Projects Vandalizing a Falcon dash cluster

First the back story: When I bought this car last March, it had a 93 AOD trans n' a 65 Mustang rear. The rear had a set of ancient Richmond Sportsman 4:11 gears that made it really peppy from light to light but were a bummer on I95 southbound @75mph;..

Anyhow, I got a 23 tooth speedo pinion drive gear ta' get the speedo in the neighborhood, but eventually the gear would strip all its teeth off in frustration after bout 100 miles of running around.

I talked to my buddy who builds transmissions all day for anything that moves an he tole me that was pretty typical, seein ; how the teeth were so fine and there was so may of them and yeah, Mister Slide Rule, I notched the underbody of my rusty ol tub so the speedo cable had a nice gentle bend in it were it come out the tail shaft.

So it came ta; pass that I bought a 2:80 open rear off a dude in Dover for $30.00 on Craig's list so's I could ditch the drag racin; gear set on egay and put a set of 3:55 gears in it, as soon as one of you dudes get off that trak-loc carrier yer hidin in the garage.

Laffin.

After puttin' in the pokey 2:80 rear, I was already sick a' crawlin'; under the car an; droppin;; one side of the cross member to swap out speedo gears so I swiped the Garmin from the Missus; Audi n' plugged it in the lighter hole.

So to make a long story even longer, I got sick of the wife whining about never bein able to find the GPS cuz it was in the Falcon bein the de facto speedometer.

So I sold some more useless bike shit and coughed up the bucks for a Speedhut GPS speedo, tachometer, and fuel gauge. I'm gonna be running a VDO water temp gauge I already had. I really, really like VDO stuff.


This'll prolly make the ACCA Falcon duffers shit their drawers but it's my ride an' if I wanna' put modern gauges in it, I'm doin; it.

Because I'm a former euro-trash-Bosch and Harley-Davidson mechanic, I'm queer for Deutsch connecters. Just lookin at all them little pins gives me a semi. So I got out the car schematic (and downloaded the gauge instructions) and butchered a harness together all the while takin' copious notes on wire colors n' such.

 

Dude, I’m retired and I spend my days screwin around: I obsessed on the connections for a few days before I actually jumping in the car and startin’ rippin’ an’ cutting.





Some moron had cut a great big nasty DIN sized hole in my dash so he could put the cheapest used Clarion AM/FM/CD player he could find at the junk yard in the dash. I paid stupid money for a delete plate, but I’m digressin’.

My complete donor cluster came from egay- I got it for $24.99 plus the freight. Nobody else bid on it, prolly’ cuz the dude sellin’ it said he’d put straight 12V to the gas n’ temp gauges.



So it was rainin this morning and I got all bored and took the cluster out an’ made all the connections that terminated in the 12 pin Deutsch connector that I’m pretty sure came from an old Police bike’s interconnect harness from under the fairing. And a great big body ground 16 gauge wired terminal with star washers n’ such.
And yeah, there are 2 oil pressure gauges. I had to fill the hole so I put in an old VDO cockpit gauge- it’s hooked up to a old dresser OPS sender on the TV port on the trans.



Dope’s kickin’ in now- Gauges will be here Wednesday…..n’ I’ll keep ya’ll posted on my progress or lack thereof.

 

I am keen to see how this works out...

 

Very nice. I'm diggin the go pedal too.
My wife made me take the one off her car. Too "gousch".
I put a flasher that plays "Love me tender" in instead. she cant figger that one out.

 

I did similar to my 63 Convertible's dash, but I used Auto Meter gauges, cuz I had them from another project that was still born. I'll have to go shoot a pic and post it.

 

Interesting!

 

I need a working odo from a compatible-to-1961 Falcon speedo.

Can't see pics here, so...PM me if it's a go.

Thanks,

Cosmo

 

I really wanted to go w/ a VDO speedo/tach/fuel level and a Auto Meter GPS unit but damn, Auto Meter is really proud of the GPS sender thinga-ma-jig. The other deal breaker for the VDO/AM set up was VDO don't make a 70-10ohm fuel gauge.

And the AM/VDO stuff woulda' set me back bou-cou bucks compared to the Speedhut set up.

Here's what I'm gettin:

http://www.speedhut.com/custom_gauge_description-gauge_type-Tachometer-auto_number-803.htm

http://www.speedhut.com/custom_gauge_description-gauge_type-Speedometer_GPS-auto_number-885.htm

http://www.speedhut.com/custom_gauge_description-gauge_type-Fuel_Level-auto_number-601.htm

Check the download for the gauge instructions; if it all works like they claim it does, it'll be the heat.

BTW: all you dudes cruisin early FoMoCo stuff w/ 70-10ohm fuel senders who don't give a damn what your fuel gauge comes from or looks like:
Get yerself to a H-D swap meet/costume party and pick up a used 75111-96B Dresser ('96-up) fuel gauge.
It's a 70-10 ohm 2 1/16" diameter gauge and quiet as it's kept, it's made by Delphi under license from VDO....there's usually buckets full of 'em from dudes swapping them out for fancier white face gauges, just like their buddies all got.....

 

Bench tested speedo, checked funtion of fuel gauge an tach in the car- eveythings' like copasetic, ya know? .

Off to pester my long sufferin' machinist.....

 

Very cool, I'm curios about that speedo in tunnels and on shitty days. Sometimes my handheld gps map screws up.

 

Dude, you must have real bad weather where you live...never had a GPS shit the bed cuz of weather, not here in the Commonwealth anyhow.

Speakin' of weather- it's been hotter'n F here for the last coupla' days.

