OK!!! Almost there!!! Here's the final word on the Rallye Pac Conversion. Follow this link for pics of the new brackets needed for the gauges.
http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ally%20Gauges/
Sending Units:
The Temp Sending unit was easy, I just went to a local parts store and bought it. Apparently, the same one is used for quite a few years. Cost was $7 (GP Sorensen Part # TSU 5) The Oil Sender was a little harder. NO ONE carried a sender for 68-69. I finally got one from a 74 Cutlass and figured since the gauges doesn't show actual pressure numbers, as long as it reads something I should be OK. Well, as it turns out, the restoration places are selling the same sending units from 68-77 so apparently, it's compairable to the original. Oh, but I didn't have to spend $50-$60 from them. Local parts place had it for $16 (GP Sorensen Part # OPS67)!!!! They both mount the same as the ones for the idiot lights. The terminals may need to be changed, though. Mine had already been changed by the previous owner (probably bad wiring), but if I'm not mistaken, the correct termials can be had from the restoration places. Oh, the oil sender needs an adaptor due to it not fitting i the physical location as the light sender. You can buy one from the resto places for around $24, or find an auto parts place that sells brass fittings. I went to NAPA and found these parts for less than $5. You'll need a 45 degree brass fitting 1/4 inch NPT and a 1/4 inch NPT pipe about 1 inch long, with threads on the outside on both ends. The pipe will screw into one side of the 45 degree fitting and the sender will screw into the other, then the whole thing screws into the same hole as the original sender, at the top/front/right of the engine block.
Tach Wiring:
The tach wiring wasn't too bad. I used the original power wire from the clock and added a new wire for the illumination. the original illumination was done by two bulbs that snapped into the clock and they were mounted on a small removable harness. I happen to have another connector with plenty of wire from another project, so I cut that to length and added a ring terminal to the end to mount on the tach (which has it's illumination bulbs mounted to a circuit board with twist-lock sockes). The wire coming from the ignition coil needed to be completely fabricated. I read somewhere that it's a good idea to use a shielded wire for this purpose so you don't wind up with radio interference. Off to Radio Shack, I found a 20' cable for headphones that had the ground shielding two wires for right and left channels. I cut the ends off, twisted together the right and left positive wires (cause they were VERY small) and added ring terminals to both ends. I also added ring terminals to the ground wire and grounded it to the coil bracket and to one of the mounting screws for the tach. Figured it couldn't hurt. I ran the wire from the coil, through the grommet where the HVAC vacuum hoses go into the interior, then up and over the HVAC housings. Was very simple and it's such an easy routing that if I need to replace the wire for any reason, I can get to it without removing the whole dash, again.
Cluster Mounts:
I was able to take the original rear bracket and cut it into 3 sections (actually, I had an extra <img src="
http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. The middle section is for the speedo, which I cut right after the screw holes on either side. The side brackets for the gauges were simply the ends cut off the original and then redrilled to accept screws to go into the original holes in the brackets on the sides of the gauges. Was MUCH easier than I anticipated. A metal cut off wheel on a RotoZip, a metal file and 20 minutes later I had new brackets!!! I could have used the remaining bracket pieces to do the inner brackets for each gauge, but I figure one on each outer side as well as the front/center screw would be enough. Once mounted they felt very secure. Oh, the holes in the brackets on the sides of the clusters needs to be tapped. I just used a self tapping screw (the same size as the screws that hold the cluster to the bezel) and it worked like a charm.
Now, the hard part, the whole dash panel needs to be removed from the car, due to the original back bracket being bolted to the panel from behind and the bolts are sandwiched in between the panel and the inner panel. No way to get to them. I suggest you use the service manual, or just be really careful, as EVERYTHING must be pulled from the panel to remove it. Not fun, but not that hard either. Took about 45 minutes to get it out.
Once the dash panel was completely reinstalled, I was able to get the Fuel-Temp-Oil Cluster in by turning it so the brackets on the housing would go through the hole, then screwing it into place. The new bracket created come VERY close to the inner dash panel and takes a little work to get a screw up in there. The tach was a little harder, as the iner panel interferes with the turning of the cluster. It will go inif you turn it to the right until the bracket on the cluster is pointing down. You'll then need to push in and apply a slight upward pressure to clear the dash panel. Once the bracket is passed, you can turn it the right way and mount it. The screw going into the bracket on this side is much easier to get to, especially if you haven't put the radio in yet. I hooked everything up, fired up the car and everything worked the first time around!!! my only concern is that the illumination lights in the new clusters are only half as bright as the speedo, so I'm gonna check to see if there are brighter bulbs in the same size and replace them. Also, it looks like they appear to have white light instead of the blue. I think this is because whoever is making these new gauges are not painting the inside of the housing the light blue color. I might pull apart the gauges to see whats up there.
And there you have it!!! I would say it took a full Saturday for a beginner, providing you already had the senders. Questions?
February 28th, 2007
Linear Mode
