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Factory Rallye Pac Gauges install in 1968 Delta 88


Guest Mocephus

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Guest Mocephus

OK, so far, here's what I found. The gauges will physically bolt up to the bezels with no mods and look GREAT!!! They match the speedo perfectly. This should work for ANY full size Olds from 67 - 68.

There is a bracket that goes along the back of all the gauges for rear support which will need to be modified. This dash is used so I can modify it all I want without destroying my excellent original. I'm gonna take the back bracket and cut off the left and right sides that would normally have held in the fuel and clock pods, due to the new pods being longer and having different brackets mounted to them (these gauges are for the Cutlass, but are basically the same for the Full Size cars). Notice the pics of the mounting tabs on the gauges and the bracket holes in he back of the dash. I'm going to use some flat steel with holes drilled to make 2 brackets for each pod. Shouldn't be any more work than just bending and drilling them. That's all that's needed to mount them, but I will be checking clearance behind the tach, as the unit is longer than the original.

For the electrical portion:

The clock/tach can use the same original power connector. I'll need to run a new wire from the negative side of the coil for the tach. I've heard that it's best to get something like coaxial cable (inner wire with a wire mesh surround for ground) so that there is no radio interference. I'll see what I can come up with for that. The only other connection is for the gauge illumination. The original clock had a small harness that had 2 light sockets attached to it tat snapped into the clock housing. the clock/tach has 2 bulbs mounted in it that use the typical half turn sockets. The best thing to do is to remove the original illumination harness (which is plugged into the main harness right behind where the clock sits) and fabricate a new wire with 2 connectors to take it's place. Pretty simple and the tach is done!!!

The Fuel-Temp-Oil pod uses the same connector as the original, but the wires going into it must be rearranged. Here is the original setup from left to right:

Idiot Light cluster pin assignmens:

a = lights (grey) / b = fuel (tan) / c = oil (blue w/double white stripe) / d = brake (tan w/double white stripe) / e = ign (pink) / f = generator (brown) / g = temp (dark green)

Here is the cluster pac setup. Note, the wire colors are the same as above,

Rallye Pack pin asignments:

a = lights (grey) / b = temp (dark green) / c = oil (blue w/double white stripe) / d = fuel (tan) / e = ign (pink) / f = generator (brown) / g = brake (tan w/double white stripe

As you can see there are 3 wires that must be moved from the cluster pack. b (dark green) moves to g. g (tan w/dbl wh) moves to d. d (tan) moves to f.

(The above info was taken from the Olds FAQ)

AFter installing the gauges, the last step will be to get temperature and oil sending units for gauges instead of lights, install them in the engine and hook them back up. Note, the oil sending unit requires a 45 degree brass fitting to clear the timing cover plate. You'll need to either source one from the local auto parts store, get one from any Olds V8 (not aluminum blocks) with gauges or places like Year One or Brothers sells them. After that, all done!!!

Will take some pics of the brackets and anything else I can think of once it's complete.

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Guest imported_Julian

I know Don was looking for a set.. thre may be someone that does..just cant remember who right now

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Olds offered the tach/clock combination in '67 & '68 88s and 98s, but not the whole rallye package. I bought a tach/clock up in Canada to install in my '67 coupe, but never got around to it, mainly because of that different bracket on the back. I would think they are pretty rare in a full size car.

Paul

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Guest copper128

I installed the tach/clock into my '67 Delmont about 3 yrs ago (see attachment). The one I bought was for a Cutlass, so I had to remove part of the original bracket as you mention. The original shroud from the clock or delete screws to the tabs on the Cutlass tach housing. But there actually was a different tach/clock made specifically for the big cars. A NOS one recently sold for big coin on eBay. You can tell the difference because the big car tach will have the 2 studs protruding from the back to attach to the dash bracket. I always figured the multi-gauge unit would fit too, but never attempted to install one because I didn't want to deal with the wiring and sending unit issues. Nice to know it can be done. Maybe someday...

post-33601-143137927064_thumb.jpg

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Guest Mocephus

OK, found a few errors when I checked the fuel-temp-oil pod connector. The text grabbed from the Olds FAQ about where the wires in the connector need to go is INCORRECT for the full size cars. ALL of the wires need to be moved to different positions. Luckily, it's easy. You just take something very small and long, like a jewelers flat screwdriver (the smallest tipped one) and stick it in the hole NEXT to each wire, from the pin side. Move it around while pushing down and the little tab on the metal connector will bend in, allowing you to pull the metal connector out. You can then bend the little tab back out and slip it back in the plastic connector in the position you want. Pull out all the wires. The correct positioning is below.

