Overview:

Swapping a 6-cylinder into your 240sx? Then you NEED this mod! Note: use the gauge cluster removal guide as this writeup covers swapping the tach only.

Difficulty: ***

Time: 39 mins. - 1 hr.

Cost: n/a

Materials:

- I30 Tachometer- wire- solder- ring connectors- nail polish or paint marker

Tools:

- Phillips head screwdriver- cutoff wheel- needlenose pliers- power drill- wire crimping tool- soldering iron

Procedure:

Start with I30 cluster and take out the tachometer.



Three screws in the back, couldn't be more simple.



Cut about a 1/2" off the bottom. Cut piece should look like this...



After you take the s13's old tach & clock out do some trimming on the inside.*A pair of needle nose pliers are great to just break it out*



Then take the I30's tach and thread the 3 mounting screws in evenly.Put lots of nail polish on the top of the screws and sit it down into the cluster to mark the holes you have to drill. (clever)



After drilling test fit it and make some wires with eye crimp-on ends.*Top left is ignition**Bottom left is ground**Top right is tach signal*Also, note that the plastic/copper was cut out around drilled holes.



Make note of the yellow line and circles! CONNECT THESE! This is where the ignition wire needs to go (top left, use an eye crimp and just put it under the screw.)

The black ground wire (bottom left) needs 3 eye crimps. Its easy to just follow the copper in the plastic or just look at this picture.If you see where the plug hole is cut into you will see that you also have to shave that part of the connector off also. This is OK because these wires can be relocated (see next step).



This step require soldering in 2 places...

The 1st is the middle contact. ILL+

You need to solder in a wire onto the resistor before it goes in. there is already a solder there so you can just heat it up and stick a wire in.The 2nd is the bottom contact. HICAS, don't know if its needed but i did it anyway.

You need to solder a wire onto the copper pad before it go's under the plastic (I did this after I took the pic, sorry).

The top contact is TAM (tachometer signal) just for your curiosity.

These 3 wires (TAM, ILL+, and HICAS) need to be wired into the wires that used to be in the connector before cutting it to fit the new tachometer's chip board.



OK, you got the wiring down now back to fitment.Note the hole I drilled into the bottom of the tach, this allows the gauge face to be flush with the black cover. Just take the tach out and fit it onto the bezel to get the hole's position.

Also note the yellow pieces on the left and right. They are parts of a plastic squeegee I cut up to make sure the gauge sits flush in the cluster and doesn't droop.



You may also have to trim the line on the back of the bezel too.



Snap the bezel on and make sure there isn't a huge gap here.



And finally, this is what the finished product looks like.



by Fibre Guy