Coming to a Dash Crossroads...

Adams91LX · Sep 7, 2011

My 80 coupe has been an ongoing project for a while now.

I finally have almost everything working inside the car. My temp gauge does not, and the gauges do not light up... idk what is going on... but I'm having trouble.

The problem, I'd like to just give up fighting the electrical gremlins. Throw out the stock gauge cluster and go with either a MC-Machine or Florida5.0 cluster... opinions?

Also, the dash/electrical/engine/almost everything is out of a 91/5.0/AOD.. would I want electrical or mechanical temp/oil gauges?

Thanks for any input. If you have done this install or have anything to add please do

Thanks

281pony · Sep 7, 2011

i prefer mechanical oil gauge and electric temp.

my mechanical water gauge did not catch hot air pockets for example. the electrical gauge caught them and registered instantly.

if you go mechanical oil pressure, i suggest fronting the coin for the braided SS line. i paid like ~$50 for it, but it's worth it to run it once and forget about it.

ID89GT · Sep 8, 2011

You have an 87-93 dash in your 80? Just curious, how did you do the HVAC stuff, did you use the same box or did you swap in a newer one. I will be doing this swap when I go EFI so just kinda curious since you already did it

90lxcoupe · Sep 8, 2011

Be careful with the new autometer mechanical stuff. I dunno if i just got a bad gauge or what, but last winter after my car was painted i bought a new mechanical fuel pressure gauge, the old gauge worked but it was pretty weathered. The new gauge was all plastic materials, old one was sheetmetal, seemed alot more durable. Anyways, i was driving the car last week, and the gauge starts going nuts, you couldnt see the thin pointer part of the needle it was moving so fast between 30 and 40 psi. My first thought was maybe i have a pump on its way out, but the car was running 100% normal. When i got home i swapped the old ugly gauge in, and the needle was steady at 38psi like the new one should have been.

If this was on an oil pressure gauge i probably would have pulled over and got a tow home.

Adams91LX · Sep 8, 2011

ID89GT said:
You have an 87-93 dash in your 80? Just curious, how did you do the HVAC stuff, did you use the same box or did you swap in a newer one. I will be doing this swap when I go EFI so just kinda curious since you already did it

Took the entire dash out (HVAC included) of a 91, motor, all the electrical, everything... It didn't want to mount up... fabbed up some brackets to use the stock bolt locations on the dash. had to cut a few small pieces of metal out of the way, took the pedals with me... so that part was pretty straight forward.

skunk21 · Sep 8, 2011

I have autometer electric gauges. my oil pressure gauge is pretty accurate. I wanted to get a good idea what my pressure was before installing a real gauge when ditching the factory one so I ran my buddies oil pressure gauge ( the tool kind, not another "gauge" ) to get some readings. I was happy to find that the autometer oil & temp gauges work pretty darn good. mech. gauges are nice but IMHO I would run them outside the vehicle, it would really suck if something happened and you had fuel or oil coming inside the car with you...it has happened.

Adams91LX · Sep 8, 2011

So obviously the fox came stock with electrical temp/oil pressure gauge, which means I will most likely stick with the electrical for ease of install.

The MC-Machine looks more finished, the turn signals/high beams/etc look cleaner, but I've heard there may be some trimming needed using this one:

The florida 5.0 kit pull the gauges out a little further, but I don't love the LED indicator lights.

ID89GT · Sep 8, 2011

Okay, so a newer HVAC box will bolt right in then? My car don't have AC so I don't have holes for the evaporator in my firewall. Also what brackets did you have to fab? The brackets for the actual dash or the HVAC brackets?

Flavadave4 · Sep 8, 2011

The Florida5.0 piece is straight sexy!

Adams91LX · Sep 8, 2011

the bolt holes for the 87+ dash do not line up to the 79-81... the HVAC fit fine.. the bolt holes are at the bottom edge of the windshield, and near the door hinge area.

ID89GT · Sep 8, 2011

Hmmm any chance you got pictures of these brackets at all?

Adams91LX · Sep 8, 2011

nope... i got nothing

Adams91LX · Sep 8, 2011

bump for anyone with experience?

TOOLOW91 · Sep 12, 2011

I don't know if you have one already but my first spot would be to check the main power And ground to the cluster as well as the switch on power you
may be missing a simple ground and its throwing the whole cluster off

Coming to a Dash Crossroads...

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