Swapping gauges

Discussion in 'Parts Interchange' started by Jamie Miles, Dec 22, 2007.

  1. Jamie Miles

    Jamie Miles the road warrior

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    When I was in the junkyard yesterday I came across a '68 F600. The F600's in those years use the same cab as the regular '67-'72 pickups, but they have a different, much nicer gauge cluster which is sought after since it is a bolt in swap in the regular pickups. Well I found one yesterday and got it for 20 bucks. :rofl2: I plan to put it in my '71 F250, so I took it apart to clean it up and repaint it.

    I noticed when taking it apart, that the back of the speedometer looks alot like a Maverick speedometer. Sure enough, it is a direct bolt in swap into the Maverick gauge cluster. The difference being the speedometer cable screws on instead of clips on. This could be solved by using a '67-'72 Ford pickup speedometer cable.

    Got to looking around and have this old VW speedometer laying around. Sure enough, once again, it fit right in the Maverick cluster.

    Just thought I would share my findings. When I go to NC next time, I'm going to get the gauge cluster out of my grandpa's '63 F700 school bus and dissect it. If I remember right, it has a silver center in it like the Maverick gauges but different numbers and stuff. I also am going to look at the '59 F100 sitting up there.
     

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  2. lastchance

    lastchance Member

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    Great information Thank You
     
  3. ratio411

    ratio411 Member

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    That's neat!
    Interesting to say the least.

    What we (as a community) need to find is an easy swap speedo and tach that not only match, but bolt directly into the pod.
    Does that F600 panel also have a tach?
     
  4. Jamie Miles

    Jamie Miles the road warrior

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    Unfortunately, it dosen't, and if a matching tach was optional, it must be about 10 times as rare as an unmolested F600 cluster (which is pretty damn rare and I'm tickled to have found one randomly like that).

    If you want a bolt in speedometer with a matching tach, I'd try '79-'86 fox body Mustang parts. The speedometer should be a direct swap into the Maverick cluster, and connect to the factory Maverick speedometer cable from what I can see in that pic. 140 mph speedometers show up on ebay from time to time for fox Mustangs. As for the tach, the main problem would be you would loose the fuel gauge and have to install an aftermarket one somewhere. You would have to hollow out the back of the cluster on that side and figure out a way to mount the tach. But other then that, the factory fox body tachs wire up just like any aftermarket tach, and they have a nifty switch on them to switch between 4, 6 and 8 cylinders. I will bring the cluster from my Capri home this weekend and see what the tach and speedometer look like.

    I also wonder about '71-'73's Mustangs... The problem seems to be regardless, you are going to have to figure out somewhere else for the fuel gauge.

    I am currently working on a tach swap which should appear factory with the stock Maverick gauges when done. I'll post a write up on how to do it when I finish and only if it works out like I hope it will.

    Check this out: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/65-6...020QQitemZ300111793205QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD1V I'll bet that would swap in for a 140 speedometer. It would probably match pretty well with a later '76-'77 all black panel on the left side. That speedometer uses the screw on cable also.

    Note: I have nothing to do with the above auctions. Ebay is just a convenient place to find pictures of various parts for comparison.
     
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2007
  5. John B

    John B Member

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    Keep at it Jamie. I, for one, would be very interested in the outcome of your experiments. I've always thought that the '71-'73 Mustang tach and speedo would fit nicely into a Mav cluster, nicely solving the problem of how to get a factory looking in-dash tach into your Mav. John B
     
  6. jmgford

    jmgford Member

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  7. Jamie Miles

    Jamie Miles the road warrior

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    That would be nice if you buy the matching Cougar speedometer to go with it. The one I'm working on, the idiot lights remain intact, and possibly the factory fuel gauge (or might require the use of a fox body fuel gauge for clearance reasons).
     
  8. PART-TIME

    PART-TIME Member

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    Thanks for the info guys. I've been wanting to install a tach in the cluster while trying to keep it somewhat stock looking. I already moved the gas gauge down to my pod with the oil & water gauges. The only thing left on that side of the cluster is the turn signal indicators. Thats an easy fix using LED's.




