gauge cluster question

[ravinaznracer]

I have a 86 hardbody and my gauge cluster is all messed up... i bought it like that... i am trying to figure out what other years can i use that would be compatible.... i really dont like the way it looks.... so any ideas or tips would help me out a lot... i am new to nissan trucks

[Rev_D21]

I imagine any hardbody cluster from 86.5-92 will plug and play. If you get a cluster with a tach you will need to do a bunch of extra work to get it functional. Lots of people have done dash swaps to the 94-97 dash because it looks less blocky, more modern. Search some of these pages, there are a good many threads about swapping parts here.

[nismoka24e91]

i put a cluster from a 89 240sx in mine.

[ravinaznracer]

how was the install with that? was it like plug and play or was there a lot of splicing and cutting? oh yea another question... my needle for that speedometer is half broken and just hangin so whats the easiest way to take it apart... i cant find a write up for it at all...

[RT22]

speedo is easy, remove front plastic cover and pull off needle. Now if like mine it has a little peg to stop needle from falling to bottom in rest mode. When i pulled mine off I know the post moved down a bit. So to get it back accurately I ran at top 3 gears at 45 to get tach reading. used this to reinstall while driving. Then was able to used tach reading to check accuracy of speedo. basically I mapped speed at say 30 40 50 and 60 in top 2 gears then made sure they were all right after swap. Just slide the cluster in with no plastic cover and have a friend reinstall while you go so 50 in top gear, according to tach reading. I know in 5th 55mph is exactly 2250 rpm so that is what I used to pop needle back on. You can do it yourself but easier to get a friend to pop it on when you are driving and making sure tach in top gear is right on a predetermined speed. Not perfect but dang close. ALL if speedo is accurate to start with. or get a cop to radar you in a limited area.

[nismoka24e91]

no plug and play. re-wire was pretty easy though. every gauge and idiot light works. you have to convert the speedo from mech. to electric.

[ravinaznracer]

THx RT22 i have the cluster out and going to take a look into taking it apart tomorrow... so now is the new issue... an aftermarket tach... i have all my wires ran right but i guess the green one is not hooked up right. I know that with the type of coils that has a pos and neg you just hook it up to the negative.... but i have the ones that has a harness connected to it, it has a green and black wire... i assumed that i needed to wire to the black one and i did but i get no signal.... i read the instructions and it said to hook up to "white wire in the box" so should i do that or is there any other way? dont really like messing with the harness thats why... or should the way im doing it now work also?

[nismoka24e91]

just run the green wire through the firewall to the coil. the neg. coil wire should be blue but yours may be different. i dont know. im assuming sense yours is a 86 you have the z24 engine

[ravinaznracer]

yea it has a z24, it has the 2 coils and it has a plug on each that has a green and black wire on each... i tried both the black ones and they are not the right ones, so i am going to try the green ones....