Dumb Dash Swap Question

Forum for the Xterra, Frontier and Hardbody, the smaller workhorses of the Nissan lineup!
xhighfidelityx
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun May 23, 2010 10:28 am
Car: 1991 Nissan D21
Location: Utah

Post

Well,

I went to a junk yard and found a great donor for the new dash style and I read that for the most part the swap is pretty much bolt on. The one problem I am running into is switching from a mechanical to an electronic speedometer sensor. My donor vehicle was a 4WD, but I still took the sensor because I wasn't sure if it would work.

I later read that it would not. I did go to a dealership and tried to order one, but the 40 dollar estimate that someone posted was a little off, at least in my area. They wanted 175 bucks for the sensor and another 25 bucks for the gear. I really don't know why I even bother checking on the dealership anymore. :gotme

Anyway, frustrated because none of my junkyards have late 90s pickups that are 2WD 4 Cyclinders I thought I would at least see what happens if I shove the supposedly wrong sensor in and it fit! Well, as far as I know it fit. When I say it fits, is it goes in easily with no force and I can install the lock bolt. Unfortunately, I have no idea if it really will work unless I do the swap and I really don't want to do that until I get other thoughts. My real questions is an opinion of if this is feasable, or fitting and actually working are two different things, or worse if I were to test this theory would it tear up my transmission?

The one from the 4WD is a 19 tooth sensor and mine is a 17 tooth, which I wasn't too worried about because I have bigger rims now and the 17 tooth sensor was off anyway. I thought since I was switching out the sensor, I would swap in a 19 tooth to see if it puts me closer. Mostly a stab in the dark really. So, another question is this the way you would fine tune the speedometer after up-sizing the rims or is it because the sensors are different all together? The donor vehicle didn't have wheels, so I have no idea what the size was, but I assume with it being 4WD they would have been at least one size bigger.

Anyway, any thoughts or advice would be awesome. I hate that the only thing that is holding me up from this project is a sensor. :chuckle:


seang
Posts: 2026
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:09 pm
Car: Ford Fiesta ST
Location: Michigan

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that's a bummer

User avatar
RT22
Posts: 841
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:55 am
Car: 1991 nissan hardbody

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mrecoolger has a post with a ton of responses and in that post it covers this area. look on main page here and open his posts I looked at it a couple of days ago should be on the main page.

xhighfidelityx
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun May 23, 2010 10:28 am
Car: 1991 Nissan D21
Location: Utah

Post

I didn't see anything that mrecoolger has done as far as dash swap. I also did a search and didn't see him specifically talk about this modification.

I did end up just using the one out of the donor vehicle. I haven't wired it up yet, but it did fit in the transmission. I will post the result. I have looked everywhere and the cheapest new one I can find cost 125. Just a head's up for anyone that wants to do this mod, the sensor isn't 40 bucks anymore.


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