Conversion to Rallye Dash

Good afternoon,

I have a 1972 340 Duster and recently picked up a 1967 rallye dash frame at a swap meet. I understand the key difference is the ignition switch being on the dash, I plan to weld this up. What is all needed to do the conversion? I know I will need the instrument cluster and wiring harness. Is there any difference between years of rallye gauge clusters and wiring harnesses? I am not extremely concerned with being correct for a duster as it never came with a rallye dash in 1972. I just want to get a shopping list together to make the switch this summer.

The '67 has a different glove box mount hinge, that's a 1 year only deal. It'll work but the door has a pull knob, so it will look different. The wiring harnesses did change by year, but that wasn't unique to the rallye dash, the wire harnesses in general changed over the years. You don't really need a rallye dash harness, the plugs used by the later gauge clusters were the same as the rallye clusters, the locations of the wires just changed in the plug. You can just switch the wires in the plug terminals of the wire harness to match the gauge cluster pins. The rallye dash does have an extra 3 pin connector, so you do have to add that if you convert your harness over.

This is the key that I made for switching my '74 harness over to work with my rallye gauges. The top shows the rallye cluster layout for the year of gauges I used, the bottom shows the original '74 harness and the letters of the terminals those wires need to be moved to. They're lettered because the plug is lettered, you can see that in the next picture. Ie, the brake light sender is located at "A" in the '74 cluster and has to be moved to "F" for the rallye cluster. The plug in the picture has been corrected to the rallye harness layout. And the connector you need to add for the rallye cluster is the last picture. No guarantee the '72 is the same. Basically though the colors of the wires were similar for the different years, and just had to be moved to the right locations in the plug to match the different layout.

a rally dash is a really nice thing to have in front of you while going down the road. I did the swap from a wrecked 68 cuda to a 68 Dart and now I am planning the same type of swap on my 72 demon .....you wont regret it.

The 67 dash and the 67 inst panel are a bit different from 68 and up. The glove box liner and door don't interchange. The 67 inst' panel has a one year only climate controller, bolt locations different, lever slot lengths longer, one cable routed differently. You can make it work. In the end, a 69/70 rally dash and inst' panel are the simplest most straight forward swap.
So you already have the 67 dash. Deal with the glove box. Either close the ign' switch hole or put something else in that bezel ( manual choke pull for example ). I cut a second switch bezel into my 67 dash for the right mirror remote controller ( custom built long cable mirror ).
Seek a 69 and later inst' housing and bezel so your 72 climate controller fits/works in it, and maybe not need a dumb wheel radio.
When you get to the additional panel harness connector on left side circuit board with 3 pins inline... I can show you a neat way to do that. Those 3 little pins are too fragile anyway.

RedFish said:

When you get to the additional panel harness connector on left side circuit board with 3 pins inline... I can show you a neat way to do that. Those 3 little pins are too fragile anyway.

Click to expand...

So what's the trick for this?

I have a 69 cuda with a 67 dash bezel and a 71 ac & controls in it. It all works together, just takes some fiddling. I had to improvise a mounting bracket for the temp controls, but it wasn’t hard.

Mike69cuda said:

I have a 69 cuda with a 67 dash bezel and a 71 ac & controls in it. It all works together, just takes some fiddling. I had to improvise a mounting bracket for the temp controls, but it wasn’t hard.

Click to expand...

But what about the 3 pin plug if you were converting a car to use the Rallye dash?

First of all... the instructions say to pull the bezel out of the dash and tilt it to access the connectors. There isn't any strength to the contact pins on the circuit boards and these 3 are too close to the top too. Pins are often bent/loosened/pulled out of this board. what to do?
Use a connector like this... https://www.grainger.com/product/HOPKINS-TOWING-SOLUTIONS-T-Connector-440A89
Solder or by other means connect wires from male terminal side onto the circuit board. Wires from female terminals will attach to cars harness wires.
The extra white wire in this connector can be a added chassis ground wire for entire inst' housing. A ring terminal under a screw helps anchor this harness to the instrument panel. OEM contact pins on the small circuit board are no longer a worry.

my Demon is a true H code car so it came with the rally dash and optional tach
good luck with your conversion!

Interior looks superb! Tuff wheel sets it off, too.