What if you don't need to use the stock harness?

Joel07 · Post by **Joel07** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:36 pm

Most of the electrical issues I've seen are with the blending of the chassis harness and the engine harness. What if you just use the guage pod out of the DSM car? Wouldn't that simplify the process? Not trying to tell anyone how to do it, I'm just saying that for my own project, it might be easiest to just not even mess with the stock harness...

asian312 · Post by **asian312** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 12:11 pm

I personall have no intention on retaining any of the stock guages minus the speedo and fuel level. I'ld install:

Tach
Boost
EGT
Oil pressure
Water Temp.

If your trying to step away from electrical gremlins, then I wouldn't dare venture putting more DSM parts in than I have to

I drive one daily and believe me it's a headache all on its own.

Sounds like u'll need to the male plugs an a piece of the wiring harness to adapt it as well. Too much soldering and too many things to go wrong.

Post by **DJpowerHaus** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 10:06 pm

I would have to vote for the method on here. The DSM dash harness gets really complicated, because they integrated alot of different systems into one loom. You can get every guage to work in the Starion cluster so why bother? If you're doing a truck it might be another story.

Hrmmm... truck truck truck. I'd have to see one first. You wont have most of the stuff you'd want to have in there. What all is in the truck cluster? We could get it to work and you could just get a A pillar pod with the stuff you dont have in the dash.

Tell us what you've got to work with...

Joel07 · Post by **Joel07** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 11:21 pm

Well, I've been thinking about it, and it might be easier to just ditch all the stock guages in the truck and run Autometer. Nice big 5" tach right in the middle (where it belongs

), get a smaller (3 3/8") speedo, and fit all the other guages I need wherever they'll fit...

I'm not afraid to fabricate some stuff. Maybe to the guage pods for some of them. I'm thinking this'll be the easiest way. The truck is carb'd and pretty old school, so I'm not thinking wiring of the chassis will be a problem. I just saw one truck that used the guage pod from the 1G, that's why I asked. But anything to make it simpler is good for me!

Post by **DJpowerHaus** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 11:39 am

what all gauges are in the truck to start with and what are the senders like? You could probably figure out the wiring, but what about the stuff you'd need to add. i think full autometer might be overkill (stock guages are cool), but how much clutter will you have with oil pressure, voltage, 8k tach, boost guage, new warning lights... might be easier to rig up something. i have a 90 cluster and cluster harness if you want it. i'll send you the dsm fsm and you can figure that stuff out. its free btw.

Joel07 · Post by **Joel07** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 9:08 am

Yeah you're probably right. I don't have the truck here at the house (it's in Creedmoor, about 20 miles away

), but it's the Plymouth Arrow version of the Ram 50, at it's pretty much all optioned out. I'm pretty sure it's at least got a tach and water temp guage. But, I'm thinking about getting a Mighty Max or D50 instead, since they'd be a little bit easier swap, and they're a whole lot better looking trucks IMHO...

Post by **DJpowerHaus** » Sun May 02, 2004 10:49 pm

What differences are there between models? I thought they were all cookie cutter similar like the Starion/Conquest with just a few tiny decorative changes.

Joel07 · Post by **Joel07** » Mon May 03, 2004 12:30 pm

As far as the Arrow/Ram 50 goes, the Arrow is just a more luxurious version of the Ram 50, and I've never looked closely at the Ram 50 guages, but they might be the same. Outside, they're pretty much the same except the grill and badges...

Rotozuk · Post by **Rotozuk** » Fri May 07, 2004 1:27 am

You can probably do something like what I did.. Still have to blend the harnesses though.. Actually about all i kept was the DSM engine harness. Only kept a few wires from the other harnesses.

I have had a few of these clusters apart, and I was pretty sure I could swap the Mitsubishi's speed-o gauge with the Samurai unit with little effort. Thus giving me the needed VSS (vehicle speed sensor) for the fuel injection. pictured above is the Samurai and Mitsubishi clusters pulled apart.

With a little more effort, I also dropped in the Mitsubishi tachometer (it can indicate to 9,000 RPMs, and has less sweep than the Suzuki). Also pictured are the 2 speed-o units. The one on the right is the Mitsubishi unit, and it goes to 150 mph.

And with a lot more effort, I mounted the Mitsubishi boost gauge into the Samurai housing. (This is why I needed the Mitsubishi tach's shorter sweep.) (the blue and white wires are for the boost gauge.)

I'm currently lending a hand in another swap. This time a 1999 Toyota Tacoma engine into a Samurai. We decided it would be a little easier to just get rid of the Samurai wire harness and run the Toyota harness instead. We still had to pull apart the harness and weed out the extra junk, etc. But we only had to join things like heater controls and wipers. Some what easier. Too bad the Toyota seems to require the stock guage cluster for a few things. So it looks like it might be chopped up and shoved behind the dash. It turns out that OBD2 vehicles are not that bad to work with after all.

-Wayne

Post by **DJpowerHaus** » Fri May 07, 2004 2:54 pm

Wow.. ODB2 scares me still. But this older stuff did a few months ago too and now that's all gone. Guess you really have to just jump in sometimes.