1982 Bronco XLT

[Gary Lewis]

But it worked for you?

[FuzzFace2]

Weberman wrote

Well that's interesting haha.

It only bounces under 20mph, after that it's steady. I just noticed it driving around the yard yesterday and took it on the highway a bit ago to see about the transmission.
If my app is right, the speedo says 60mph and I'm actually going 75mph sooo just a tiinyyy difference that will need to be adjusted haha.

After I installed the over drive unit mine did the same thing and it was good before that.
Thing was the OD unit pushed the trans back and pulled the cable a little tighter.
I replaced the cable with a little longer one and it was good, no bouncing but ..........

A week ago I pulled the gauge cluster to fix some lights that stopped working and found the speedo was not on the cluster all the way.
When putting everything back together I found the the inner cable was too long so you could not get the upper part on the cluster.
Because of how the inner cable is made you cant make it shorter at the cluster so I made it shorter at the trans gear end.

Well it now bounces at 30 MPH or lower but is ok above that.
I dont know if I have to trim a little more of the inner cable or if the whole cable is making a tight turn some where?
I have not been that worried about it at this time to look into it.
Dave ----

[Weberman]

Yes, both the calculator and comparative worked for me.

[Gary Lewis]

[Weberman]

Yeah I might spray some lube up in there but since it's below 20mph, I don't think I'll worry about it too much. I might pull the gear out and confirm. I'm seeing that the color of the gear can be natural or just at the tip. So I'm going to make sure it isn't the natural or a different one and see if the gear is closer to something I can get.

[Weberman]

Got a tach from a whole gauge cluster. I could only find a tach for like $100, $120. Got this whole cluster for $65 after tax and shipping so I'm happy with it. Would this swap over? I mean it's not hard to swap the gauges but this also has a trip that might be cool to have too but again, not hard to swap. I just know I read somewhere someone put one in an early one (80 or 81 I think) and the film was different and didn't work 100% for him.

I was just thinking that I could get this one fully ready, LEDs, needles painted, trip and tach already there, it would be easier.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I'm pretty sure that as long as the flex board is the same colour there are is no problem.
The new one isn't red, is it?

Does your cluster have a hole in the lens for the trip reset, or are you just going to swap the whole thing?

[Gary Lewis]

Right.  And even if the flex circuit is a different color you can swap some pins around in the connector on the truck and make it work.

IIRC the difference is where the turn signals and bright headlight bulbs are.  Over on FTE Paul/Rogue_Wulff explained how to do that and I can find the post if needed.

[FuzzFace2]

I think the only difference is the 1980 1 year wonder for the wiring of the plug and if you have lights for the oil & battery?as that wiring might be different also.

My 81 had gauges and a member picked me up a tach & flex circuit.
Swapped in the tach & flex circuit to my cluster, bolted it all back in place and it worked.

I would get the right paint for the needles polish the clear part and bolt that cluster in to your truck.
The only thing that "I" might look into is the mileage part if I can get that to read the same as what I pulled out.
On mine I did not because I forgot what cluster came out of what truck once I had the clear part off (it had paint on it from a PO), the speedo did not work in my truck I did not know how much mileage it really had so did not really care on what it showed.

Good luck on the install.
Dave ----

[Weberman]

I have no idea what mine is. This is just the new cluster so far. Would there be any chance that the tach would work or would I have to wire that in anyways? Swapping the tach and speedo wouldn't be bad anyways like I said.

[Gary Lewis]

Assuming you have gauges and not idiot lights then your truck should be wired for the tach.

[Weberman]

What film colors are there?? I stuck my phone back there and took a video and got a little peak from where it bolts in the dash, most of it covered up the film, and it looks like the same as long as they aren't similar colors.

I had that reply typed up for awhile and didn't see what you said about the film and everything worked. So looks like all I need to swap would be the gear selector since it was from an AOD.

Also got the speedo gear out and was gonna take a pic and ask about the color but just counted instead to know for sure. I do have a 17 tooth which means I need a 13 tooth and the lowest I've found is 16. I wonder what kind of truck this transfer case came out of and if it had lower gears/OD and that's why it's soo off. Or maybe the stock tire size is a lot smaller than I thought and I have that much bigger of a tire. Or both.

[Weberman]

Yes mine looks exactly like the cluster that I posted, minus tach and trip. If that's the case, I'll just bolt this tach back in, take off the light filters and swap in LEDs and it'll be a quick change over during the dash swap...whenever it doesn't feel like 105

[Weberman]

So I've noticed while it was running this past time that it's on defrost again.. what should I look at while I have the dash out?

[Gary Lewis]

I would pull the glove box liner, which lets you see more of the mechanism, and watch it as you move the controls.  See what isn't working.  And read the section in the EVTM: Documentation/EVTM/AC-Heater.  It explains what is supposed to happen in each position.

[Weberman]

Got all the bolts out I think but the middle on the Bronco. Got the dash pad and A pillars loose/out on the donor truck. Are there bolts on the side that need to be removed? I saw a couple on the side when I pulled on my old dash and didnt know if they could even be accessed.

When I had the old cluster out, I plugged in the new one real quick and tach works great!

One thing on the blinkers. How sensitive are these blinkers? I cant remember which side now.. I believe the drivers side front and rear blinks (but the dash light is out) and the passenger front stays solid, rear doesn't light up (dash light is also solid). Is this a simple light out or is it also a relay problem? The driver side also blinks pretty slow, 2 or 3 times slower. I put emergency/hazards on and they blink like they should (except the rear passenger that is out)

Also on the new and old cluster, the brake light bulb was missing and on the old one, the brake light was actually covered with electrical tape. Is this something that was on all trucks or only some? Just trying to figure out if both were missing and the previous owner just covered it to not see it or what.

[ArdWrknTrk]

The 4-way flasher unit is on the back side of the fuse panel.
So it might be that the flasher unit for the blinkers is simply out of fluid.  🙂

[Weberman]

I've found some good rear bumpers, but no one wants to ship them. I'd think about some closer but I need the brackets for the Bronco so. May have to make a road trip.

[Weberman]

Looks like I'll have to paint my dash. I was taking the old one off and looked over and saw no vents on the passenger side, I didn't even think to look at that/didn't know they made a whole different assembly for that.

Other news, I got LEDs and needle paint in and the cluster is looking great. I have them all looking good now so tonight I'll get a pic of the lights and needles.

[FuzzFace2]

Hope you used the Hi PO needle paint other wise you may not see them at night depending on the color LED's you used.
Dave ----