I am doing my Dodge Dart custom, and in doing so am thinking of making a custom panel. I'm pretty good at wiring. Oddly enough, don't know a lot about wiring. I think it's the case of, ooh, it worked, I'm a genius, and convientely forget that it took me three hours of planning in my head and at least three tries to get the wiring right. Anywho, what I was wondering is the mechanical aspects of doing this. I have know clue if an aftermarket tachometer will work with the slant 6 automatic. Do they work with the auto, or is it only workable on a stick shift? I was also wondering if another make speedometer would work, and if it did, does anyone know the type of modification it would require. I'm guessing I'd have to get it reset for sure, but I'm not sure if most speedo cable are the same. Is it a case where I need to splice the speedo cable and stick on the new speedo's plug? If anyone can help it'd be greatly appreciated so I might know if I need to work around the square speedo I currently have or if I can go hog-wild on dash cluster design.

Yes you can use a tach with an automatic. Most tach take their signal from the negative wire on the coil so the transmission doesn't matter. As far as the aftermarket speedo goes, I have never installed one but I am pretty sure that speedo cables are pretty universal. The speedo you buy should have instructions that come with it. I do know that you do not have to keep the square factory speedometer though.

Reed

That's good, I'm hoping to give my dash cluster a rounder look and doing a new speedometer would be nice. The only scary part is a did a parts estimate for the gauges needed. It's 130-155, and that's doing it myself. Probably will go ebay shopping and checking to make %100 sure that it's possible to use a speedo out of another car. Assuming I find one that has trip odometer and is round I'll be happy. That speedo out of JCwhitney coasts quite a bit and I really don't like it's looks a whole lot. I don't know, have a lot of work left. For one, I got to figure out the logistics: lighting, turn signals, anything else. Luckily the speedo, and possibly the MPG guage are the only expensive ones(and I'm not sure if I want to put the MPG gauge in), the rest of the gauages are fairly cheap when you think of the coast of buying a original, superb condition, dash gauge.

Been thinking along the same lines-duplicate existing panel in aluminum-keep my stock speedo and replace all others, possibly digital. Need to consider where spedo cable runs into trans as the housing varies trans to trans, read somewhere that were adaptors to help with this. If you were to go to late model chrysler speedometer might have some electronics you will also have to transfer over as most now include a transducer. Personally would stay with chrysler parts from mid 70s which should swap over with no problems. Even though its not what you want to do, check out Dakota digital as their guide though geared to their product has a good explanation of electronic transducers and how they are useful for non-factory applications and custom conversions

Modern aftermarket speedometers I've seen are electronic and need a sending unit that attaches to the cable drive on the transmission. When I asked a couple of suppliers if they had sending units for older Mopars, they hemmed and hawed a lot. You will have to talk to the manufacturer to get the straight scoop on a particular speedometer.

Ont thing to keep in mind is to buy gauges from the same manufacturer and the same series, or the lighting will be different. I'm going with the VDO Vision series for my Valiant, but have only installed a tach and vacuum gauge so far.

I'm currently designing a gauge mounting plate that will allow me to keep my stock bezels, but replace all the gauges and have them appear original.

There's a guy in town with a 1973 Dart 2-dr that did a custom job on it.
It's a 318 car, Sherwood Green, and he did the green digital readout for the entire cluster. Looked good, kinda weird having a retro car with the 'jetson's' look on the inside. He just sold it for $3800 last month.

-D.Idiot