Looking at the plug, you'll notice a flat section that separates the pins. There are 2 pin holes on one side and 6 on the other. Starting AWAY from the flat side, the order should be:

Pin 1: Grey (instrument lights)

Pin 2: EMPTY (if you don't want to cut or tape the Temp COLD light wire, (which is Light Green) put it in here. There is no corresponding pin on the cluster so it won't hurt or touch anything)

Pin 3: Tan (fuel gauge)

Pin 4: Blue w/White Stripe (Oil Sender)

Pin 5: Tan w/White Stripe (brake light)

Pin 6: Pink (ignition power)

Pin 7: Brown (generator light)

Pin 8: Dark Green (temperature sender (was HOT light))

See the link in the 1st post for pics of a connector with the correct positioning as well as how to pull out the wires.

Also in the pics, you can see the light harness for the original clock and the connector where you can remove it. From there, you an build a quick harness with 2 ends to attach it to the clock-tach.

Tach hookup as well as final mounting of gauges coming soon!!!

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest Mocephus

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/b142/mocephus442/Rally%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?

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  • 1 year later...
Guest Mocephus

Yes, that is correct. I just checked the Brothers website and didn't find the gauges, but if you look up their user ID in eBay, you'll find the listing. They keep saying limited supply, but I remember them saying that when I bought my set back in Feb of '07. Their user ID is 800442part or you can just call them at 800-442-PART.

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  • 5 years later...
Guest Mocephus

******UPDATE*******

OK, so it's been a few years since this install, and the brightness (or lack of) of the gauges drove me to the point of finally doing something about it. I tried every bulb similar to the 194 that I could get my hands on to get them as bright as the speedo, but it wasn't happening. I finally came across white 194 base LED bulbs that were supposed to be 10 times brighter than stock bulbs, so I bought them.....

I managed to reach up under the dash and replaced both bulbs on the left cluster and the left bulb on the speedo. HUGE difference in brightness on the speedo and now the left cluster was blue, but still not bright. The right cluster is still 194 bulbs.

post-45367-143142607429_thumb.jpg

I decided the only option left was to pull the new gauges and repaint the inside. What I found was crazy, the new ones were painted gloss white on the inside, but not all the way and the rest was fresh copper. The reflective ring that actually lights the face and pointer, was painted black, no reflecting going on there...

post-45367-143142607456_thumb.jpg

I had an extra, original speedo, so I took it apart and hit several stores, trying to match the 2 different paint colors (inside can color and back of speedo color)(the can color is not exactly white...)....

post-45367-143142607478_thumb.jpg

After SEVERAL stores, I wound up at Home Depot. With disassembled speedo in hand, I went to the paint counter. After about 1 hour, 2 employees and 3 or 4 helpful customers later (all looking through a giant color swatch book) one of the customers (who happened to be a very nice local artist with a great eye for color shades) found 2 shades that came as close as possible. BEHR Ultra Flat Riverside Blue (530D-5) for the back of the gauges and the reflector ring and BEHR Ultra Flat Celtic Grey (490E-3). Cool thing was, since these are home paints, they sell them in sample 8oz jars for about $2.50 each!!! I did 2 coats on each part, with a brush. Kept it as smooth as possible, but since you never actually see the surfaces, I wasn't worried about brush strokes. The backs of the new gauges were painted a gloss blue, but I figured I would do them anyway, just so all would match as close as possible. I did tape the front of the reflector ring, so the black that does show, didn't get ruined. I did NOT repaint the original speedo. I left it completely alone, other than putting in the 2 new white LEDs. I started with the tach, just to see the difference....

post-45367-143142607488_thumb.jpg

.....then the Fuel/Temp/Oil gauges....

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The change is like day and night!!! They are all bright enough now that I actually have to turn down the brightness!!! WOOHOO!!!! Total cost, about $6 for the paint and $10 for the LEDs!!!!

NOW the gauges are done!!!!! Of course, now I need to change the rest of the dash lights to white LEDs so they'll all match!!! LOL

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