VN V8 Chaser dash into VN V6

[Whiteford88]

Ok, so I know this will sound stupid but bare with me.
My mate gave me a dash out of an ex VN police chaser. Has the RPM Meter where the LVL1 TEMP is, and speed in the middle with temp and fuel on the right.
I thought because it was a v8 dash cluster that it wouldn't ever work, however, when I pulled the old LVL1 out and threw in the new one, (Which had 140000kms on it, my original has 219538) it started up fine, the RPM meter was spot on, the fuel went straight up and the temperature gauge responded accordingly.
The reason I wanted a new dash was:
1) The little cog that turns the odometer had turned to cheese and the car stopped counting kms
2) I wanted the RPM Tacho in the dash instead of the dodgy aftermarket tacho I have
So, instead of changing the kms on the odometer with 140000kms on it, i switched the units over, and plugged it all in, started up the car and away she went, the revs went up, temperature went to half and the fuel went up instantly (old one was stuck so im going to brag about that for a while.. hehe) but when the car went into gear, the speedo did not move, didn't even consider it, and the kms still did not look like they were moving?
Now I'm wondering, is it because its out of a v8 its not working? (Shouldn't be, because the backs are the same and I am using the V6 odometer unit after all) or all the piss arsing around i've been doing maybe I haven't hooked the wires up right or i've damaged it?
I just don't see how it couldn't work, it was working earlyer when I drove home from work, and the rpm and temp and fuel are all working 100%? faulty unit maybe?
Or has someone done this before and it just simply doesn't work?

Thanks in advance, Craig.

[peter65]

hey. i put a vn v8 level 2 dash into my vp v6 for the same reasons as you, stuffed odometer and no tacho.

first, the tacho will be innacurate and there is a sticky here somewhere that tells u what u need to do (change a couple of resistors in the cluster printed cct) to recalibrate it. I had no problems with the speedo/odometer (if there is a problem in the speedo wiring the odometer wont work). i did have problem with turn-signal green arrows, but that was a difference between the vp/vn wiring, and thats a whole new story.....

i also found that the connectors were dodgy and it took a couple of attempts to have them "connect" and stay connected (oh and the plastic mounts that the cluster attaches to the dashboard on were broken on mine and that did not help one bit!).

have fun.

[lemusa]

Can you just switch the speedo cluster bit over? I did that with one of mine. For counting the k's that will only work if the speedo works I "think" so the two are most likely related. ALso remember to switch the little switch at the back to 60L tank cos if its from a v8 itl be set to 80L

And as far as damaging it all I can say is mine have taken a fair beating gettin moved around the shed etc and still work fine

[88GreenVN]

You can take the 'cog' out of the working speedo and put it into yours and the k's will work again. All the wiring is the same for Level 1 and L2 clusters. So no need for any change there.

[Whiteford88]

All great advice, however, I fixed it, and this is my story :P

I put the old unit (speedo) which I KNEW worked into the V8 dash cluster and drove the car down the driveway, still no go. New cog was in and the odo wasn't working either.

So, I put the old unit into the old cluster again, plugged it in and tested it out, worked absolutely fine!
So, I converted my lvl1 cluster into a lvl2 as all the wiring hotspots and everything is on the blue plastic sheet on the back, all you need is the running gear.
However, I was unsure of this and just used the rpm meter to start with, I cut a hole, sandpapered back the blue acrylic paint s*** or whatever it is, and screwed it all in. It worked fine? as accurate as my external tacho (which is basically 99% accurate, VERY responsive) and I was very happy. So I did the fuel as well, and the temp, both worked fine also, the fuel is no longer sticking either.

What I DID notice is the little comp chip in the top left hand of the inside of the dash cluster, they were slightly different. The old one had [6] written inbetween a resistor and a diode, and the V8 one had [8] written inbetween two resistors, next to a diode? So I am presuming that had something to do with it, either way, switching all the gear was a pain in the ass, but in the end, it works!

Craig.