I've got the stock 85 MPH/6K RPM speedo/tach in my 1986 Firebird. What would it take to swap a 145 MPH speedo into my car? I've seen overlays for them. Is there any way to put a 145 MPH overlay in (cheaper), and change the gear/cable/whatever tells it what speed I'm going? I believe my speedo is mechanical, but I'm not entirely sure. The more information the better.

 

No, you will have to do a cluster swap.

- Justin

 

1986 is the first year for the electronic speedo. You should be able to remove the speedo from the cluster and put in the new one. That's all it takes on the Camaro, is the Firebird different?

 

I'm almost thinking of filling the four circles with autometer gauges. I know they make nice, big speedo's and tach's... do they make any "multiple gauge" circular clusters? So I could still have a handful of gauges in each side circle?

 

Once you buy it you need to use a hand-held tuner or get it done at the local mechanic shop. This is the same for different wheels/tires, and gears etc

 

Thirdgens dont use "handheld tuners." We have chips in the computer to swap out, and speedo gears in the transmissions.

 

Mine is an 89 ...cable driven . Or am I missing something? I though 1994 was the first year of the electronic speedo and 1993 was the last year.

 

this is why I hate thirdgens. Not even mechanics know what's under the hood until they're knee-deep in tearing it apart. :P

 

The electric/cable speedos seem to both be mid-year switches that occured at different times for the Camaro and Firebird.

I'm not sure exactly when they eached switched, but my '87 Camaro has a cable, and the '89 Formula I'm parting is electric. I have heard from several people that the 'birds switched in late '86 early '87 and the Camaros switched in late '87 early '88.

It's easy to tell which you have, just look at the tailhousing of the tranny and see if there is a cable or two wires coming out of the VSS location.

- Justin

 

'94 was the first year of the electronically controlled auto (4L60e). The 90-93 F-body auto was a 4L60, and pre '90 was the 700R4. They are all pretty much the same thing, the name just changed as revisions were made.

- Justin

 

Birds seems to be ahead of the game with this and other stuff.

'87 was the first official year for electric speedo for birds; '90 for the maro's

 

I swapped my 1984 Trans Am to electronic speedometer and it took a grand total of nineteen out of twenty wires to be repinned behind the instrument cluster. In addition, I bought a VSS buffer box from a 1987 Formula, and ran the wires up into the instrument panel to the cluster harness. Lastly, I used a Dakota Digital interface box to pick up my VSS signal from the tailshaft of my T56 transmission which was then routed to the VSS buffer box. That's what you will need to do, with possible exception to the Dakota Digital box. You may not need it. However, you WILL need a sending unit that fits into the tailshaft of your transmission in lieu of the cable driven gearset.

 

Thanks for all the information. It seems like its a lot more of a pain in the *** then I thought it would be. The 85 MPH speedo is going to be just fine for now. I'll wait until I can replace 'em with autometer gauges. Always thought that looked sharp anyways.