and the 1st gen dash is not at all hard to remove I installed the dash harness from my donor truck as well as the instrument cluster after swapping my speedo head (I don't like the 88MY font on the odometer and that odometer actually pretty closely represents the real mileage on the engine I installed), and it works perfectly.

Unfortunately it looks like the swap is not plug and play, it would seem from what I found that you need the cluster and the harness. I didn't dig into possibly re-wiring the harness at all though. I also am not sure that it isn't a model year change since my donor truck was an 88 and the one I was putting parts on was an 87.

That's sad to hear

I really wanted the look of the stock tach, but i dont want to swap the harnesses over. Thanks for looking into it

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Hmm, apoun hearing this I might try to repin the connector. There is only 18 slots in it afterall. My brother is stuck at home with nothing to do with his work computer... I might see if I can sic him on it to find the pinouts for both tach and tachless connectors.

I thoughtfully cut the connecters off the donar truck just in case, so I can't really go back and pull the dash harness hoping to come out ahead that way... and in my experiance factory tachs are kind of rare, this is the second one I have seen. The first was faded out and the truck had been rolled so none of the doors would open.

There is one locating tab that is different between the clusters, I have pics of both styles in my thread. Otherwise the plug sockets look identical to me, probably a safegaurd to keep a monkey in the factory from putting the wrong cluster in the wrong truck.

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1084504#post1084504

 

[Psychopete]

and stay there until I hit a bump or tap on the cluster lens?

If you tap on the cluster lens and it resolves, either there is a bad connection in the dash plugs (depending on the tap) - but corrosion does happen there, or an issue with the cluster itself. Sometimes just taking it apart makes it clear what is wrong.



I have gone through the wiring in my '88 and really if you had to reroute to the plugs, it wouldn't be impossible, but a decent effort. I would do it if that was my goal. It's not uncommon to see custom clusters in gen-1s, relatively easy to do. EVTM will have a lot of the answers, shit is different

 

[LIMA BEAN]

Funny I was doing a search about it this morning and there is a few good threads on it, i will try to re find the one i thought was pretty good.

 

[Twister]

Hmm, apoun hearing this I might try to repin the connector. There is only 18 slots in it afterall. My brother is stuck at home with nothing to do with his work computer... I might see if I can sic him on it to find the pinouts for both tach and tachless connectors.

I thoughtfully cut the connecters off the donar truck just in case, so I can't really go back and pull the dash harness hoping to come out ahead that way... and in my experiance factory tachs are kind of rare, this is the second one I have seen. The first was faded out and the truck had been rolled so none of the doors would open.

There is one locating tab that is different between the clusters, I have pics of both styles in my thread. Otherwise the plug sockets look identical to me, probably a safegaurd to keep a monkey in the factory from putting the wrong cluster in the wrong truck.

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1084504#post1084504

I see factory tachs all the time, mostly in B2's because i usually only look at those when i am at u pull it. I assume they have the same wiring.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I see factory tachs all the time, mostly in B2's because i usually only look at those when i am at u pull it. I assume they have the same wiring.

Never there when I am there

 

[Twister]

Never there when I am there

Do you go to the one that is on 60th and something? I dont go to that one, there is another one right outside of carter lake, thats the one i go to since it is about 5-10 minute drive where as the 60th one is about a 20min drive from me.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Do you go to the one that is on 60th and something? I dont go to that one, there is another one right outside of carter lake, thats the one i go to since it is about 5-10 minute drive where as the 60th one is about a 20min drive from me.

They are all forever and a day from me, I go to the 60th ones because I am more familiar with the area. I like the second yard right by it for a fallback if I can't find what I need... and really I have only been on a passive search for a tach.

I had time to fall in love with the one I got as I was ripping the wiper switch, horn contact and turn signal lever out of a very clean '88 that took a hard hit in the side of the bed.

 

[straycat]

I have seen a few Rangers and a few Chevy trucks with an added on aftermarket Tach (Autometer, etc.) and they look really nice mounted on the piller with a nice housing. That is anohter thing you guys can do if you wanted to do it. Everybody is different of course, but if I did not have a tach I would just get one of the aftermarket tachs.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I have seen a few Rangers and a few Chevy trucks with an added on aftermarket Tach (Autometer, etc.) and they look really nice mounted on the piller with a nice housing. That is anohter thing you guys can do if you wanted to do it. Everybody is different of course, but if I did not have a tach I would just get one of the aftermarket tachs.

I have a small one between the two gauge pods, but I prefer the size, look and location of the factory one.

I don't think switching wires around and maybe adding one or two will be that bad, only 324 ways to scew it up. I have a cluster of each style to trace what goes to where so I can have a diagram beforehand.

The hardest part IMO will be changing the blankety blank oil pressure sender back to a switch.

 

[Twister]

I have a small one between the two gauge pods, but I prefer the size, look and location of the factory one.

I don't think switching wires around and maybe adding one or two will be that bad, only 324 ways to scew it up. I have a cluster of each style to trace what goes to where so I can have a diagram beforehand.

The hardest part IMO will be changing the blankety blank oil pressure sender back to a switch.

So do you think it can be done without swapping dash harnesses?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

So do you think it can be done without swapping dash harnesses?

If I can find a layout of what does what on the plug I will know for sure, but I don't know why not. The tach harness is getting the info from somewhere, if I have to splice four wires it doesn't sound like a big deal. Like adsm08 stated the plugs for the tach/gauge side is different, but like my brother pointed out it is a large plug and it would be easy to switch the pins around. It is essentially the same plug but with the locating tab on the other side of the connector.

Basically it comes down to what the tach needs, tach signal which I already have going to my aftermarket tach would probably be one of them. There are four pins that feed something in the area of the center of the tach, I need to find out what all is going into that. I would assume there is a ground in that too. The guages and idiot lights should be the same as what I have now, minus that one stupid sender buried in the front of my engine for the oil pressure.

Keep an eye on the thread I have going in the gauges forum (linked above)