Just put '84 gauges on a '83

[icebrrg3rd]

Well, since I had a nice set of '84 gauges and when I replaced my motor it had the gear indicator sensor, I figured I could replace my worn & faded gauges with a nicer set plus I could see what gear I was in.

 

The '84 gauges had the connectors for the computer in them but the wires were cut off. I made connectors so I didn't hack up my wiring, in case the newer gauges were bad and I had to re-install my gauges. All of the wires matched color for color, all I had to do was run 5 wires to the gear indicator sensor. It was a little time consuming, but the result is now a nicer dash (with over 50k LESS miles) that has a gear indicator and illumination brightness control. Plus the "new" computer "fixed" my high-beam issue.

 

I took some pics of the harnesses I made, plus the gauges too, just gotta get them downloaded.

 

-Andrew

[reddevilmedic]

nice! would like a writeup and pics when you can. im sick of chasing cmu problems.

[Condor]

Well, since I had a nice set of '84 gauges and when I replaced my motor it had the gear indicator sensor, I figured I could replace my worn & faded gauges with a nicer set plus I could see what gear I was in.

 

The '84 gauges had the connectors for the computer in them but the wires were cut off. I made connectors so I didn't hack up my wiring, in case the newer gauges were bad and I had to re-install my gauges. All of the wires matched color for color, all I had to do was run 5 wires to the gear indicator sensor. It was a little time consuming, but the result is now a nicer dash (with over 50k LESS miles) that has a gear indicator and illumination brightness control. Plus the "new" computer "fixed" my high-beam issue.

 

I took some pics of the harnesses I made, plus the gauges too, just gotta get them downloaded.

 

-Andrew

 

So did you replace the gear selector?? Curious how that worked out...

[icebrrg3rd]

Condor, I replaced my motor with one from a '88, so it had the gear selector on it already. I just had to run wiring up to the gauges.

 

Here are some pics, I am having trouble downloading & saving some of them. Dang smartphones, outsmarting me.

 

-Andrew

[icebrrg3rd]

Well, after a few days of riding it, I realized I prefered the look of my '83 gauges over the '84 gauges. The '83 is numbered 10, 20, 30, 40, etc to 120, and 60 is straight up so the gauge looks "balanced", 0 is between 7 & 8 o'clock and 120 is between 4 & 5 o'clock. The '84 is numbered 5, 15, 25, 35, etc to 115, with 55 straight up. This rotates the marks, putting 0 at 8 o'clock and 120 at 5 o'clock. Just looks off-balanced, or maybe I'm just so used to looking at mine that the new one looks odd.

 

Long story short, I swapped the gauges so the '83 gauges are in the '84 cluster. Now I'm happy with the looks & function of my gauge cluster.

 

-Andrew

[dingy]

So did you replace the gear selector?? Curious how that worked out...

 

Gear indicator plate is a direct swap. Extra wires need to be ran to cluster for the extra 4 indications.

 

I installed 3 LED lights on the underside of my gauge cover. Left one is lit in 1st, center in third and right one in 5th. This allows me to see gear position without focusing on the gauge itself. I can see it at a glance. No 2nd or 4th indicator, That way I don't have to focus and count lights, easy to tell difference between 2nd & 4th.

 

LED is not as bright as it appears in picture.

 

Gary

[IronMike]

MAN ! That's a LOT of gauges! Should of just bought a wing if you want that busy of a dash!

 

 

Jk ing,

[icebrrg3rd]

Here is a few more pics, I didn't want to completely modify the wiring so I could put the '83 cluster back in if I wanted to. For the most part, all the wire colors match up for the function they do, so blue to blue, green/red to green/red, yellow/black to yellow/black, etc. The only ones that don't match up to any are the ones you have to run to the gear selector. I found a harness that matched up to the selector plug and wired it up.

 

-Andrew