I brought up a concern with my dad and his car tonight. His car is an '89 and since it was a shell, we took a dash and C100 terminal from another '89 car and put them in the car. But during the process of parting out 3 cars, we have another dash and interior wiring, and C100 terminal from a '91 Camaro which will have the electronic speedometer instead of cable driven. I know how simple the swap would be with the '91 dash because my car is a '91. I've never had to buy and hook up a digital converter box for a cable driven car, and I know the boxes are kind of pricey.

My suggestion to my dad was, even though we already have the '89 dash in his car, it's not too late to swap it out with the '91 dash and wiring. I told him it would probably be easier and cheaper to go that route. He says he likes the looks of the circle gauges in the older IROC style, which is the only thing making him hesitant about it.

So my question is this: If it were YOUR car, and you had a cable driven dash/cluster already in the car but you had a '91 dash and cluster sitting in the garage, what would you do?

Also any input on how hard it is to install one of those boxes would be great. If you have pictures and specific details that's even better.

 

if it were me, i would probably just bite the bullet and buy the speedo box.

I'm more of a fan of the older style guages as well and at the end of the day, hes gonna be the one looking at the guages right? Plus, if he ever wanted to swap to an aftermarket setup, wouldnt it be easier with the older style guage cluster?

I'm going to be fighting the same battle when i do my swap. I would really like to keep the stock dash in my 87 TA but at the same time i really like how the 4th gen dash looks in these cars. I guess i will cross that bridge when i get to it.

 

I prefer the look of the circle gauges to the half-moon ones in the 90-92 cars, however it would likely be easier in terms of wiring to swap to the 91 wiring considering the fact that you would have an electronically operated Speedo, and you wouldn't have to use a converter box. If he was using aftermarket gauges in the '89 dash it would negate that factor though.


This is somewhat like the thoughts I'm having on my swap. I am swapping the 4th Gen interior in, but I am not sure I want to keep the stock gauges or do autometer Elites on a custom plate. I'm a big fan of the circular gauges, but I love the 4th gen interior hehe. Likelihood is, I'll just do the 4th Gen cluster for now, but its nice to think about what I could or could not do.

 

Go with the older cluster. In the end he needs to be happy with it

The Cable-x box is 3 wires to hook up, then route the cable. Easy peazy

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/conver...ease-tell.html

 

I don't know if it's still available, but for a while somebody was making a tail shaft for the T56 that had provisions for a mechanical speedo. It was about the same money as the dakota digital box, but was a little bit cleaner solution, plus it saves you the trouble of having to run VSS wiring down under the car. You can just tap into the stock VSS wiring at the stock computer harness.

 

Conversion tails are ridiculously expensive for what little they offer

http://www.shiftworks.com/tailhousing.htm
http://www.southweststreetworks.com/

Also, when you modify the output to cable, the PCM sign wont be satisfied. It's expecting 17ppr and no in line VSS' output that currently. Add the cost of the in line VSS to the price against the Cable-X box too. You cant use the output from the optical sensor on the rear of the speedo either because it sends 4000ppm, again not the 17ppr, plus its a direct signal (one wire) and the PCM will be expecting a high/low combo (two wires)

 

Oh. My bad. I was under the impression that the ECM was capable of using the signal from that VSS.

I guess I'll add that to my ever-increasing list of crap I'll need to change.

 

Sadly, it isnt

Id go with the Cable-x box. If you upgrade to electric speedo later you can resell the box. Not like the old school guys will ever get tired of using the good parts

 

I would have to agree on keeping the '89 gauges if that's what your dad likes. It may be a little extra work, but the more I work on my car, the more I appreciate the stock looks, so I empathize with you dad (even though I prefer my '92 gauges over the older ones)