Hey guys, I'm kinda new here to the site, and I gotta say I'm glad to be here and this is a very interesting and helpful forum! Anyways, I went to the scrapyard today to find an instrument cluster for my 1980 Ranger F100. As I'm sure you guys know, the '80 model had a much different cluster than the '81-'86. All I was looking for was one that had an oil pressure and battery gauge instead of the idiot lights my old one had, and I also wanted the '81-'86 style so I could add the factory tach later. Surprisingly I found an '85 F150 stepside that had the battery and oil gauges, a nice trip odometer, AND the factory tach. Now, I know I'm going to have to rig up the wiring on this thing to make it work (forgot to ****** the new harness), but my question to you guys is, what will I have to do to get the new battery and oil gauges to work, and how should I go about wiring in the tach? Any help is much appreciated!

New compared to old, also custom painted metallic silver with black lettering:


The back, showing the differences and the printed circuits:


And lastly, the awesome truck this setup came out of:

 

Sorry off topic but where is that truck located? I could us some parts from it.

 

It's located here in Owensboro, KY.

 

I believe there is some stuff about this in the Tech Tips sticky at the top of the page.

 

Not sure if the idiot-lighted trucks came with the tach wiring or not, but if not, it's easy to wire up a tach in a non-tach truck.

The tach has four terminals:

C or I (coil signal)
B (12v keyed power)
G (ground)
8 (secondary ground only used in V8 trucks; I6 doesn't use this ground)


C goes to the wire connected to the tach test terminal on your coil (dark green wire at coil), B goes to a keyed 12v power source, G goes to a good ground, and 8 goes to a good ground as well, ONLY if you have a V8. If you have the I6, you can leave this unhooked.

You might find a small, two-wired connector under the hood next to the ignition module, with a black wire and a green wire going to it. If you see this, then this is a factory tach connection. Again, not sure if the idiot lighted trucks had this or not, but it's worth checking.

If there's not something already connected to this connector that runs into the cab, you can connect your tach's C and G wires to this and not have to touch the wiring at the coil. C to GREEN, G to black.

If you need more help with the tach, PM me on here and I'll do whatever I can to help.

 

Thanks a bunch! There was no wiring for a factory tach, and my old cluster was completely different from the new one, the plug for the original cluster was in the location where the recess for the tach is on the new one. I got the tach wired in properly and it works just as it should, now my problem is with ALL the vitals gauges. I realize the battery and oil gauges wouldn't be a direct plug-n-play for the lights, but my fuel and temp gauges won't work either

Keep in mind I did have to hard-wire this one since the old plug did not fit the new cluster, but I thought I had everything wired correctly judging from the layout of the printed circuit on the old cluster, but nada. I'm sure the gauges themselves are in working order, as those are my originals... any ideas?

 

That looks like my truck!

*peeks outside*


Whew


Get the bed!!!!, in fact, get the whole truck!

 

I'm not sure if these will help, but have you read these threads?


https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...-question.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...dels-only.html <-- Yes, I know you have idiot lights, don't be discouraged by the title

 

Owensboro? I live right across the river in Rockport. We'z naybers!!

 

Haha, if I could drag the whole truck home, I would. I was thinking about grabbing the bed, and maybe getting an extended cab, do a little mod work and make it look nice.


Awesome! If you make a trip across the river anytime soon, just look for the ugly black and red death machine, that'll be me

Thanks to yall's help, and a little abstract thinking, I'm happy to report that everything now works as it should, with the exception of the ammeter and oil pressure gauge. How easy would it be to just swap those parts off the harness, or would I be better off just going for the new harness altogether? Once again, thanks a bunch!