In dash cluster aftermarket tach replacement-69 Cuda rallye cluster

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1969383S said:
The bone yard.

I see cheap all the time for sale here as well. The board is not that pricey.
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The bone yard !?!
What bone yard you been going to ?? ***** majorly picked over out here. Is there a special honey hole out by you full of good stuff ?? I know I'm not paying $200-$300 for a used up oem tach, and another $100 for a solid state tach module. And if the face is shot, pay a restorer to redo that too.
 
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72bluNblu said:
The RTE replacement board is $100. If you find a stock tach in any kind of reasonable condition for under $200 you’re doing really well. Most are north of $100 for something you will then have to pay several hundred dollars to rebuild.

The repops aren’t great. I wouldn’t buy another one. The screen printing is fairly low resolution, the construction is cheap and the tach itself is inaccurate. And they’re like $250 for that. I bought one used, wasn’t that happy with it right out of the box, and after using it for a couple years it started randomly bouncing the needle all over the place.

The pictures Mat posted are mine, I bought an SW 3 3/8” tach and pulled it apart. I cut the housing it came in down and fit it into the stock gauge cluster. I then used the block off plate out of the original cluster and cut it down to make a mounting ring. In retrospect, I would just make up some little 90 degree mounting tabs. Cutting the ring down and sanding it and fitting it was unnecessarily time consuming.

Anyway, I fit the 3 3/8” tach into the stock rally gauge cluster without modifying the stock gauge cluster at all. All the mods were to the aftermarket tach, which was like $150. So far it works great! It looks a lot better in my car than it did in that spare bezel I had laying around for the picture, that was just an extra I used to do the fitting.
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I liked your idea of the 90° brackets however with a gap between the new gage and the housing i just see a lot of dust making its way inside the cluster. For you out on the west coast may not be too much of a problem. But its dusty as heck out here in west Texas. Heck i had my truck locked up with windows all the way up 6 months under the carport, and the dash ended up with a fine coating of red dust on it. Will probably make mine like your original one using the original blank off plate, or make a new plate with hole in the middle for the tach out of some .100" thick aluminum sheet i have.
 
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RedFish said:
there isn't a aftermarket tach that fits other than those designed/built for this application. Year One, Classsic industries, others, offer them. maybe that's where your "$200 bucks" figure comes from.
I have seen alternative aftermarket tach put there after the housing and bezel were butchered severely.
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I searched for ever , and found a cheap one on ebay, w/ a little rigging , it is in the stock multi gauge hole , since I went to aftermarket gauges anyway---------it can be done .
 
1969383S said:
Here ya on that.

My wife saw the neighbor of the same age die from a heart attack and from that point on she was all in to restoring and getting done! I never looked back. It took 25 years to get to that point and took full advantage.
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I'll have to ask my neighbor if he can help me out! ...Wait! That won't work as he's the guy thats gonna weld stuff up for me. :)
 
moparmat2000 said:
The bone yard !?!
What bone yard you been going to ?? ***** majorly picked over out here. Is there a special honey hole out by you full of good stuff ?? I know I'm not paying $200-$300 for a used up oem tach, and another $100 for a solid state tach module. And if the face is shot, pay a restorer to redo that too.
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Yeah, I haven't seen anything around here that'd help me out on this in a long time. I remember wandering around junkyards around here 30 years ago.. yeah, I can use that steering wheel! Pull it, throw it in the box... yeah, I want that fender.. drag my stuff up, dicker for a price, and off I'd go. All those kind of yards are gone. And the ones you do find think everything is made of solid gold.
 
72bluNblu said:
The RTE replacement board is $100. If you find a stock tach in any kind of reasonable condition for under $200 you’re doing really well. Most are north of $100 for something you will then have to pay several hundred dollars to rebuild.

The repops aren’t great. I wouldn’t buy another one. The screen printing is fairly low resolution, the construction is cheap and the tach itself is inaccurate. And they’re like $250 for that. I bought one used, wasn’t that happy with it right out of the box, and after using it for a couple years it started randomly bouncing the needle all over the place.

The pictures Mat posted are mine, I bought an SW 3 3/8” tach and pulled it apart. I cut the housing it came in down and fit it into the stock gauge cluster. I then used the block off plate out of the original cluster and cut it down to make a mounting ring. In retrospect, I would just make up some little 90 degree mounting tabs. Cutting the ring down and sanding it and fitting it was unnecessarily time consuming.

Anyway, I fit the 3 3/8” tach into the stock rally gauge cluster without modifying the stock gauge cluster at all. All the mods were to the aftermarket tach, which was like $150. So far it works great! It looks a lot better in my car than it did in that spare bezel I had laying around for the picture, that was just an extra I used to do the fitting.
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Thanks for jumping in here, 72blu. You know your ****, and always give good advice.
 
My source of A body stuff out here is starting to dry up. I am buying what i can for my cars. Mostly what will fit out of the moredoor darts that are left.
 
I remember seeing a thread where a guy flipped the blank plate over backwards and it made a nice cavity to install a used tach in it he found on eBay. Looked pretty nice.
 
Mike69cuda said:
I remember seeing a thread where a guy flipped the blank plate over backwards and it made a nice cavity to install a used tach in it he found on eBay. Looked pretty nice.
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Not sure you can actually do that. The mounting holes for the tach are offset so i can only be installed oriented 1 way, ditto for the blankoff plate. If you turn it around all 3 of the screw holes wont line up.
 
The main thing is to change to a solid state 5V supply. For a low buck tack in the dash option, a hot glue gun and some scrape plastic will make it so. I spent the $200 bucks.
 
Here’s a picture of the finished product with the SW tach in my car...

2C43D543-AEF8-46A1-8253-B1F38C3028F1.jpeg
 
I can tell you what not to do. Layson's sells one that fits great. I got one several years ago, and it only worked for a few weeks past the one year warranty. I have always had really good luck with stuff from Layson's, but not this time. I don't care if they said there was only a one year warranty, something like that should last longer than about 13 months. It is just a place holder now.
 
harrisonm said:
I can tell you what not to do. Layson's sells one that fits great. I got one several years ago, and it only worked for a few months. I have always had really good luck with stuff from Layson's, but not this time.
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I can pretty much guarantee that the repop's being sold are all from the same manufacturer, whether sold by Layson's, Classic industries or whoever. And yeah, they're junk. Inaccurate, cheaply made, and not worth the $200 they charge for them.
 
moparmat2000 said:
Not sure you can actually do that. The mounting holes for the tach are offset so i can only be installed oriented 1 way, ditto for the blankoff plate. If you turn it around all 3 of the screw holes wont line up.
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Yeah the blank filler is more plastic cup shape. Closest thing to a flat plate would be the back plate taken from a vacuum/performance gauge.
 
RedFish said:
Yeah the blank filler is more plastic cup shape. Closest thing to a flat plate would be the back plate taken from a vacuum/performance gauge.
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My vacuum gauge doesn`t work ,I have since gone to an aftermarket gauge in a diff. location. Any suggestions on what to do with the center gauge space now ? The vacuum gauge is still in it, I don't really want to pull the dash !!
 
If you dont want to remove the gage cluster to get to it, then leave it alone and mount a tach on the steering column to block it
 
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