I have a istrument cluster in my car with a 140mph speedo, 8,000rpm tach with a 5,500rpm redline. It also has a shift light, low oil light, supp rest light, security light.
I dont think its rare at all however I see alot of clusters like it but they dont have a low oil light and they have 6,000rpm tach's with a 5,000rpm redline.

What caused the difference in tach's? Or are the others clusters I've been looking at pre-1990 cluster?

 

My '90 GTA has the 140 MPH speedo and 8000 RPM Tach with the 5500 red line.. I don't know why some cars with a 140 MPH speedo would have a 6000 RPM tach. Unless it's an L98/LB9 thing...

I have a 'INFL REST' lamp (for the air bag). That light is on the top left of the voltmeter/fuel gauge pair. All 90-92 Birds should have an INFL REST lamp.

I also have lights for SHIFT (which is unused with the auto), SES, BRAKE, SECURITY and SEAT BELTS.

I don't have a OIL light.. Although I do have two unused spots.. My owner's manual and my Helms manual both show these two lights as unused...

One might have been an OIL light at one time but is no longer used. I'll have to try illuminate them from the rear somehow to see if there's any writing to indicate what they were originally for...

 

Ya' the other clusters your seeing are earlier style clusters - that's all.

I tried to light up a cluster from the back and it doesn't work. It seems as if the printed circuit is too dense for the light to get in and show what the "un-used" warning lamps are for.

The clusters I've got are from 86-88 and have the following warning lights:

On GAS/VOLT gauge:
top left - BLANK
bottom left - Seat Belt
top right - SHIFT
bottom right - BLANK

on OIL/TEMP gauge
top left - Check Engine
bottom left - BLANK
top right - BRAKE
bottom right - Choke



I've also got an 85 Style (mechanical) speedo and the warning lights inside the needle gauges appear to be the same. The speedometer goes to 85MPH but face is different then the 86-88 style. The RPM gauge in the 85 cluster goes yellow at 5500, Red at 6000 and off the scale at 7000 RPM.

I know that the 86's got "de-tuned" and lost some horsepower till about the time the 350ci came back. I think the later years got the higher top end RPM gauges.

P.S. I know that the 86-89 V-6 tachometers also showed 5500Y, 6000R, and 8K top end too. If I remeber right you need to remove the bezel and check the printing on the gauge to be sure it was made for a V6 or a V8; where-as the Camaro V6 Tach is easy to spot due to the inset oil pressure gauge reading 40/80PSI.

 

When I bought the cluster it had bulbs in the low oil light spot as well as the shift spot so I would think this cluster had come from a 5 speed car. Yes on the cluster it does say V-8 I've just never seen a TBI/TPI with a low oil light. I think from the 5,500 rpm redline it's safe to say this cluster didn't come from a TBI car. It is a american not metric cluster as well.

has to be a 1990up since it has vats and airbag

so did the LB9 have a low oil sender in these years. I've never seen a TPI motor ever with a provision in it's oil pan for a sender for oil level.

 

Neither have I !

 

Ditto, I've torn apart 2 TPI motors and have yet to see a low oil level sender. Also, I'd like to think that the idiot that owned my car before me would have seen the light come on and put some oil in the engine before it locked up. But hey, at the same time, I may have never gotten my third gen if they did have low oil lights!

 

You're right: 140mph/5500red-8000rpm/shift would've come out of a TPI/5-speed car. And with both, security('89+) and airbag('90+), one would also conclude, as you did, that it had to have come from a 1990+.

But sorry, I can't address whether or not those '90+ cars also came with an oil light.