my 85 z has an 85 mph speedo I have a cluster with a 145 can I just switch them and presto it will work or do I need to change trans also? Thanks,

 

just switch the speedo.

------------------
The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

Thanks,

 

wow it'll work just like that?
I thought you needed some stupid little box thing that changes it or sompthing.
I'mma have to get one since I need to replace my speedo cable anyway.

 

It'll work just like that, assuming you are switching a mechanical for a mechanical. Had one in my Camaro for years.

------------------
'86 Camaro Sport Coupe

[This message has been edited by Blue502 (edited May 22, 2001).]

 

The only thing that connects the transmission to the speedo is 1 cable. Your transmission has absolutely no idea what speedo you have in your dash. The only changes made to transmissions are to compensate for different rear end gears. The 145mph speedos are simply geared differently to compensate for the different needle moving.

------------------
The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

The speedos themselves actually aren't different mechanically at all. Same parts. The only thing that changed is the numbers painted on the face. I.e., if the pointer on the 85 mph one moves (say) 85° going from 0 to 85, the 145 mph one will also move 85° going from 0 to 85. The only difference is the dial.

------------------
"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

Huh???? If that was true then if you switched to the 145 and were actually going 85 then the speedo would incorrectly read 145 mph. Jim gave the correct answer.

The comment I made above about going from a mechanical to a mechanical speedo had to do with the fact that later year thirdgens have electronic speedometers and won't work correctly in earlier cars without modifications (and no, I don't know what those mods would be exactly). I hope I didn't confuse any of you by my comment.

 

Are you sure? Because the pointer moves about 180° to get to 85 MPH on the 85 MPH speedo. On a 145 MPH speedo, moving 180° would bring it to 145 MPH. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying..


------------------
1992 Camaro RS
305ci automatic, all stock til I get some cash.
My 1992 RS

 

right, so if you're doing 85mph and the needle moves 180° with the new speedo, it'll say you're doing 145, not 85.


------------------
The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

NOW I AM CONFUSED. SO CAN YOU SWITCH FROM AN EARLY MODEL 85 TO A 145. WHAT ARE THE YEARS THAT ARE COMPATIABLE AND SHOULD YOU USE A DOUBLE NEEDLE(SPEED &TACH IN ONE) OR THE SINGLE NEEDLE GUAGE.

------------------
86 Camaro Black SS Coupe, T Tops, Flowmaster, Custom Paint, Dunlop Road Kings S/R tires, Wheel Country Directional Chrome Wheels, New Leather seats, new carpet and headliner, complete front end suspension rebuild, new Valve seals, and more mods to come
http://www.angelfire.com/sports/niterider/86camaro.html

 

F-bodies never came with a speedo & tach in one gauge. You're thinking of the 82-84 speedo that had a dual needle. One side was MPH, the other side was KPH. Any 145 speedo from an 86-89 will fit into an 82-89 camaro.

------------------
The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

I am going to do the switch tonight I will tell you if it reads correct or not the car has an 85 mph single needle right now going to a 145 out of an 86 camaro singlr needel
I hope it reads correctly if no well....I will cross that bridge when it comes.

 

THANKS JIMIROC85. NOW CAN I JUST CHANGE THE BLACKFACE PLATE THAT HAS THE NUMBERS OR DO I NEED TO CHANGE THAT GREEN GEAR ASSEMBLY BEHIND THE PLATE ALSO?

------------------
86 Camaro Black SS Coupe, T Tops, Flowmaster, Custom Paint, Dunlop Road Kings S/R tires, Wheel Country Directional Chrome Wheels, New Leather seats, new carpet and headliner, complete front end suspension rebuild, new Valve seals, and more mods to come
http://www.angelfire.com/sports/niterider/86camaro.html

 

Change the whole speedo, gears and all.

 

oh yeah works perfect got on the highway followed my roomate and we confirmed v-ia the cell it is correct.

 

I'm positve. I have more than one of each hanging around to compare.

Read what I said: I said the arc from 0 to 85 is the same on both speedos.

