After having trouble with my cluster earlier, I was wondering if anyone has made a custom instrument cluster using aftermarket gauges? I would like to make a template of my existing cluster out of some other material and cut out holes for gauges. Pretty much, they will be in the same spots as the factory layout but with better gauges. My only concern is this. The speedo and tach are different than most Camaros. They are electrical in nature and don't have cables in back of the speedo and the tach would be wired different. Can't you use the wires that are coming from the 2 harnesses that plug in the cluster from the back as signal and ground wires? In other words, look at the pin-outs of the harness and connect that wire to an aftermarket gauge that its replacing in the cluster. Sounds complicated. But all you are doing is using the existing wires that are there now and run those to newer gauges. The speedo and tach are another story. I'm kinda stupmed on how to hook those up. Any thoughts?

Ken

 

Check out what I did to my gauges on my site http://www.sounddomain.com/id/camaroboricua
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i dont have a speedo but everything else was just a matter of finding the wires in the harness. let me know if u have ?

 

Dude...that's freakin' awesome. I like that you kept the original cluster housing to make installation easier. Did you just gut it and cut some other material to house the new gauges? It looks like you got the Oil,Temp,Volt, and Fuel gauges in the cluster. I assume you used the existing wires in the original harnesses to make the signal connections to the gauges and maybe used a common ground lead for all the gauges rather than seperate ones. Where did you mount the speedo gauge and was it electrical as well as the other gauges? Great job by the way!

Ken

 

They all share power and ground and lights. The senders are all direct except for the fuel which i got from the harness coming into the car from the tank. I have no speedo yet but I would think you should be able to find the wire in the harness. The tach is also direct to the new distributor. Turn signal and brights were easy to find in the harness. Try followin the pattern on the plastic on the cack of the gauges and then double check it with a voltmeter. To make the new face I used fiberglass shower lining and just laid out my gauges and wrapped it in vinyl. I sandwiched it in place by making a similar patter for the back. I could have put the tach in there but I decided to wait till I can afford the matching carbon fiber tach and speedo. Hope that helps some...