I was wondering what would be involved with swapping the cluster out of my '86 Bird, which only has the speedo, gas gauge, and a bunch of dummy lights, for a cluster which has the above plus a tach, and all the gauges (volts, oil pressure, temperature). Will the new cluster just hook up & plug in in place of my old one? Do I need to change any of the sender units aswell? Thanks

 

I believe that anything out of an 82-89 firebird has the same mounting... just make sure you get a cluster from a donar car with the same number of cylinders and that if your cluster is cable driven then get a cable driven cluster and if it's digital, get digital... you'll know what I'm talking about as soon as you try to pull the cluster to inspect it (cable driven is a b*tch to remove)... BTW you should get a repair manual if you haven't already to get details on the cluster removal... its not as intuitive as it should be... took me a couple hours just to pull out the engine light lightbulb... I don't believe that the cluster from Camaros are the same piece, but they probably fit (just wouldn't look right). As long as you get the right replacement, you're talking about a plug in and go mod.

 

There should be no problems with a direct swap. No wiring needs to be changed either but, you need the proper sensors for the water & oil gauges to work,, the idiot light sensors will merely cause the gauges to peg out.

(copied to save typing it again)
* a warning, as I have experienced, the replacement temp sensors are very inaccurate giving a overly high temp reading making one paranoid the car has a severe overheating problem. If possible, get on OEM sensor from a donor car.

OEM has a button (round) terminal
Replacement has a male spade terminal on it.

On my firebird, the temp is pushing over 220° w/out the 180° stat having even opened yet.

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