the car im about to get has 80 mph gauges and a 7000 rpm tach my car has a 140 mph gauges and a 6000 rpm tach. i was wonderin if i could just take out my entire gauge set out like plug and all and just put it in there without changing the computer and what not and everything be right. would it?

 

nobody knows?

 

What car are you getting?

 

85 trans am my car is an 88 firebird

 

It won't be a direct swap. The 85 has a mechanical speedometer, the 88 has an electronic one.

 

so what would i have to do to use my 145 mph gauges in that car?

 

Sames trans and rear gears? Just swap out the VSS on the tailshaft of the tranny.

 

You CAN use the 88 one, but it will require you to wire in the VSS, buffer box, and speedo. It is REAL easy to do. Obviously, you will need the VSS and gear out of the donor car, and possibly the drive gear on the tailshaft of the tranny if it's different than the one you have now. You wil also need a VSS buffer box, used on some of the thirdgen Firebirds as well as some 4 and 6-cylinder GM cars from the mid to late 80s. There's a clear one and a yellow one I know of. I believe both are the same.

Pull out your old cable-driven speedo gear from the tranny and dump it. Replace it with the VSS and speedo gear. There should be one yellow and one purple wire coming out of the VSS. Run that up into the interior of the car. On the buffer box, there will be one yellow and one purple wire. Connect those wires to the ones coming from the VSS. Now the VSS is connected to the buffer box, and you're almost done.

Next you will notice a black wire with a white stripe, two brownish wires, and a pink wire with a black stripe. The black wire needs to go to a ground. Find one inside and put it there. When you pull out your old gauge cluster, you'll see the same 2 brownish wires. Strip a little off those two, and then twist them together, and connect them to the one brown wire coming out of the buffer box. The pink and black wire will go to the speedo. I'm not exactly sure what the Firebird pinouts or wiring diagrams are, so you'll hafta look it up. The two brown wires send a signal to the ECM on what your speed and RPMs are; without them, you'll get a SES light.

Hope this helps ya. I just swapped in a 92 Camaro dash and cluster into my 88 so I had to do what you're doing. Any other questions just holler and I'll see what I can do.

Kevin