    Ken
     
  9. 19BlacK77

    19BlacK77 Member

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    The 70 model mustang gauge parts will bolt in also. Heres some ebay links showing what they look like.

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/69-7...yZ140720QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/69-7...ryZ10076QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1970...ryZ80739QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

    The outside appearance makes them look a lot bigger but underneath the two center gauges are made identical to that of the mavericks. Even the flat black part that goes between the clear lens and the plastic housing is the same. :yup:
     
  10. Jamie Miles

    Jamie Miles the road warrior

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    Good links, that one clearly shows the back side of that '70 Mustang speedometer is the same also.

    I think I would take that '70 piece: [​IMG]

    And put it in the left side with the '66 140 speedometer on the right side: [​IMG]

    I bet you could swap either the '70 Mustang speedometer needle or a Maverick needle onto that '66 speedometer to make it match that '70 Mustang left side piece.

    I'm going to start paying alot more attention to the gauges in ALL old cars in the junkyards from now on. It would be cool to find something to put on the left side with temp, fuel, oil and volts gauges. I'm going back to the junkyard soon, I am going to take an empty Maverick cluster with me and spend some time there seeing what will swap.
     
  11. mean_maverick

    mean_maverick Senior Member

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  12. ratio411

    ratio411 Member

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    I have only seen it done in pics, but I have a magazine from the early 70s where someone converted a Mav to a Stang dash...
    Entire dash, top to bottom.
    With so many parts being repopped nowadays, it might not be as expensive an idea as it once was.:huh:

    I had a 69 Stang dash pad and upper frame once, and stuck it up over my dash out of curiosity, and it looked like a perfect fit. In all fairness though, I didn't pull out my Mav dash to check it more thoroughly.
    The window contour and all seemed right. I was amazed that the width was perfect.
     
  13. ratio411

    ratio411 Member

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    Another suggestion.
    I notice that the fuel gauge is inset behind the surface of the dummy gauge in our cars.
    Why could you not trim out a piece of the 'new' gauge and inset the Mav fuel gauge behind it???
    Check out this Torino gauge set.
    In the tach, there are idiot lights that are the same general shape as the Mav fuel gauge. Remove the idiot light and put the fuel gauge in the hole. May need to be widened a little, but is right place/shape.
    [​IMG]

    Edit:
    These are neat...
    [​IMG]

    Edit2:
    These things match our gauges almost perfectly.
    If they weren't so darn expensive!
    You could even probably mod the thing by removing the clock portion and rotating the tach, making a single gauge copy of the Brazil tach.
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2007
  14. Jamie Miles

    Jamie Miles the road warrior

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    Somebody on this forum tried that and posted pics. It was one of the first posts I ever read on here when I found this site. Damn if I can remember who it was. I'm going to have to start searching here in a minute and see if I can dig it up. edit: found it! http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=12086&highlight=mustang+dash&page=2 Personally, I have no desire to swap my entire dash (beyond swapping my glove box dash to a '69.5 package tray dash with dash mounted ignition on my '73). I like the look of the stock dash. I just want a factory appearing tach in the dash. Aftermarket gauges can and have been done, my dad put an aftermarket tach in the cluster in his Comet back in the 80's. But they are just that, aftermarket. I want something factory looking.

    This was my initial thought. The main problem is clearance issues with the rear part of the tach and the fuel gauge, since the fuel gauge sticks down quite a bit more in the cluster then what is visible. I have found a tach in a 90's car with small "guts" that should clear the fuel gauge, and it is the basis for my tach swap into the factory Maverick gauges.
     

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    Last edited: Dec 23, 2007
  15. ratio411

    ratio411 Member

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    Dayum!
    Those gauges are awesome.
    Perfect match...
    If you look at the pics in the link, there is room at the bottom of that tach, where it says 'RPM x 100', where a gauge might fit.
    You would have to do some serious modding to the plastic behind the gauges.
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2008

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