72 Dash swap

[turbinesurgeon]

I have 72 standard dash and I want to put in a dash with the tach and the center piece with the three gauges. I was wondering if you can just plug in the dash or do you need a different harness? I know the tach has different wires. I have a plug that doesn't go to anything that is near where the center gauges would be. Do I need a new harness?

Thanks

 

[jikelly]

I have 72 standard dash and I want to put in a dash with the tach and the center piece with the three gauges. I was wondering if you can just plug in the dash or do you need a different harness? I know the tach has different wires. I have a plug that doesn't go to anything that is near where the center gauges would be. Do I need a new harness?

Thanks

I'm fairly certain that the wiring harness if the same for tach/non tach cars. So it should be fairly straight forward, and just a swap.

 

[Gud T.B. Blown]

I'm fairly certain that the wiring harness if the same for tach/non tach cars. So it should be fairly straight forward, and just a swap.

You will need to get a different wiring harness. The non-tach wiring harness will not plug into the back of a tach gauge cluster an vice-versa. Tach harnesses can be found but they usually aren't cheap.
Now if you do find a tach harness and tach gauge cluster that is a bolt in operation. Last year I upgraded from a clock to a tach and changed the wiring harness over and gauge cluster over. The good news is you don't need the under the hood harness for the tach to work.
If just wanted to add the tach in place of the clock or idiot lights you can do that. However you'll have to hardwire the tach yourself which isn't too difficult and the printed circuit won't fit perfectly on the tach. IIRC only 2 or 3 of the lights line up.
Also, if you add the center gauges you'll need to get the small harness that connects those gauges to the rest of the harness.

 

[turbinesurgeon]

You will need to get a different wiring harness. The non-tach wiring harness will not plug into the back of a tach gauge cluster an vice-versa. Tach harnesses can be found but they usually aren't cheap.
Now if you do find a tach harness and tach gauge cluster that is a bolt in operation. Last year I upgraded from a clock to a tach and changed the wiring harness over and gauge cluster over. The good news is you don't need the under the hood harness for the tach to work.
If just wanted to add the tach in place of the clock or idiot lights you can do that. However you'll have to hardwire the tach yourself which isn't too difficult and the printed circuit won't fit perfectly on the tach. IIRC only 2 or 3 of the lights line up.
Also, if you add the center gauges you'll need to get the small harness that connects those gauges to the rest of the harness.

What about the three gauges on the center panel, does that need a different wiring harness as well? Is the option of the three gauges a Mach 1 option only?

 

[jikelly]

You will need to get a different wiring harness. The non-tach wiring harness will not plug into the back of a tach gauge cluster an vice-versa. Tach harnesses can be found but they usually aren't cheap.
Now if you do find a tach harness and tach gauge cluster that is a bolt in operation. Last year I upgraded from a clock to a tach and changed the wiring harness over and gauge cluster over. The good news is you don't need the under the hood harness for the tach to work.
If just wanted to add the tach in place of the clock or idiot lights you can do that. However you'll have to hardwire the tach yourself which isn't too difficult and the printed circuit won't fit perfectly on the tach. IIRC only 2 or 3 of the lights line up.
Also, if you add the center gauges you'll need to get the small harness that connects those gauges to the rest of the harness.

Well looks like I was way off on this one.

I've got a non tach car and am in the process of installing autometer white face gauges. The wiring for them bypasses the printed circuit board totally.

I've also got the center console gauge cluster. I rigged up the wiring to the gauges, making a separate harness for them.

Course since then I have installed an EZ wiring harness in my stang and it came with provisions for all the gauges, except the O2 gauge I added.

 

[turbinesurgeon]

Well looks like I was way off on this one.

I've got a non tach car and am in the process of installing autometer white face gauges. The wiring for them bypasses the printed circuit board totally.

I've also got the center console gauge cluster. I rigged up the wiring to the gauges, making a separate harness for them.

Course since then I have installed an EZ wiring harness in my stang and it came with provisions for all the gauges, except the O2 gauge I added.

I wonder if I could pull the dummy light wires out of the harness and hook them up to the gauges? Then I could plug the harness back into the cluster. Any thoughts?

 

[Gud T.B. Blown]

What about the three gauges on the center panel, does that need a different wiring harness as well? Is the option of the three gauges a Mach 1 option only?

I don't know the answer to that question but I would say most likely. Let me put it this way, Ford made a different wiring harness and gauge cluster for tach and non-tach cars.
The center gauges were an option on all the cars.

 

[jikelly]

I wonder if I could pull the dummy light wires out of the harness and hook them up to the gauges? Then I could plug the harness back into the cluster. Any thoughts?

I'm not sure that would get you the result you want. I mean I guess you could but I'm not sure if your gauges would work properly or not. You could check the circuit with a multimeter to see what that the dummy light wires go to, and if they are hot or not.