Tacho Dash

[VRSS]

Hey everyone, i bought my new car today, a Red VK with 96,000 km's

the only thing i dont like, is that the dash has a vacuum guage, and not a tacho.
my other VK has a tacho dash & i was wondering if it was possible to just put the tacho into my cluster intead of the vacuum guage, without swapping over my odometer, as i want to keep the original km's on the dash (for obvious reasons)
thanks for any help

[DANNY8]

It is definetely possible. I'm not sure about the factory wiring, but most aftermarket tacho's have a power wire, earth, light and a wire for the negative side of the coil. The vacuum gauge is mechanical, so there prolly won't be a power and earth wire for it, so just make ur own. The lights shouldn't matter coz they wouldn't be a part of the actual tacho gauge itself, and there should be a wire on it somewhere for the negative side of the coil, just run a wire from the coil to the tacho.....just a little bit of stuffing around but not really a difficult task.

[VRSS]

it had an aftermarket tacho on the right hand side of the dash next to the a pillar but i took it off i dont want too much cop attention with this car..

so is it possible to basically cut both my clusters in half, and join my tacho off the old one onto the rest of the new one and wire it up somehow? or would that wreck my odometer

[Shifty1]

im pretty sure you can take the tacho out of the old cluster and put it in the good one?

[JD]

you do need to rewire it a little as the vaccum and tacho gauges have different connections as my mate has a vc sle with vacuum gauge and he has to rewire it.

[DANNY8]

Yeah if u pull the cluster out there should only be a few screws holding the tacho gauge into ur cluster, same for the vacuum gauge in ur other cluster. Just unscrew and swap around, then u just need to wire it up.

[VRSS]

ok will give it a go tomorrow thanks everyone

[SCUMMY]

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[robbo10]

Your right again scummy, I did it myself recently. If you already have a dash with the tacho in it, that's the the one you use. Be prepared to swap the clock in the middle as well (VK dash) as the speedo (it's dead simple to do once you get inside the dash cluster), because they have two faces to suit the facia panel inside the clear plastic panel cover. There is the more square one, and there's the wide one which is approx. 1/2 inch wider (or 1 cm. for you clever buggers). Or you rob the dash out of a Berlina for the model commie you've got. I'm almost positive the Berlina came with a tacho, they didn't want it to look cheap, did they.

[VRSS]

yep my wrecked berlina has a tacho dash

... why do you have to swap the clock over aswell as the speedo? neither of my clocks do anything anyway

[robbo10]

If you look at the dash cluster and compare the opening where the clock is it might be a different size. If you have the small clock face (square one) and the fascia you put back on the front of the dash cluster has a wide opening for the clock, you will have holes either side of the clock face. At night these will show the inside of the cluster all lit up when all you want is to see the speedo and tacho and gauges. Just swap the speedo from your current dash into the Berlina dash. From memory it's just two screws hold the speedo in place after you get the fascia and clear plastic cover off the front of the cluster. If your lucky enough to still have one, there's a small black plastic peg in the middle the just sits there over the clock to adjust it. It will fall out coz there's nothin holdin it. If the clock is not working it will cost about $80 to get it fixed at an Instrument repairer, unless you can find one that works in a donor vehicle. That's if you need to know the time and don't have a watch and the car radio doesn't have a clock either.

[V-ahhh]

how did you go wiring it up?

[robbo10]

In a VK the tacho wire from the coil is in the round shaped connector for the dash cluster. It all just plugs together and works. The Berlina dash has the extra connecting pin that allows the tacho to get it's signal. The L & SL model dash circuit boards do not have the pin for the tacho. If you look at the face of the connector (round one, side with the holes, not the side with all the wires.) at about 4.00 o'clock (like on a clock face) there should be a tan coloured wire coming out the back of the connector (consult a Wiring diagram for certainty of colour and function of wire) if you track this back I believe this is the signal wire from the coil. My VK/SL had the wire but did not have the connection on the dash circuit board. So I used a Berlina circuit board which did have all the connections. Now I have a Tacho instead of that Econo thingy. Make sure u seel the vaccuum pipe in the dash (plug it with a finely threaded bolt) or work out which connector on the manifold (vaccuum tree) it comes from and blank of that branch of the tree and you can then take the hose right out of the car.