I have been collecting gauges for a year to install the Rocky Mountain gauge cluster in my '69 Dart. Since a ruptured my achilles tendon, and can;t drive the car for now, I am in the process of installing it now, and wondered if there was any advice floating out there about gauge placement and or wiring.

I cut the sh** out of my thumb last night getting the old gauge cluster out. Boy what a poor piece of engineering that design is. You have to be a double jointed midget (sorry, "small person") to work on the factory gauges. Plus you have to un hook the stearing colum bolts and push it all down to get the gauge out. Even then it is an enraging task that will test the patience of Job, as well as the thickness of the skin on your hand and fingers. I am trying to design the wiring so that one or two easily accessible plugs will wire the dash.

This is a really frightening task. The inside of the car now looks like as bomb hit it. Parts are all over the place in boxes and bins, and wires are all hanging down with labels on them. The question is, how much of the old wiring can I or should I try to use. The harness appears to be in good shape. And are there male connectors that will match the female connectors on the ends of the stock, standard dash harness connections? Should I strip it completely out and start over, or work with what is there? A part of me wants to go buy a Painless universal harness and start fresh, but that would add maybe a month more of wiring. Thanks for any thoughts you might have here.

By the way the Rocky Mountain Dash looks nice, but it is not a perfect fit by any means. Alot of massaging and filing is required to get it to match., and fit.

Sam

_________________

I am starting to hear that more and more often on forums. its too bad too because if they kept the quality up it would be nice, but I could never justify that price..........I'll stop now since I have an interest in my own custom dash stuff.

I have heard from people that have gone with the painless wiring route with the gauge clusters I have made for them, that it is a good idea in some cases, but there are some things that the universal kit just doesn't cover and they have had to do allot of custom fabbing (electric windows, defroster, some wire just not quite long enough, oddball mopar connections that no one makes anything that can just "snap in"). if your gutting on both sides of the firewall it seems like a good idea, but if your doing just the interior you might be better off just fabbing your own stuff up.

*shudder*

Their stuff used to be pretty good. Too bad about all the low-bid Chinese parts and thin wires they like to use nowtimes.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.