When I motored over to the machinist's joint yesterday afternoon with my new fangled fancy pants gauges, my guy looked like somebody had thrown a bucket 'a water on 'im. No foolin, it was 102F (F for frickken' hot!) in his shop.

He blew me off till this mornin' when it was only 85F in his place @ 9AM.

He looked at the 3 3/8" gauges n' immediately started mumblin' and grumblin' about boring bits n' such.



He even made me lay it out! Why do I have to do everthing?



I swear, he had every damn light turned of in his shop 'cept them little lites on the machines.


This dude don't do car stuff. If you walked in carryin' a cylinder head he'd be lookin' atcha' like you weren't wearin' pants or sumptin.

 

So here's what I ended up with this mornin':




I got home an' spent about 45 minutes polishin' n' cussin and generally bitchin' n moanin' whilst the buffin' wheel repeatedly snatched my freshly cut piece of aluminium and threw it against the shop wall, all the while coverin me with Tripoli rouge.

Dude, it was a show. This was a lot different than polishin' big ole fork legs n' primary covers. After the third or forth time a' bendin' the shit out of it, I admitted defeat.




Not bad, not great either, but it'll do.

Next: my hands down, absolute fav-o-rite thing to do:



Wiring it all up! Seriously, I live for that shit!

Dope's kickin' in. Again.

Later

 

nice

 

Very nice!

 

I did the same about twenty years ago in my'62 using VDO guages as well. still out there. This time I'll be redoing it with a piece of stainless and doing an engine turned finish.

 

Deutsch connecters are the $hit. Expensive though...

 

Looks good, yeah the weather is f'ed here lol. Nice build

 

Dude, after workin' on H-D's for my local PD for the last 7 years or so, I've replaced dozens n' dozens a' busted up main frame wirin' harnesses. When ya'll thinka' Harley-Davidson think about One Hundred Years Of Tradition Uninterrupted By Progress. Seriously dude, I worked on em' for 10 years 'fore that, too n' thatsa' long time fer me on a single marque....

No shit, now I got bins fulla' Deutsch connectors n' all shapes n' sizes, and I love them little connectors.

Anywho, I got up real early when it was only 'bout 80F or so in my stinky ole garage n' commenced ta' start makin my harness.



In my haste to get them little itty-bitty lites, I spaced out and forgot that LED lamps won't work for a chargin' warnin' light; mostly cuz them LED's gotta' dedicated ground leg.

Oh, yeah dude, the chargin' system'll work, but the damn warnin' lamp stays lit cuz' it's feedin back ground thru the little LED.

No sweat, I dug thru all my special electrical trash and come up with a couple a incandesent H-D Police Pursuit indicator lamps that're red, so's I swapped out the oil warning lamp, too.

Next up was my single turn indicator lamp. Cuz it wuza' LED too, it would only work on one side or the other of the turn signal circuit feedin' from the switch lever. I needed another incandesent lamp.

Sure, Mr Slide Rule, I coulda' run two a' them green LEDs, but I only wanted one green turn indicator.......

After a quick trip to the electronics supply house, I had me really nice 14V lamp in a nice soothin' shade of green.



I run the cable fer' the GPS pickup thru my defroster vent/speaker grille thing. Whilst I had the grille out I spray bombed it satin black.

 

The moment of truth:



Dude, it all works and the GPS speedo is the shit. it's gotta' clock, direction of travel, mileage, 1/4 mile time (24.6) n' 0-60 time along witha' buncha' other stuff I ain't figured out yet.




Dude yeah, I'm a squirrel-

Thatsa' Busted Knuckle Garage suicide knob that the Missus got me.

 

Neat work. Well done.

 

Very nice, love them old Falcons, a 61 was my first car.

 

Nice! I think my favorite thing to work on is the wiring too. Even wired a '57 Chris Craft from scratch, that was fun.

 

Cool build and funny as hell loved it

 

Fun read. Looks good!

 

Missy,

Yer' right.

The Missus is downright cool.

I say it all the time: "If it weren't fer' her, I'd be livin' in a place with five other dudes and wonderin' who stole my hot dogs outta' the fridge right 'bout now".

But, I'm digressin' again, mostly cuz' I'm easily distracted.

Anywho, I been collectin' the parts to build me a nice 8" 3:55 rear on the webbbed 1968 third member case that come out the car 'fore I put in the pokey ol' Craig's list 2:80 rear...





I got me a 28 spline Yukon TracLoc carrier ta' go with da' Summit ring n' pinion gear set. I'm pretty sure they're Richmond Excel gears that're hencho in India n' all......




Dude, I'm tired'a callin' my old motorcycle customers ta' ask 'em to come over 'n yank on the torque wrench for me or ta' lift n' tote shit I can't pick up or pull on no more .

Ya' shoulda' seen the Missus pantin' an' pushin' on my big-assed Snap-On torque wrench whilst the yoke fer the pinion was in da' vise so's I could get 175ft/lbs torque on the pinion bearings an' the crush sleeve; it was'a show.

Ended up with 25 in/lbs a drag in the pinion shaft though.....She's the best.

Ya'll be among the fist ta' know how it all works out.

I'm goin' to the pool.

Later.

 

this looks a HELL of a lot better than i expected it would. who knew vdo made decent-looking gauges? nice job.

 

I like the dash panel a job well done

 

Got a Diff question for ya. I'm installing a 302 with a C4 into my 63 Falcon. Have the original 3.25 eight inch (open), plus a 2.80 (posi) from a 65 'Stang.

Which would you run?

 

Very Nice ! Now, you need to manufacture these dashes

 

That came out real nice. Very entertaining read too. Good job.