thats a good idea to see if you can solder in the odo circuit... this mod is sounding likes its more fun that i thought.

 

Just my 2cents. If you are talking to a dealership that has "Lithia" in the name hang up! I worked for them for 4 years. The only people in the service department that are not retarded or crooked are the Mechanics. And yes this is universal with them. They have over 300 stores and the best people are driven out with in 6 months. I would go somewhere else.

 

nmason, when you swapped out your cluster what happened to your odometer?

 

The 94-97's had the mechanical odometers which can be altered very easily to reflect the mileage your truck has in the event of cluster swap. Once you have the speedo out it takes a few seconds to do. However, I do not advise anyone to do this to misrepresent the mileage of your truck. Most repair facilities, oil change locations, dealers and inspection stations report your mileage everytime your vehicle pass through their locations.

The 98-up had the digitals which the mileage is stored on the pcb within the cluster. In your case silver if you want it to correctly reflect the mileage I would wait until your truck has 73k miles on it. Swap the clusters and call it a day. That cluster will work in your truck without any modifications as I have done it in another truck in the past.

Once you have it installed you will have that factory tach! Personally... I would not go to the dealer to have them reprogram the cluster. It is not worth the money they will charge you.

 

ttt!

i swapped a cluster from an '01 4x4 auto into my '99 2wd manual, and it shows "no bus" in the odometer window. also, the check engine light comes on. so, i put my original one back in, and everything was fine. the "no bus" and the check engine light were the only problems i had with the replacement. all the gauges worked, and the truck ran fine.

i did a search on here, but tis was the only thread that came close to my problem.

 

when i swapped the cluster i didnt worry about the odometer, to tell you the truth it didnt even cross my mind. i really dont think its a big deal considering i went UP in miles now down.

i dont know if its possible to just switch the counter.

oh one other thing to look for when swapping to the stock gauges with a tach, a problem that has annoyed me a little. if the truck came with a tach then the check engine, abs, brake and probably some other warning lights are moved. they now show on the dash just under the gauges, it is part of the cluster. when i got mine out of a truck at the wreckers i didnt realize this and left that piece there. when i installed them i had some gaping white holes under the gauges. i covered the holes with plain black electrical tape and it looks pretty damn good, but any time a light comes on it just glows dark orange now. i had one lit up forever, no idea what it was, then another lit up. then i fixed a brake leak and they both went away, so im guessing they were the brake light and the abs.

i should also mention, with my truck being a 96, i had the mechanical odometer. the electronic one would be tricky. you'd have to swap the old module onto the new one and hope that the info is stored in that part, if you can even switch them. i wonder if a reprogram of the pcm would help at all with that.