Dash wiring and swap 1972

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Joined
Feb 23, 2011
Messages
514
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Location
Santee, SC
My Car
72 Mach I Q code
61 Impala
67 Chevelle
78 Bradley GT II
I have a standard Idiot light dash that is complete with harness.

Also have a complete dash with the 3 center gauges and the tachometer..I do not have the harness for this dash.

I would like to use the tach instrument dash in my car.

Anyone else dealt with this? what was the solution? I don't see the harness in any of my parts books.

 
Been there done that Don.

I found this as I was looking for the page that listed how to convert it over....while this will tell you how to do it..I would recommend finding a donor harness.

www.mach1club.com/showthread.php?tid=1672

I did the conversion on my car last year and after a few fits of " why the hell did I ever start this" it worked out in the end. I changed over to a harness from an original tach/gauges car. I didn't want to cut mine up.

Ken

 
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Guys

I can say it's well worth the effort....I was glad to be able to take the tach off of my steering column and have it where it belongs and having the gauges !! But just remember that while it says on the link I added previously, you don't have to replace your old harness ,it does state for it to work you have to get a correct connector from a tach car....so instead of cutting up a good wiring harness why not just replace it? Just remember that you want the main engine feed and the under dash harness. I got through it with some help from a few guys that are on this forum and who are also on VMF...remember we are only as far away as the email.

Ken

 
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DON29163,

Ford used several various harnesses in 71 thru 73

You will need a 72 Mach 1 harness and even then there are a couple of different ones.

Other things to check for are...

With or with-out A/C

Drum or Disc brakes

Other options, console, map light.

You can use other year harnesses but make sure you get all the wiring and then you will have to do some modifing.

Don

 
Guys

I can say it's well worth the effort....I was glad to be able to take the tach off of my steering column and have it where it belongs and having the gauges !! But just remember that while it says on the link I added previously, you don't have to replace your old harness ,it does state for it to work you have to get a correct connector from a tach car....so instead of cutting up a good wiring harness why not just replace it? Just remember that you want the main engine feed and the under dash harness. I got through it with some help from a few guys that are on this forum and who are also on VMF...remember we are only as far away as the email.

Ken
Hi Ken..How much do you have to remove to get the harness out, and howlong did it take? I have 3 complete clusters 1 w/tach and 2 w/o. but have W/O harness.

 
Guys

I can say it's well worth the effort....I was glad to be able to take the tach off of my steering column and have it where it belongs and having the gauges !! But just remember that while it says on the link I added previously, you don't have to replace your old harness ,it does state for it to work you have to get a correct connector from a tach car....so instead of cutting up a good wiring harness why not just replace it? Just remember that you want the main engine feed and the under dash harness. I got through it with some help from a few guys that are on this forum and who are also on VMF...remember we are only as far away as the email.

Ken
Hi Ken..How much do you have to remove to get the harness out, and howlong did it take? I have 3 complete clusters 1 w/tach and 2 w/o. but have W/O harness.
I started with taking out 3/4 of the dash, from there I moved to taking out the consoleas I needed to also get the centre out to put in the gauges. I also took out the drivers seat as I figured why should I be twisted like a pretzel under the dash. I had to drop the steering wheel to help with the removal of the cluster and I unbolted the dash from the firewall so I could get my hands behind there to work. Sounds like a lot but really it's not that bad.

Ken

 
If the car does not have a/c it is best to pull the whole dash out it is really easy to remove with no a/c. I did this to my first mach 1 when I was 17 changed all wiring from front to back in one day with harnesses from a donor car! Mine did not have tach. having an a/c harness does not matter if your car does not, just plug in everything that will plug in. The other a/c wires do not have to be connected for everything to else to function. The reason to get the correct year harness is because they changed the turn signal harness plug at bottom of the column.

71-72 are the same

73 is different

My car was a 72 and the harness came out of a 73, but all I had to do was pull the plug pins out and swap the plastic part of the connectors. You have to label or diagram the colors and where they go in the plug. The bonus to all this was I also added another option in the process the donor car had the convenience group too! So I got map,underdash,glovebox,trunk,hood,and parking brake warning lights. COOL!!

Hope this helps. Tom

 
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