Hey guys,

I had my speedometer/Odometer break on me a few months back. Finally took it to a local speedometer shop and was told that it's toast. (forgive my lack of knowledge on what the parts are called) The thing that spins inside the speedometer (the part that the cable spins) turns freely, won't even move the needle. The guy told me that it was because Chrysler made some piece or another out of plastic and it was ruined due to 190,000+ miles worth of wear and tear. Regardless, the guy told me he couldn't fix it to stock because he couldn't make or buy the plastic piece needed. He could however, convert it to use a Ford spinning assembly, which uses metal over plastic. The guy really didn't seem like he wanted to go through the trouble and when I asked him the price he told me it'd be $500 for the new set up and a new cable.

Well now I'm at a fork and I need some opinions on which way to go. The first option of course would be to let the guy fix it and go on with the stock cluster. The other option is to build my own dash cluster using various gauges of my choosing. Right now I'm leaning toward constructing the dash cluster for a couple reasons.

If I build my own cluster I can use any variety of gauges I want. I can get rid of the old Ammeter and use a Volt meter or just omit an electric gauge all together. The gauges of choice for me would be Speedo/Odometer, Tach, Temp, Fuel, and Volt? (Not sure on the last one). Also, the gauges would provide their own light which will increase night time visibility over the stock set up. I've measured the stock cluster and the replacement face place would need to be 9 1/2" wide and between 4 1/2" and 5 1/2" tall depending on the spot. I mapped out that I can put one 3" gauge in the center (Speedo/Odo) with 4 2" gauges toward the outside. This also leaves space for the stock gear letters, two turn signals, E-Brake light, and Oil Light.

The down side would be that brand new gauges, at least the set I'm looking at, tend to be fairly pricey. Not $500 pricey but $350ish. On top of that, I'd have to make the face plate. Which doesn't seem to hard, I've been looking at this guy's thread and it's pretty straight forward. That is, until I get to his wiring, the biggest down side to me.

If I move forward with making it, I think aluminium seems the easiest approach but wood might be just as easy. And then there is my friend who is suggesting fiber glass, which I'm not too familiar with. Opinions on the material?

Thoughts and opinions on all of it?

I appreciate any and all help,
Aspen76

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76 Dodge Aspen
225 Super Six w/ Dutra True Dual Exhaust

http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg5 ... AG0095.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/user/BZuko1?feature=guide

I did something similar, but wanted to make it appear somewhat stock, so I modified a stock bezel and used aftermarket gauges.

http://www.earlyabodyforum.com/board/me ... 1346557368

There are additional matching gauges that will be mounted on a console panel.

You might try here for a rebuild of your stock cluster: http://www.ddinstruments.com/index.php? ... PAodbxgA1g

But it sounds like you're up to the challenge of building your own. That's a truly impressive panel building thread, the best I've ever seen. Doing it that way you get to choose and create the exact look you want.

Installing a new ammeter would be my choice, but I've used them for years. That does require running high current wiring through the firewall, but the factory stuff generally lasted for some decades. Modern materials and techniques remove any doubt for me. Installing a volt meter is much, much simpler, and I highly recommend that you do so. But it's your car, your money, and your choices! Just for grins, I might put both a voltmeter and an ammeter in my cluster. I used to be a radio station engineer and all the transmitters had both. In a car either is sufficient, but I would not do without one or the other.

FWIW, I vote for aluminum or plexiglass for ease of use. There are plenty of wood veneers available if that's the look you want. Fiberglass fibers are terribly itchy and hard to wash off.

Go for it, and post pictures!

ATB

BC

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'64 Dart GT convertible, 64 Dart 170 2-door post sedan in faded blue and rust (the Az Dart) & a sixty THREE Dart 170 2-door post sedan in faded blue and rust. (future project)
Early Dart Disorder (EDD) is real, and I've got it!

I vote for aluminum too and lots of photos

Just a thought for the budget;
If you make it so the panel is easily removed, you could mark and center punch all the gauge location on the backside of the panel but only install the first gauge or two with the rest pre-wired and waiting for future cashflow. Then pull the panel, drill another hole and drop in another gauge. Personally, I'd start with a speedo and new ammeter and rely on oil psi and water temp 'idiot' lights temporarily adding those gauges and a tach later. I know it's cheesy but it's an option, I took a similar approach when I was seriously bust-out and needed a functional guage to replace a cooked ammeter. I had a 3 gauge panel mounted with two empty holes for a while

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1966 Coronet Deluxe

Just a friendly reminder that model 1976 mopar used shunt style ammeters in the A/F body lines...so a stocker/aftermarket ammeter would need to be wired differently (like the 1975- cars) to function correctly.

-D.Idiot

Sounds like a good case for using a voltmeter to me. I knew of that change, but didn't know when it was done. Thanks, D.I.

ATB

BC

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'64 Dart GT convertible, 64 Dart 170 2-door post sedan in faded blue and rust (the Az Dart) & a sixty THREE Dart 170 2-door post sedan in faded blue and rust. (future project)
Early Dart Disorder (EDD) is real, and I've got it!

Thanks for all the replies guys!

I think I'm going to do it, going to make some copies of my measured out drawing (getting tired of drawing it) at work and then start adding the correct sized gauge holes to mock up a design.

Aluminium it is!

I've download a few pages of wiring diagrams for my 76 aspen off of aspenandvolare.com and I'm going to give them a study once I get some time. I really need to map out as much as possible before really tearing in there because this is my daily driver.

The only thing that really intimidates me about this entire project is the wiring. It takes me a while to figure out a good wiring plan and once it is hooked up, it's always spaghetti. Once I get that figured out, I think everything will flow smoothly. What exactly is a shunt? Will upgrading to a volt meter allow me to cut out the extra charging cable I have running from my 120A Alt's output to the positive on my battery?

I really like Auto Meter's black faced 'Old tyme' gauges off of summit, just a bit expensive. I think If I'm to do this right, I need to do it all at once and wire it correctly all at once, the more I pull the thing out to add or fix things, the more of a chance I'll forget to connect a wire or I'll break something.

I'll be sure to post lots of pictures.

I really appreciate all the replies,
Thank you,
Aspen76

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76 Dodge Aspen
225 Super Six w/ Dutra True Dual Exhaust

http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg5 ... AG0095.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/user/BZuko1?feature=guide

Put in a terminal strip old wires to one side new wires to other side, but don't forget to have a paper of the layout. You might need to refer to your terminal strip layout sometime in the future.

Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

I agree, it would be much better to do it all at once or at least bench-build the gauge harness ahead of time. Here's my plan for the next go around for me (image lifted via google from Hotrodhotline). Rather than buy an a$$embled harness I'd make my own;




Even without ALL the gauges on hand, you could still layout and build the harness at the kitchen table. Daisy-chain the basic connections and use your own connecter for quick-release or terminal strip as Fopar mentioned. Make sure your harness pigtail is long enough to drop it through the cluster opening in dash as you set the gauge panel in place so it routs downstairs near driver's kick panel or wherever it's convenient to connect to your terminal strip or other connection/fuse sub-panel etc, etc. This could be ready to drop in after you have reconfigured the body side wiring and drop in it with your new assembled gauge panel/cluster.

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1966 Coronet Deluxe