Welcome to Just Commodores, a site specifically designed for all people who share the same passion as yourself.

New Posts Contact us

Just Commodores Forum Community

It takes just a moment to join our fantastic community

Register

How to convert a V6 tacho to suit a V8

Bilbs

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
227
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Age
39
Location
Morwell
Members Ride
2016 VFII SSV Sportwagon
Or the other way around

OK, i have seen a few threads on asking how to do this, and with the popularity of the L2 to L3 dash conversions, i figured it would be usefull for people to know how to convert their tach to save to cost of hunting the rarer, V8 L3 Cluster.

The basic tools you will need to do this if the cluster is in the car are as follows.

No2 Phillips Heads Screwdriver
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Small Flatblade screwdriver (Jewelers Type)
Soldering Iron (Or if your american, a Soddering Iron lol)
Solder
Pair of pliers
Clean work area
A Cold can
About an hour of your weekend


First things first, is to remove the cluster from the car, if you already have it out, you get to skip the step, so you can have a drink while you wait for the rest of us to catch up to ya ;)

Start by unscrewing 2 phillips head screws in the top of the dash surround, then tilt the steering wheel to its lowest posistion
Grasp the buttom of the surrond, and jerk/pull it towards you, this should release it from the clips and it will pull out, reach behind and unplug any switches, but take not of which plug goes to which switch, i happen to know the th ac plug will plug into the hazard switch lol
Drop the fuse panel cover down, use the flat blade to undo the clips that hold it up, now on the RH side of the cluster from underneath you will fell a connector, unclip this from the cluster
Now there are 2 scres that hold the cluster to the dash, remove these and the cluster will slide out towards you.

Well done, now you may have a mouthfull of your can if you like, and take the cluster to your work area (dont forget to take your can with you, dont want it getting hot in the car :p)

Anyone who skipped the first step can pickup with the rest of us here

There are 3 small screws in the bottom of the cluster at the front that look like a cross between flat and torx, just use a flat and remove these, you can then unclip the front of the cluster and put it out of the way, next there may be a black surround left in there, remove this as well, and place it aside.
Now there will be 3 small nuts on the back of the cluster that holde the tacho in, use the pliers to remove these and the tacho will come out of the cluster.

Now to remove the face of the tacho, grasp the needle in the center, and gently twist in anticlockwise againts its stop while gently pulling up at the same time, this will remove the needle, take note of where it pointed before you take it off, take not at what angle you were looking at it while it was pointing there, you will need to remember these for putting it back together.
Remove the 2 tiny black screws that hold the face on, now the face and light diffuser will both come off, and there you have it, your V6 tach waiting to be modded

Now you will nitice some resistors on the PCB of the tacho, R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5. R1 remains unchanged, on your V6 unit R3 and R4 are blank, and R2 and R5 have a resistor in them. You need to take the resistor out of R2, and put it into R3, then move the resistor from R5 to R4, and last you will put a 220K ohm resistor into R2, if you dont wanna be bothered to buy one, you could rat this outta your old V8 tacho, level 2 or 3, it will be the same value.

Now just reverse the dissasebaly precedure and you have a Working V8 Tach
This is how i did mine about 6 months ago, and it works perfectly.

I have atached a pic of each tach for your reference, and if you are going lev 2 to lev 3, dont worry, they still go to the same values, even though they look like they are in a different spot, if you trace the busses on the back of the board, they are wired identical, just on a diff shaped pcb, so hope this helps ya out, and ahh, dont forget the scales
 

centy

Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Messages
911
Reaction score
6
Points
18
Members Ride
Vp series 2
ok dumb question but i recently scored a dash with a production date stamp of 12/ 96 and it only has 3 resistor spots
r1 red blue brown gold
r2 red brown black yellow
r3 red red yelolow gold
any ideas?
 

Bilbs

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
227
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Age
39
Location
Morwell
Members Ride
2016 VFII SSV Sportwagon
45359d1204455111-converting-vr-tacho-suit-8cyl-6cyl-level-3-tacho-circuit-v8-info.jpg

45358d1204455111-converting-vr-tacho-suit-8cyl-6cyl-level-3-tacho-circuit-v6-info.jpg


These 2 images show the differences, the L2 tachs are the same, although they do look different, they are not, just a different layout, due to a diff shaped PCB
 

jimmig81

New Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2007
Messages
70
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
East Melbourne
Members Ride
V8 WH
This is cool mate converted vn to an 8 an im gonna convert a vs to an 8 so thanks
 

Bilbs

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
227
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Age
39
Location
Morwell
Members Ride
2016 VFII SSV Sportwagon
i cant see why not, i wouldnt have a clue on what to change, i imagine ya might use the V8 link posistion, then half the resistance of r3 maybee, just a guess, try it at your own risk, if ya fry ta tach, or ignition dont blame me
 

pow3rslave

DoNothing Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
1,059
Reaction score
24
Points
38
Location
eastern subs, vic
Members Ride
VP 5.0L
hey man, great thread, there's just one thing i'm not clear on.

  • You need to take the resistor out of R2, and put it into R3
  • move the resistor from R5 to R4
  • last you will put a 220K ohm resistor into R2, if you dont wanna be bothered to buy one, you could rat this outta your old V8 tacho, level 2 or 3, it will be the same value.

i've done most of this. i moved r2 to r3, and r5 to r4. but looking at the original resistor in r2 (now in r3) it's red, red yellow, which makes it 220k +-5% anyway.
also just wanted to check your new r2 value of 220k ohms was right because the one in your v8 pic seems to have different bands (hard to tell tho)
resistor code calculator
 

Brett

Legend
Joined
Jun 2, 2003
Messages
89
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Gladstone, QLD
Members Ride
VZ SV6
Is it possible to just swap the whole tacho units around?

Say you have a V8 level 3 cluster with high kms and V6 level cluster with low kms, could you pull the tacho unit out of the V8 one and put it in the V6 one?
 

SMG_07

New Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2009
Messages
44
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Members Ride
2004 Holden Monaro V6 N\A
Is it possible to just swap the whole tacho units around?

Say you have a V8 level 3 cluster with high kms and V6 level cluster with low kms, could you pull the tacho unit out of the V8 one and put it in the V6 one?

same Q
really want 2 know!
 

SMG_07

New Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2009
Messages
44
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Members Ride
2004 Holden Monaro V6 N\A
Aheeeeeem...
Still really what to know man !:banstick:
 
Top