Starting the cluster wiring

[wga240]

I've decided to use the R32 cluster with my RB20. I've read several posts by Nismo241 saying he just matched up the RB cluster plugs with the wires coming out of the KA cluster. I can handle this pretty easily, but once all wires are matched up does everything on the cluster work (besides speedo, of course)?

I think there'd have to be more than just wiring up the back of the clusters. What else has to be done? Surely one of the 3 plugs coming off the ECU harness that are in the interior of the car need to be spliced into my KA interior harness somehow?

I've read over all the info I can find but still don't really know where to begin to get this thing rolling.

[Nismo241]

You need to pick up your tach signal and temp signal from the ECU, same goes for your oil pressure and boost gauge. But the only way to get the oil pressure and boost pressure readings is to use the two sending units that came with the clip. The speedo cable cannot have any tight bends in it or it won't work right. But what I did was, run a wire directly from the ecu where it picks up the tach signal and ran it to the wire in the plug marked TAM. The rest is minor stuff really, talk to Apex_7, he has it too, actually I took mine out and went back to the stock 240sx one. BUt he still has his.

[wga240]

Thanks for the help. It's starting to make a lot more sense now.

Just out of curiosity, why'd you go back to the stock cluster? I've considered using the stock cluster since it would be a lot less wiring, but I've heard the temp gauge won't work properly and know the tach and speedo won't without the converter boxes McKinney (I believe) sells.

[Nismo241]

When I sell my car that would be one less complication for the new owner, and mine was never working properly, and I don;t have the time to sit down and do it again.

[wga240]

Well I really didn't feel like cutting my dash to get the R32 cluster to fit, or feel like wiring up the cluster. So I just took the tach out of my R32 cluster and made it fit into the KA cluster. Then I hooked up the tach and temp wires from the ECU harness to the plug off the KA chassis harness that sends the gauge signals. So now I've got a working tach, temp, and fuel level gauge. I've got a boost gauge and a/f ratio gauge ordered and will pick up an oil pressure gauge pretty soon. So hopefully I'll be good to go

[Nismo241]

How did you get the tach to work and fit?

[wga240]

Well as far as fitting, the 3 screws that hold it in line up. I had to cut some of the plastic crap off the back of the tach cause it hit the clock. I also had to drill a new hole in the tach for the clock knob and widen the hole for the clock display because it didn't line up exactly right. I'll try and grab a pic of it tomorrow, but I'm satisfied. Oh yeah I also put some thin black metal behind the tach to fill in gaps where it didn't quite fill up the hole in the black gauge cluster cover.

As far as getting it to work, I just connected the tach wire from the RB ECU Harness to the KA chassis harness on the plug where the KA ECU Harness plugged in to send the gauge info. Then all I had to do was plug in the KA cluster like normal and the tach works fine

[Nismo241]

I'm wondering what the stock KA tach will do when hooked up with the RB ECU???? We'll have to find out.

[spec-v5150]

I'm wondering what the stock KA tach will do when hooked up with the RB ECU???? We'll have to find out.

I was going to avoid all the above by getting an aftermarket tach

[wga240]

I'm wondering what the stock KA tach will do when hooked up with the RB ECU???? We'll have to find out.

Dunno I should have tried that before taking it out of my cluster. I heard it reads rougly 2x as high, but I don't know if that was for the SOHC or DOHC KA tach.

[wga240]

Here's a few pics of the R32 tach in the KA cluster





And an action shot



Overall I don't think it looks too bad in there, and if I actually cared about how it looks I'm sure I could find some kind of gauge overlay for it. In fact the flash really makes the little space I filled in with black metal around the tach MUCH more noticable than it really is. When you sit in the car it looks like it was made for the cluster, besides the color.