stock tach location for 1989-1991 blazer/ suburban

[BPatrick]

Hello everyone I'm working on the dash cluster on my blazer as the truck is getting redone and my cluster has oil pressure, voltage, temp, speedometer, fuel. I want to know if there is a tach option as I've never seen one but I've been told that it was an option. Any help with this is much appreciated. I'd like to see where the stock tach would be.

 

[jeff in co]

I don't know if it was a factory option or not during those years but I have seen some out on the junk yards. I'm sure it's possible to swap in one with the tach. Here is one I found for an 86 (I think) and Canadian but gives yo the idea.

I installed one in the lower left corner of my cluster....

 

[jeff in co]

That was in my 91' suburban. Here is one in my 89' blazer.

 

[BPatrick]

those look great I'm trying to find the tach larger and next to the speedometer and the fuel gauge smaller in the lower left hand corner. don't know if that was an option but I've seen it in earlier years.

 

[tRustyK5]

I found a tach dash and made it work in my '90. Not too hard...

Rene

 

[71blksuper4x4]

We put a 80-82 style tach dash into our 87'. It was plug and play. 89-91 will require some work as the speedometer is electric I believe.
Here is a pic of the dash in our 87'. Trevor

 

[79rustyk10]

thats crazy, Ive never seen a truck newer than like 79 or 80 with a tach dash, I thought they didnt exist.

 

[yellowK20]

thats crazy, Ive never seen a truck newer than like 79 or 80 with a tach dash, I thought they didnt exist.

ditto !! I didn't realize they had them for the 81-up dashes Now i want some for my growing fleet of 91's

 

[79rustyk10]

They must be hella rare if youve never seen one. you have like what 200+ trucks now lol.

 

[yellowK20]

They must be hella rare if youve never seen one. you have like what 200+ trucks now lol.

Hey no comments from the peanut gallery!!!!


I've probally OWNED 200 but currently I probally have around 30-ish

That being said I was always more into the 73-80's and 67-72's its just been the last 4 or 5 years that I started really "keeping" the 81-91's



Anyways the Tach is bad ass and I want at least 4 !!!

 

[4X4HIGH]

Hey Rene, I have a complete tach cluster from a 1974 truck and was thinking about installing the tach (and obviously the fuel gauge as well) into my 89 blazer and was wondering if you have any kind of write up on what it takes to do the change. I know the 90 is electric speedo and that mine is mechanical speedo and that might even make it easier on me but I have no idea on where to even start yet.

 

[79rustyk10]

Scott, When I was doing my TBI swap I put the old 70's style gauges into the newer cluster, then combined a few different speedometers (please dont tell the fuzz) to keep the VSS and have the 70's style gauges with the 100MPH speedo.

I think there might be more to it than that when you include the tach. My truck didnt have the tach, but other than that it was plug and play. When I did my swap I used the entire underdash harness out of an 88K5 so my 79 now has all the cool options that you would find on a 88K5 except the power windows and CC.

 

[tRustyK5]

Hey Rene, I have a complete tach cluster from a 1974 truck and was thinking about installing the tach (and obviously the fuel gauge as well) into my 89 blazer and was wondering if you have any kind of write up on what it takes to do the change. I know the 90 is electric speedo and that mine is mechanical speedo and that might even make it easier on me but I have no idea on where to even start yet.

With the mechanical speedo you should just be able to swap your speedo head into the older cluster and be good to go. At the very least plug it in and see what works. with the VSS crap I have some of the wiring and the PC were different. I spent a few hours tracing what wires went to which parts of the printed circuit, and for the fuel guage I ended up bypassing the PC and wired it directly.

I never thought to take any pics or do a write up though.

I might be able to do that though as I have a second tach cluster here and my buddy has an 89 Blazer...so we'll be doing this all over again soon.

Rene

 

[bww3588]

Sorry to dig this up, but did anyone figure out if the older cluster is plug n play for an 89? I'm wondering how this will work esp because I'm going from tbi to a carb setup and basically removing my pcm from the circuit. I've been around newer cars for quite some time and I'm used to everything including the gauges running off signal from the pcm. Not exactly sure how everything jives with the older vehicles. My truck is an 89 k5.

 

[dyeager535]

Not sure I should reply vs. waiting for a new thread, but Rene can move/kill it if not I suppose.

Tach is not wired into anything specific with the injection, except the remote coil. Simple to move the tach wire over to the distributor.

Not sure on the dash itself, the 90-91 cluster housing is different than at least the early-mid 80's stuff, but since the above posts show a tach in the lower left position (which is cast with ribs in the way) it can be done.

As to plug and play, never assume. Burning up a tach dash is a bad idea. Trace the circuits on the plastic circuit "card" on the back of the cluster to compare. The earlier ones had mechanical oil and ammeter, both of which IMO are a bad idea.

PCM is later vehicles, these only used ECM's. On a somewhat unrelated note, not knowing what you are doing with the rig, TBI is far better than a carb for most things...

 

[80' 427]

I think marty did a repin on a older cluster to get it to work in his 90.

 

[dyeager535]

When did they go to the "new" speedo face? Both of the '90-91's shown have the later speedo face, but if they went to that in '88 or so, what you suggest would make sense.

The cluster housing itself is ENTIRELY different due to the electric speedometer though, re-pinning won't solve the speedo cable issue...would be some work to get that to work, but with time and money, anything is possible.