new gauges

[sicndhed]

While I’m making room for the’71 to be delivered I thought I’d play with a spare gauge pod. Other than the typical reflections from the flat lenses I like it a lot.

[caspianwendell]

I like the way that looks

[TommyK]

Very nice.

How about a shot from the back?

[c9zx]

Looks good to me. Chuck

[Boss1Ray]

That looks good. Do you have the pn's of those gauges?
Do they sit in there with no modifications?

Ray

[sicndhed]

The tach is Autometer Pro Comp 6851 (playback and dual shift lights) and the speedometer is Autometer Pro Comp 5189. They have a lot of similar sized options that would work just as well (and be a lot cheaper). Their Sport Comp line is pretty similar. I made extra work for myself because I removed the bezels from the tach and speedo to fit them into a ’67 pod. Since I found an original Shelby tach and speedo set for that project these AMs were available for “Jill” (my ’71).
The photos of the ’71 pod with two tachometers has the AM bezel still in place on the 8000 rpm tach (left side). If the AMs still had their bezels I could remove the Mustang’s silver bezel and it would look like photo with the 8000 rpm Sport comp tack. It looks like with a little triming of the pod it would center nicely. Using the orignail AM bezels rather than the Mustang bezel should make the conversion a lot easier. Since I’m working with gauges that have already been opened I will have to seal the lenses back up or they will get dusty inside.

I haven’t finished the mounts but it will be a lot easier than some other conversions I’ve done. I’ll make some sort of “spider” that uses the original three mounting bosses to apply force to the back of the gauges to secure them. I’ll either cut/fit some rings or pack something to go between the body of the new instruments and the I.D. of the pod’s openings.

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Here's my wife's '74 Vette and her '68 Camaro. The pod is for my '68 Camaro.

The mechanical speedo and basic tach are some of the lower cost gauges that would install the same as the ones I'm using.

[Last930]

How do you hook up the speedo - I presume the original speedo works off a cable drive and the new one is electronic?

[sicndhed]

How do you hook up the speedo - I presume the original speedo works off a cable drive and the new one is electronic?

I’ll be running a TKO600 which has both cable and electric speedometer outputs. I have the electric speedo for this conversion. The mechanical speedo is about eighty bucks cheaper but the ease of calibrating the electric is very nice as is the lack of needle flutter.



My wife’s Camaro has the electric speedo too but I used Autometer’s GPS sending unit on hers. It’s nice but sometimes you can drive for a couple of miles before it acquires signal. Keeps the mileage down

AM has a signal generator that screws into the mechanical output of a trans too.

[Luke]

That's cool.

[sicndhed]

I received a question about this gauge swap so I thought I’d add some information here. I think the easiest way to use the five inch AutoMeters that have a bezel like the Sport Comp shown here is to remove the Mustang’s black and chrome bezel that is held in with two screws and then mount the un-modified AM tach or speedo. By removing a little bit of the Mustang's pod material (shown in red) the gauge can be centered in the pod. I couldn’t quite hold it and photographic by myself but it can be aligned. I think it looks fine without the Dremel work but if you want to be picky…

When I make the bracket that holds the gauges I add photos. As I’ve mentioned I don’t know if the added depth of the tach will interfere with anything under the Mustang dash since I don’t have access to my ’71 yet. On ’68 Camaros I did have to move a steering column brace to make room for this type of modification