Blair Williams
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- DSM, Iowa
Yep. I did it. I took the full gauge cluster from a '90 4.0L XJ and slapped 'er into my '85 2.5L. I would just like to offer a few tidbits of advice if there are others out there with an '84-'86 looking to get rid of those damn idiot lights.
First of all, as I know now, the best thing for this era of jeep is to find a full gauge cluster from a 2.8L V6, because this will bolt right up. Finding one of these in your area is probably impossible, as it was for me.
I happened upon mine at a junkyard, full of gauges in all its glory. Someone had taken the bezel and left the cluster for me to take, so I got it instantly. After plopping down $15 for the unit, I began to take it apart. As i read in another post, in order to put a 6-cyl cluster into a 4-cyl jeep and make the tach work, you must take it apart and adjust the screw on the back. This was correct, and I found that after removing 5 screws I had the tach removed and the screw turned counterclockwise, set to 4-cyl.
When it came time to remove my old cluster, I had a f*ck of a time getting the speedometer cable off, until I finally realized the damn thing has a clip. 10 minutes later, I realized which direction to push the clip. (grrr) Now came the moment of truth. Having since realized that the cluster was meant for a chrysler motor and it was being installed on an AMC, i had doubts the cluster would work on this old rig. Sure enough, though, all the gauges worked perfectly, except the speedometer cable, which i was avoiding having to install.
Now that I knew it worked, it was time to put on that speedo cable. Grrrrr, again. It took me some time to realize that the speedo cable input on the new cluster would not bolt up to the old speedo cable. In '86-'87 they apparently changed the mechanism on it, which really pissed me off. Eventually, i ended up tearing off the clip from my old cluster and duct taping the thing to the new one, cramming the thing up in there and taping the hell out of it until it stayed.
Tisk, tisk, I know, duct tape should not be the solution to the world's problems, but eh, i'm tired of screwing around with the thing. Therefore, to everyone who plans this modification, it seems you have 3 options set before you. 1, you could rig the thing up there with tape, or if you're industrious, a sturdier apparatus; 2, you could go and get the speedo cable off the jeep the cluster came out of (which i'll be doing on saturday), or 3, you can take the speedometer itself out of your old cluster and put it into your new one. This will require you to solder up a bunch of crap so you might as well spend those efforts doing either option 1 or 2 and not end up having a speedo that doesn't match the rest of the cluster.
Well, I suppose that's about all I have to say about that. If anyone else has had similar experiences, feel free to post them here.
First of all, as I know now, the best thing for this era of jeep is to find a full gauge cluster from a 2.8L V6, because this will bolt right up. Finding one of these in your area is probably impossible, as it was for me.
I happened upon mine at a junkyard, full of gauges in all its glory. Someone had taken the bezel and left the cluster for me to take, so I got it instantly. After plopping down $15 for the unit, I began to take it apart. As i read in another post, in order to put a 6-cyl cluster into a 4-cyl jeep and make the tach work, you must take it apart and adjust the screw on the back. This was correct, and I found that after removing 5 screws I had the tach removed and the screw turned counterclockwise, set to 4-cyl.
When it came time to remove my old cluster, I had a f*ck of a time getting the speedometer cable off, until I finally realized the damn thing has a clip. 10 minutes later, I realized which direction to push the clip. (grrr) Now came the moment of truth. Having since realized that the cluster was meant for a chrysler motor and it was being installed on an AMC, i had doubts the cluster would work on this old rig. Sure enough, though, all the gauges worked perfectly, except the speedometer cable, which i was avoiding having to install.
Now that I knew it worked, it was time to put on that speedo cable. Grrrrr, again. It took me some time to realize that the speedo cable input on the new cluster would not bolt up to the old speedo cable. In '86-'87 they apparently changed the mechanism on it, which really pissed me off. Eventually, i ended up tearing off the clip from my old cluster and duct taping the thing to the new one, cramming the thing up in there and taping the hell out of it until it stayed.
Tisk, tisk, I know, duct tape should not be the solution to the world's problems, but eh, i'm tired of screwing around with the thing. Therefore, to everyone who plans this modification, it seems you have 3 options set before you. 1, you could rig the thing up there with tape, or if you're industrious, a sturdier apparatus; 2, you could go and get the speedo cable off the jeep the cluster came out of (which i'll be doing on saturday), or 3, you can take the speedometer itself out of your old cluster and put it into your new one. This will require you to solder up a bunch of crap so you might as well spend those efforts doing either option 1 or 2 and not end up having a speedo that doesn't match the rest of the cluster.
Well, I suppose that's about all I have to say about that. If anyone else has had similar experiences, feel free to post them here.
