79 F350...what axles? new info

[mikey_d05]

I honestly don't know what's all involved in a cluster swap. IIRC correctly all that junk is full of printed circuits so it's possible that it's fairly involved. I personally hate the factory gauges so your conundrum would be an excuse for me to start a gauge swap. Start up a new thread and see what people have done. I'm no expert on the inner workings of a Chevy dash and am in the process of getting rid of most of them.

 

[mikey_d05]

Wait...I remember pulling the cluster in our burb...the speedo has a circuit board leading up to it that like plugs into the side...don't remember how involved it was in the rest of the harness but it didn't look all that complicated. If you can find a '90 or '91 I think you should be alright. If you can get the gauge and the board it should only take two or three wires to make it operational....I think

 

[muddybuddy]

well haha, it depends on how much new gauges cost. hey i got an idea, you sell me your gauges that could work out nicely for you ahah

 

[mikey_d05]

well haha, it depends on how much new gauges cost. hey i got an idea, you sell me your gauges that could work out nicely for you ahah

My play toy is the K5, which is an '89 and mechanical

WTF: Just looked in LMC and they list mech. until '87...I might be crazy but I'm not stupid....at least I'm pretty sure the cable coming out of the back of the t-case was mechanical

 

[Greg72]

Not to suggest anything TOO radical but you could just use the transfer case from the F*rd you're buying.....I'm pretty sure it would be compatible with the axle and in 1979, odds have got to be pretty good that it's an NP205???

I barely know Chevy stuff, so don't ask me what transfercase came out of a '79 Furd....

 

[muddybuddy]

well he pulled the engine and tranny to put in another truck, he prolly pulled the t-case as well. im goin over tomorrow to check it out. i like the idea of a np205, but its low range is pretty sad compared to np241, unless of course its a doubler.

 

[BigOrange90Jimmy]

they list it until 87 because that's the classification for our trucks: 73-87. Yes, the mech. speedo was in there up until 89, but 88 was when they redesigned the line, dropping the pickup line, which is what the years are based on.

To swap to an electric cluster, I believe you have to have the wiring harness and year specific computer....i.e. VSS signal from t-case.

 

[atho]

Not to suggest anything TOO radical but you could just use the transfer case from the F*rd you're buying.....I'm pretty sure it would be compatible with the axle and in 1979, odds have got to be pretty good that it's an NP205???

I barely know Chevy stuff, so don't ask me what transfercase came out of a '79 Furd....

There is a 99% chance its a 205, and 1% its a 203. These aren't hard statistics, but I think its about right.

IIRC, the ford 6 bolt pattern will work with GM stuff, but it will clock it weird. also, you'd need to figure something out because the ford transfer cases were all 31 spline female input. not 18 different kinds like GM...one of the few things Ford has us beat on.