I was wondering if a gauge cluster out of my old '89 GTA would work in my '86 Trans-Am. They both look the same as in the GTA one is not digital or anything, but I don't know what the back of my '86 cluster will look like without tearing it out. Something I would rather not do just to quench my curiosity. Thanks.

 

The 86 TA should have an electric Speedo. The only 86 Birds I have ever seen with a cable speedo were V6's. Look at the tranny speed sending unit and see if there is a cable or a couple of wires leading to it to be sure.

The speedo cluster swap should work as long as both are Electric speedo's. The 89 will have a "security" light and the 86 will not,.... but the 86 TA should not need it !

 

Thanks. I thought as much, but I wanted to double check with someone before just pulling the dash apart :-p

 

Back in 1995, I put a 1986 Trans-Am interior (including dash and wiring) into a 1987 base Firbird.

Everything bolted in and plugged up. However, I could not get the speedometer to work.

After a couple days of searching (remember, thirdgen.org wasn't around), I found the '87 underhood wiring harness was slightly different in that the wire for the speedo was one small block over on the firewall fuse block harness (the big connector just under the brake booster).

Once I moved that wire, the speedo worked fine.

jms

 

I'll have to watch for that too. Thanks. At least this way I can save a lot of time hunting down the problem if the speedo doesn't work if I swap them now :-p

 

Here's the Pin-out schematic for the 86 TA Dash Cluster. Sorry - I don't have an 89 Shop manual !!