Hi there! Recently, I've swapped out the engine and transmission in my 88 Firebird. It had a 2.8l v6 with a 700r4 transmission, but I swapped it with a 5 0l and a 700r4 transmission with a v8 bellhousing. The main problem I'm having is with the gauge cluster. The original mechanism to program the speedometer had a manual wire that went to the speedometer. Now, the transmission has an electronic wire that sends a signal to the speedometer. It seems that the analog gauges use this wire, so I believe I have to switch to digital. I know that the intellitronix dash exists, however, the digital dash from the late 80s Trans Am GTA has captivated my interest, due to its Knight Riderish look. My question is this: is it theoretically possible to put a GTA digital dash in my 88 Firebird without running into any problems?

88 Firebird Dash

Trans Am GTA dash I would like to switch to.

 

Oh, it's possible. There are a few threads on here about doing it. It's a huge pita, though. It would probably be easiest if you have a donor car, so you can switch the parts and harnesses.
DR.K.

 

Hi Alex , welcome to TGO .

To answer your question , Yes you could switch to the digital dash , it's possible and there are threads here at TGO describing the swap . Now , the thing is , to do this you would pretty much need a complete digital dash car to donate all the parts your gonna need to make it work . Naturally it's not just removing the old analog dash and simply putting the digital dash in it's place , the ENTIRE wiring harness for the digital dash car has to be swapped in as well . Ditto for many other parts/sensors/switches that feed info to the digital dash that aren't already in analog dash cars .

I hate to stick a pin in your digital dash dream , but in practical reality if the digital dash means that much to you , you'd be light years ahead of your goal by selling what you've got and buying a digital dash car . There ARE workarounds to make your analog speedometer work in your present situation without all the work of the digital dash swap , , , , and I promise I won't tell the 'Hoff we had this conversation

 

Lol, thanks for the welcome though. I definitely see the challenges this would present. You're probably right about selling and buying one with a digital dash. However, I've restored it for the last 4 years, and it means a lot to me. Unless I were to sell for something like a KITT replica (which is a rather unrealistic trade), I don't think I could sell it. I'll probably end up going with a different route. I've also thought about the gauges offered by Intellitronix (https://www.intellitronix.com/produc...al-gauge-panel). Although it's rather pricey, I'm a sucker for digital stuff. "Worst" case scenario, I'll just try to make the analog gauge work, which I ultimately don't mind. I thought the GTA dash was cool, but ultimately, I can live with what I have. Thanks again for the welcome.

Before Restoration

After Restoration

 

It's not THAT hard to swap the whole harness into the car if you want it all to work. One guy in Switzerland did the swap without doing the whole harness, but it was a lot of cutting and splicing, I wouldn't recomend that route.

 

nice update on the car! Another option is to add digital gauges inside the current housing. Not exactly the TA digital dash but it would be a cool refresh. I have a spare cluster I could send you if needed.

 

Nice restoration, great looking car!

 

Why not just get an electronic speedo and run the wires? I thought 86 up used electronic speedos? Thats what I did for my swap as you can find them around 100 bucks on ebay. Do not get anything from intellitronix! I went down that road 1st. Unless you like taking your dash apart and going without gauges every other week as their cheap chinese leds burn out quite often. Nice car and would be worth the work to convert to the factory digital gauges imo.