I have a 86 Pontiac Firebird that had an original cable driven speedometer and a couple weeks ago I swapped in an electrical one and have no idea how to get the speedometer to work now. I heard that I have to run a computer from the transmission to the speedometor but is there an easier way.

You can use a universal interface box like the one from Dakota Digital.

http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.c...rod/prd126.htm

How do i go about hookling the box up. Do i hook the box up to the transmission then run a harness to the guages

They also have a sender you can use, you can step it down from the 8K pulse per mile it puts out to the 2K or 4K your car requires using the SGI-5 box linked above.

Their sender is here

http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.c...rod/prd109.htm

SEN-01-1 - 8K pulse generator with adaptor cable for GM transmissions with cable drive speed output

Would this be the only item needed. If so, do i insert the cable and attack the wires into the wiring harness for my car?

Where did you get the speedometer? I've always wanted to do that for my 83 Camaro. Do they make a bolt-in mechanism? I figured I could swap the face to keep it looking stock.

I found the speedometer in a junk yark and took a hammer and broke the old one out. I too kept the dash bezel to make it look factory!

What car did it come out of?

Camaros had cable driven speedometers from 82-89.
Firebird had them from 82-85, I believe.

You wont find one that will fit right into your camaro and look year-specific. The dash design changed in 90.

I figured when they changed the inst panel that's when they went to the electronic speedo.

I'm hoping there is another make/model out there that has the same sweep angle and where I could possibly use that mechanism with my face.

i was wondering which years had cable,thanks.my 86 firebird is electric speedo and i want cable.

My 86 firebird had a factory cable driven speedo but why do you want one. The electrical is more effiecent

Now I'm confused! Which kind of speedo should an 86 have?

Anybody know when the Firebirds started using electric? If I could find a pic of an electric speedo, I might be able to see if the guts could be retrofitted to my 83.

86 Firebirds had option for Elec and Mech speedos, probably based on the tires and cluster that you got.
all 140MPH clusters are electronic.

That's interesting! Is that the first year electric's were available?

Anybody have a picture of one?

Ya, first year electric was available,
here is my 86 Trans Am with stock 140MPH Electric Cluster,

The sweep looks the same but it's clocked wrong. Maybe I can turn the needle and get it to turn CW about 45 degrees. Time to hunt on eBay!

Thanks Zepher!

what is cool is the cluster I got from my 1990 Formula that I put into my 88 Formula,

Take a good look and tell me what is different,

Oh I see the difference! The factory 85 had the km/h but the 1990 cluster doesn't. I have that same guague cluster that you have in the 86. The only problem is that I have to go from cable to electric to run it.

I had never seen a MPH only cluster before in a 3rd gen. I didn't even realize it was MPH only for a couple of weeks. I was driving and was thinking that the speedo looked a little strange then realized it was missing the KPH scale.

In the History board they mentioned that it might have been an 86 Cluster.

i want cable driven cause i figured it would be cheaper and easier to get a speedo,cable,and transmission guts then to buy whats needed to install the electric speedo i have.