I just got done with my gauge swap, and wanted to let you other owners of the 82-84 'birds, that there is a choice in getting a better speedo instead of living with the old 85 MPH.

I also upgraded the tach and oil pressure.

Here's their link: http://www.autoinstruments.com/chevy.htm

I sent my speedo out on a friday, and two weeks later I got it back.

My total cost was $133.00, including shipping.

They reprint the face and recalibrate for that price.

Hope you all find it as useful as I have,

Leon.









Below is just a before and after "installed" look, so it can be more easily compared.

 

That's really sweet. Too bad I already can go 140 :P

 

o thats cool as hell , i wish they had one for my speedo in my 85 trans am , since its the only year firebird with the newer 85- up style with a cable driven one .

 

is there anything like this for an 85 z 28?

 

Not sure exactly when they changed from 85 to 145, but a (86?) or 87-89 Z28/IROC speedo should be a direct swap for your 85 mph one.

 

thanks leon! That is handy info, i'll probably go for that....

PS. Your car totally rocks, I endevour to make mine that gorgeous. You painted it yourself in your garage right?

PPS. Where did you get those headlight covers?

 

Thanks Sonix,

I'm sure you'll like it if you have it done to your speedo, but it will take some getting used too, with all those numbers!!

And yes I did paint it in my garage back in 2001.



I have had alot of people ask about the covers, and all I can
say, is that they were a very common item to get ahold of back in the '80s. Now days, I have no idea where I could find them, most likily have been discontinued for years.

Leon.

 

Gauges look pretty sweet. Thought about doing something like that. Saw a post on here a while back with a company that does conversions, not sure if it's the same one you tried.

 

I've been looking into getting those too...here is a link. Hope this helps.

Firebird turn signal covers

 

You and me both. With 3.70 gears I ped the 85speedo in no time.

 

Your dash switches have lettering on them! How did that happen?

The speedometer looks good! I might look into a 120 or 140 one for me!

 

That is fantastic Leon. I saw the press release about it in HPP a few issues back.

Ill have to pick up an extra set of gauges.

I have an NOS speedo...but it has 0.4 miles on it, hehe.

 

'82 TA, your dash switches don't have letters on them?
Mine do (albeit faded, so restoring those would be nice...), but I got a rear defrost button from a guy in georgia, and his didn't have lettering either... Maybe a yearly thing, or when they're made based on where they're going?

 

those look great. did you specify what you wanted the speedo to go up to and where you wanted your yellow and red line? Or do they only make that one specific setup?

 

I only had them do the speedo, the tach is factory OEM from an 84 T/A L-69, same with the oil pressure.

And they reface the speedo to what you see here. I don't know if they do it any different.

Leon.

 

thats awsome.Im gonna look into gettin one.Good work

 

Looks really great!
I really like it with that knee pad too!
So, what other mods are you planning on?

George

 

damn how is your steering wheel and interior all in mint shape ?

wow@!

 

that is awesome! i wish they made those for Z's.
so if i did find a 140 speedo can i just swap it in and not do anything to it to make it work? like, no calibrating or setting computer things BS?

 

I like the Turn Signal covers but I have a problem...

My 84 Trans Am has the GTA style front end on it...looks to be what an 89 or 90 model has on the front but I'm not sure. Would I want to buy the covers for the 84, or the ones for the "85-90"? Thanks.

 

'85-'90

 

Thanks!

 

I'd just like to bump this thread and post some valuable info for anyone interested.

Autoinstruments makes a specific setup for the 82-84 Firebird/TransAm
It includes a 160mph speedo like Leon has above, and a 6,000rpm redline/7,000rpm tach(see attached pic below)

I recently sent my entire cluster to be checked over(free of charge), and to have the speedo/tach done. I was under the false impression that it was $125 for both but I was wrong, and when I say things can get expensive I am not joking, here is a price list that the owner quoted me over the phone, you may want to remove wives from the room as you scroll down to read this list of prices:





Speedo rebuild/recondition: $175.....he claimed this is almost always needed
Speedo reface/recalibrate: $125
Tach reface/recalibrate: $125..he said this price may be raised in the future
4 Auxiliary gauge calibration: $40
Gauge lense buff and refinish: $40

I think there were one of two more things but I'm forgetting them at the moment, you can call them to ask: 877-450-0110

 

I did kinda the same but used a 90 harness and ran my 140mph electronic speedo. Too bad the car is governed to 104mph lol ......

Leon that don't look like a 84 L-69 tach.

 

What's it look like to you, then?

 

Looks like one to me. I have a L-69 cluster for an 83 T/A that I am thinking about sending them as well as a 69 Chevelle Tach-Guage cluster.