Compare the 2; you'll see that on the 85 MPH speedos, the pointer (meters don't have needles or hands) makes an arc of about 160°. On the 145 MPH units, to get to 85, the pointer swings.... about 160°. To get from zero to 145, it moves about 270°.

Yes, I am sure. In fact, in the 140 MPH one in my car now, I screwed up and broke the end of the movement shaft off when I was trying to disassemble it to fix the trip meter. I managed to get the piece out of the pointer, took the movement out of my old 85, assembled it into the plastic frame of the 140, and put the 140 pointer on it.

And yes, I did in fact used to work in a test equipment lab, where we actually worked on meter movements in real test equipment. My work was traceable to the National Bureau of Standards even as the calibration standards for things like nuclear power plants. I take my accuracy seriously.

------------------
"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

I'm sitting here in the garage looking at both of my speedo's, the original '86 85mph and the '87 145mph, and have just rough measured the sweep. The 85mph sweeps 315 degrees from 0 to 85. The 145 sweeps 310 degrees from 0 to 145 and about 180 degrees from 0 to 85.

Did you originally have the dual needle speedo in your car? If so, this may be whats causing the confusion as most of us are talking about the later single needle 85mph speedo.

[This message has been edited by Blue502 (edited May 24, 2001).]

 

Sweet Jesus! Please promise me that none of you guys are going to attempt to try loading a gun for your next project.

------------------
The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

D@mnit guys, I got the one with MPH on one side and killometers on the other. Came in my 84 Z28, will the swap work or not?

 

OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD YES!!! just switch the WHOLE speedo, gears and all, or swap the WHOLE cluster, and it will work.

 

AND THIS IS WHY WE HAVE THIS BOARD. SOME OF US JUST DON'T REALLY UNDERSTAND AND WE NEED THE REST OF YOU THAT DO TO EXPLAIN IT. THANKS GUYS. I AM GOING TO THE J YARD TO FIND ME A 145 TODAY. NOW WHAT ABOUT INSTALLING A TACH WHEN YOU HAVE THE BIG GAS GUAGUE ON THE RIGHT, WHERE DO I START?

------------------
86 Camaro Black SS Coupe, T Tops, Flowmaster, Custom Paint, Dunlop Road Kings S/R tires, Wheel Country Directional Chrome Wheels, New Leather seats, new carpet and headliner, complete front end suspension rebuild, new Valve seals, and more mods to come
http://www.angelfire.com/sports/niterider/86camaro.html

 

heheh, thanks guys, I'm gonna call around today and see if I can get one local. Sorry 'bout that I just got confused with all the different posts :P

 

Jim's right on on this one. It's a simple bolt-in, but the two units are calibrated totally differently so the needle reads correctly.

 

OMG I got a good laugh out of this post. For something that is so simple this sure did get fu&ked up...lol.

Now this is a good question. I did this one myself and can help you here.

This is what you need.

1. The blue flexible plastic piece on the back of the console that contains the circuit pathways. It is different on cars with the dummy light setup like you have and cars with real guages and a tach.

2. The tach (oil pressure guage is part of the tach), water temp guage, gas guage, and battery guage.

3. New sending units for the oil pressure and water temp. This is necessary because the old dummy lights used different sending units for these. If you don't know what sending units are it is simply the devices that are on the engine itself that send the signal to the guage to give it a reading.

The last thing you need to know is that V6 and V8 cars used a different tach and oil pressure guages. Make sure you get these (remember these are one unit built together) from a car that has the same number of cylinders as your car. You can tell them apart by the face plate on the oil pressure guage. On V8 cars the oil pressure reads up to 60 lbs. On V8 cars it reads to 80 lbs. If you use the wrong one you will get an incorrect reading on the tach.

[This message has been edited by cdartz (edited May 29, 2001).]

 

what if I wanted to swap out a speedo from a 91 bird. How would that work?

------------------
-Mitch DoGG
2-tone firebird
-91 firebird (red)
-ASCD ram air hood (grey)