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connection info for this cluster

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billd View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote billd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/15/2018 at 10:04pm
LOL - I need to video what it takes to remove the cluster from my SX4 - talk about a nightmare. I am putting up with a radio speaker issue and non-working turn signal indicator and other issues rather than have to spend the hours needed to get into that dash and back out again. 
Removing the 73 cluster was a walk in the park compared to any dash work on an Eagle. There's literally three times the space and I could get my hand up in the dash to disconnect the speedometer cable. Can't do that with an Eagle. You also must remove the console, package tray and other fun stuff before you begin to remove the Eagle cluster. And things break easily as well.
Imagine more stuff in a space that is about 1/3 the space of the Javelin.
Yeah, I could remove and reinstall the 73 cluster in less time that it takes to simply remove the cluster from an Eagle. I was actually able to get the cluster out far enough to remove the wires while comfortable in the seat and didn't scrape my hands. Can't do that with an Eagle.

I'll do your 71-74 Javelin cluster work if you'll take care of my SX4 radio and turn signal indicator lights.  Wink

Now I admit - I've not removed the CENTER section or the right side of the dash, ONLY the cluster area and the switch panel area.......... 
I'd install 5 stereos into 71+ Javelins before I'd do ONE in an Eagle. I still can't get my Alpine properly secured in the Eagle dash - there literally isn't any space. The back end hits the defroster area - I had to bend and make a special wrench to install a rear brace screw and it took 30 minutes working through the removed glove box to get that screw turned in.
I can't believe the wide-open spaces in this Javelin dash! WOW!
Granted, it does NOT have AC - and I want to change that........ maybe that's a difference??
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote billd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/15/2018 at 10:07pm
PS - I have the clock out of the tach thinking maybe it would be simple to get inside - not so simple. 
I also have a NOS tach I was going to install - bloody !##! I can't find the dumb thing. It's still in a box - and I put it where it would be safe - yeah, safe from ME!!!! I can't find it.
Ugh. Dang new tach, brand new, dash cluster apart, tach removed to check out the clock and I can't find the NOS tach. Ticked me off.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pit crew Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/15/2018 at 10:17pm
Originally posted by billd billd wrote:

It's still in a box - and I put it where it would be safe - yeah, safe from ME!!!! I can't find it.
I am almost embarrassed to say how many times we took something and put it "somewhere safe" only to never find it again.

But that has nothing to do with age. Nope, nothing at all... Wink

73 Hornet - 401EFI - THM400 - Twin Grip 20
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote billd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/15/2018 at 11:31pm
HAHA - who are you trying to convince, eh? HAHA
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 304-dude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/16/2018 at 4:47am
My issue is i always stumble on a part I may need later on, but when I need it... where did it go? HA!

Since you are going to connect up a new tach and clock...

Relised why I got confused with tach connections... had to sleep on it, to think what I did. Way back when I got my first tick tock tach, i disassembled it completely and got everything to work. In reassembly I redid the wiring to the studs, to more or less logical approche. So I reversed the connections internally for thé studs. It always stuck in my head, even when I rewired my 71 wiring over 7 years ago.

Now do you think i did it to my tach? Nope! So off it the bench I go!

Thanks for the thread, it saved my arse from myself on this one!

I know, why make it worse for someone else, by not going OEM on connects.

One reason but not major, after all i got through resistors and network cables, with great frustration at times, yet made it through not blowing caps and creating fires on my work bench in lab. Ha!

I am bloody color blind, brown, green and red can all look the same, depending on shade and complementary colors near by. So if by chance I grab a brown wire, it still will be power, just on a different connection. Though the long stud being mostly encapsulated by the connector, should save many from blowing fuses when accidently messing around in removal or adjustments. A lot safer ammeter connections.

The spade terminal can be just as safe, if one modifies the spade terminal with shrink tubing and an application of weather protector coating or plastic dip over the nut. Now that I would do on the Ammeter studs, if i were to connect one.

71 Javelin SST body
390 69 crank, 70 block & heads
NASCAR SB2 rods & pistons
78 Jeep TH400 w/ 2.76 Low
50/50 Ford-AMC Suspension
79 F150 rear & 8.8 axles
Ford Racing 3.25 gears & 9" /w Detroit locker
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote billd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/16/2018 at 6:11pm
The car already had a green wire run from the coil in to a tach mounted on the steering column so I am going to use that. I put a connector on the end that matches the original - a slotted sort of female connector as the spade has a little nubbin or tab on it so the mating female connector could only go on one way -and most others couldn't go on at all.