 

That's actually not bad. It's about on par with everyone I've checked with. Hawks offers a speedo resurface and recalibration for $200.00...and it's turn around is about 2-3 weeks. They also have a core charge of $75.00 for a total initial cost of $275.00....but you should get your core back once you send in your speedo. I don't know if they do Tach's or not but I really like the quality of work shown here and woudl definitely want to get my tach done along with my speedo. Here is a link to the Hawks site...
Hawks Speedo Recalibration

What I think is neat, is that autoinstruments does the auxilary gauges...so I could get the rest recalibrated also. Now that's really cool. I would definitely see if they could actually put the temps on my temp gauge instead of just the lines.

 

For anyone thinking about using auto instruments, I'm not going to speak badly of them but I'll let the facts speak for me. I sent in my cluster to have the speedo refaced/recalibrated, and that was in early July, they charged my credit card on the 23rd of July. I still havent got my cluster back and its September 1st now. So all I can say is dont use them if you want a fast turn around time. I'm gonna call them Monday.

 

Sending the whole cluster is most likely the problem.
There's alot more to do, than a single, loose gauge.
I only sent my speedo, seperate, to them, and got it back in two weeks.
I was very happy with the service they provided, and will most likely do the very same thing, in the near future. (Another 1983 Project)

Leon

 

The only reason I sent the entire cluster was because I was told to so they could check everything, which they had already done 3 days before they charged my credit card. And the only thing I ended up having done is the speedo, so the rest of the stuff was untouched. No reason it should have delayed anything, I can personally seperate the speedo from the cluster in less than 3 minutes and back together in the same time, and I'm sure they can do it much faster than I can.

on another subject,
Oh wow, another project 83 huh? you like these 83's dont you? Man I cant wait to see what you do next. Are you gonna go all out on it? What kind of build? Cant wait to hear more about it. I'm going with an LT1 myself.

 

I FINALLY got my cluster back today. I am very satisfied with it. I'm getting ready to go out and install it.

Only thing that was unexpected is that on my face, they cut off the 2 on the 200kmh to fit the 7 digit odometer in, unlike Leons where the odometer fit between the numbers nicely. But I'm not going to worry about that, it still looks amazing. Heres a pic of how mine turned out. If you have the 7 digit odometer this is what it will look like as compared to leons with the 6 digit.

 

I wonder why they had to cut the 2 off in yours but not his...you should bring that up with them and say you know a guy that had the same thing done but HE"s not missing a number... all in all it looks really good! Yet another thing I'm thinking of haivng done and like you hgffrank, I'm probably going to send the whole cluster in.

 

My number was cut off because they had to make room for the 7th odometer digit that Leons speedo doesnt have. Thats why his isnt cut off like mine. Its not a big deal and I'm not going to harrass them about something so trivial.

Although, I am thinking my speedo is not calibrated right or something, I installed it earlier today, took the car for a test drive, seemed like the speedo was slow reading until about 40mph, then good to about 80 and for some reason I could swear it reads high after that. It may be just me, but I got on the highway and gunned it, after about 1 1/2 miles, the speedo was reading about 130mph, and tack was at about 4500rpm. I need to do the math to check the speed cause I would have never thought this crappy old 230+K mile LG4 305 would have a chance in hell of hitting 120, let alone 130mph.

 

So if I wanted to add a digit to my speedo to add a 100k mile digit, they'd have to cut off the same number they did on yours huh? Bummer...

Anyway, for the speedo problem...did you have any tranny work done or did you change the rear gearing at all? The only other thing I could think of would be having different sized wheels/tires or mis-matched drive ends on the speedo cable.

 

Everything is the same as it was with old speedo. I was able to drive with them both back to back since I have two clusters.

 

Hmm...don't know then. Would hate for it to be mis-calibrated. Maybe because of how the new speedo reads it just looks different? Since the marks are closer together? Grab a pair of walki-talkies, your friend and have him pace you with his car on some back roads (Preferably someone with a newer car). Start at 10mph and run up to around 90 and have him call it out every 10mph. That'll give you and idea how far it's off and what directions if at all.

 

Just crunched a few numbers, and strangely enough, it appears the speedo is about right.

based on 4500rpm,.73 overdrive, 3.73 gears, and 25.7 tire, that comes out to 126.5mph. Thats crazy, cause thats about what my speedo said. Damn, this car is faster than I thought it was. I thought the speedo was lying or I never woulda went that fast....lol

I'm gonna check the speedo in 4th gear tomorrow, to make sure it is in fact accurate.

 

whats available for upgrades?

 

Your car totally rocks, I endevour to make mine that gorgeous. You painted it yourself in your garage right?

 

were you talking to me ?

 

https://www.autoinstruments.com/contact.htm