Question about switching Instrument Clusters

[iPrism]

I've tried searching but I haven't really found any information that's helpful to me so far. I have a 96 Base and my cluster is the plain 3 gauge. I have a 94-95 cluster out of a z26 with the white face and blue lighting. Could someone point me in the right direction as to how I can get the new cluster working because I know it's not simply plug and play. Any help is greatly appreciated as I am completely lost as of right now.

[spacecadetz26]

is your car a v6 or 4cylinder? having a 96 you can only use a 96 cluster, 94-95 will work for 91-95 and you have to get a v6 for a v6 or 4cyl for a 4cyl. the only other thing you need is an oil pressure sensor for the gauge.

[iPrism]

I have a 3.1L V6

[iPrism]

I read in another thread that I can get it to work if I reroute the tach wire from the ecm to the icm. Can anyone confirm this?

[3X00-Modified]

Yes your correct, If you do the Tach wiring fix that's in my OBDII harness swap thread then you can use a 94-95 full cluster in a 96 car. Just remember to also install the oil pressure sensor for a gauge and not the light only. If you leave in there what you have the oil gauge will just peg to max pressure all the time.

[iPrism]

Thanks! Yeah I tried just swapping them out. The only two gauges that seemed to move were the voltage and the oil gauge to max pressure. So after doing your wiring fix the speedometer and everything should then work?

[3X00-Modified]

Yeah the only change in the clusters was how the Tach was run. Did you drive the car and the speedo did not work?

As noted those are the changes I made on my 95 and I ran that with a 96 engine harness and ECU and a 95 cluster and it ran fine.

[iPrism]

When I started it the speedometer dropped down a cm then didnt move, but I never left my driveway really either. It just seemed like only two gauges were moving, wasn't sure if they were all supposed to be working except the tachometer.

[3X00-Modified]

well the speedo wont move till you do... and the rest don't "move" much till something changes from normal, or temp goes up from C...

[iPrism]

So, the speedo will work correctly once I do the wire fix then? What I meant when I said they didn't move is with a lot of cars once you turn the key most gauges will move a little from their resting spot when the car isn't running.

[3X00-Modified]

no these don't move much at all from the resting spot... Only gauge that drops down to zero is Tach and oil pressure and coolant when you do key on the rest of them stay where they were when they were shut off unless something else changed such as fuel level or batt level. The spedo may drop a tiny bit lower when sitting but it doesn't move much at all.

And yes it will work, the ONLY thing your changing is the tach signal source since thats ALL that changed on the cluster for the 3rd time!

[iPrism]

Alright thanks for the info, I'll probably get working on it this weekend. Sorry I've had an extremely long weekend and I'm still out of it a bit lol. I'll probably post pictures this weekend after I get it sorted out. I definitely want to get this working since my interior was just redone all black and blue.