I also came up with enough parts, ends, etc. to make the correct type of wire to handle the clock power and tach ACC feed. Those are even the correct color. Odd that the TSM says the clock power wire from the clock is GRAY for a 70 series - but then I've seen several discrepancies in the TSM related to the wiring of these cars.

I am going to go ahead and run wires for the ammeter - may wait to connect them, but will run them out so they are ready if I decide to.

I ran a wire out to the oil pressure sender area with a correct type end, and properly inserted into the cluster in-line pin connector.. 
But - ran into a problem when I tried to do with this car like the 70 had - both light OP switch AND gauge sending unit so I could run both light and gauge like the 70...........
I removed the plastic line the PO had and his adapter and thought ok, I'll screw in an elbow, short eighth-inch brass pipe, then a T, and screw in both the switch and sending unit. 
Fine - until I went to put the oil filter back on - it hit the elbow screwed into the adapter in the block.
Bloody-#%## - the adapters down there taking the block's OP port from 3/8" NPT down to 1/8" NPT for my elbow and pipe stick out far enough the elbow to bring the pipe upward hit the filter, or the filter hit the elbow. 
The 70 used a special fitting - lower profile - that screwed into the block then had the eighth-inch NPT hole for the pipe and then the T.
So i'll have to run to town to get a 3/8" to 1/8" pipe adapter to screw into the block to pull the elbow away from the filter. Dang. a three buck part holding things up. That's the ONE size I didn't have in my stuff.

OK, Pit Crew may enjoy this part - 
Impatient and not wanting to wait weeks to get a clock or send mine out for conversion (this car has to be back together and DONE this week - period) I decided to open up the clock and see what was up.
It wasn't burned points, it was age and parts not able to move like they used to. It wasn't visibly dirty but I went ahead and washed it down good, a teeny bit of quilting machine oil (really light, CLEAR and clean oil), blew that off, cleaned the points up, tried to give the spring a bit more stretch but it's not really possible in this clock.........
Anyway, the clock has been running steady on my bench since about 11 am today - it is now 6 pm.
We'll see........ now if I can get it BACK TOGETHER without breaking something or messing it up. 

the clock has no knob on the time set shaft. I checked another similar clock I had (likely for a Spirit or Gremlin or something) and it, too, was missing the little knurled time set knob!
it seems like people took those tiny knobs off and threw them away or something!
So you have to grip it with small pliers or something to pull it out to set the time.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 304-dude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/16/2018 at 6:39pm
Pit Crew, or 401Matadorcoupe may have the clock knob and nut. Can't remember who was offering them for sale.

Glad your clock was a simple fix, most are dirty and need some cleaning. If too gummed up or surface cleaning needs to be done. A jeweler's shop that does clocks and watches may do a cleaning to make them spick and span. That's if your lucky to have one. Watch repair shops are not so common in smaller towns, any more.
71 Javelin SST body
390 69 crank, 70 block & heads
NASCAR SB2 rods & pistons
78 Jeep TH400 w/ 2.76 Low
50/50 Ford-AMC Suspension
79 F150 rear & 8.8 axles
Ford Racing 3.25 gears & 9" /w Detroit locker
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote scott Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/16/2018 at 6:53pm
Its been a while since I've fired my Javelin up that is factory equipped with the gauge cluster you are installing, but I am pretty sure it doesn't have the oil light functioning. I think it was an either-or proposition from the factory, gauge or light. Not to say you couldn't make both work, as you are doing.

The clock adjusting knob & nut are always missing from these clocks. Chevy used a similar knob & nut on their clocks, I wonder if they are reproduced?? 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote billd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/16/2018 at 8:01pm
It's possible they didn't have both active - but I would almost bet that the socket and wiring are still there for the light. I mention that because of the changes they'd have to have made to delete that - and stock two different versions of the light array behind the switch panel under the cluster.
The ALT and oil light share a common power feed - so they'd have to have a different harness and a different setup for the ALT light as well. 
I'd love to see the harness from an original AMX with this type of cluster!


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 71-SST Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr/16/2018 at 8:58pm
I swapped a 73 Tic Toc Tach from a 73 Javelin about 9 years ago. I've got the idiot light, the oil pressure gauge in the dash and a mechanical one in the ashtray (with an engine temp one beside it). Been a while since I did this so a little foggy on the details, but it wasn't overly difficult. Needed the clock knob as well and eventually found this. Looks very similar to original(maybe a little shinier).
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