jdperk-86elco

Looking at an AutoMeter catalog the diamensional data for the Cobol speedo is the same as the stock gauge which makes me think its guts will fit the gauge cluster area. My intension is to mount the AutoMeter gauge behind the stock faceplate so it will bolt up and the PRND12 indicator will work, and then rework a new incremental face that matches the stock gauges colors but also matches the AutoMeter speedo increments. Since the speedo is Programmable/Electronic if the increments are the same and zero is positioned in the right spot then the gauge should read correctly once calibrated.

I read someone did something similar to their gauges and stated how they took the AutoMeter apart.

I just don't want to temporarily mount the speedo to the steering column with a clamp because it looks bad and sometimes temporary leads to permanent. I figure if I don't have a speedo then it would push me to get one in the dash.

My last resort is just to mount the AutoMeter gauge in the dash but I think that would look screwy.

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

That is what I want to do, I am looking for someone who can reincrement the face with the stock colors but the autometer mph increments. I do not have the computer skills/programs necessary to do that, I was wondering if you already found someone capable of doing it. I hear ya on the clamp it to the column thing, mine has been up there for over 1000 miles already, I want to get it in the dash before I get used to having it on the column. I don`t want to start on the temporary fixes that become permanent syndrome.

jdperk-86elco

Gbody,

I have the skill and the programs to create the new colored incremented gauge face. I will create the gauge increments in a CAD package then import it into a graphic package to color it, then I plan on taking it to Kinkos to get it printed on peal and stick glossy paper or a finish that looks correct. I then should be able to stick it over the stock face while lining up zero.

I will use the sticker face plate to cover any unwanted holes and open the cutouts for the digital obdometer and such.

I am not there yet so if you are patient I will share. I can email the completed faceplate document to you and then you can take it to your local Kinkos to get the sticker made. I am thinking of getting the 160MPH electronic speedo will that work for you?

I have looked for others to do such a modification but noone wants to mess with it so I am on my own. My only concern is disassembly of the Autometer gauge without breaking it, I think it will be easier than I think. I will keep you posted and take pictures along the way.

I ordered a new printed circuit from OPG and they are backordered so no dash unless I can make this one work.

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

Thank you for the offer but I would not be able to use a copy of your decal anyway, our gauges are different colors. The gauges are the same from 81-85 and then a different face from 86-88. I already have a autometer 120mph speedo that I am currently using and will use for the conversion. The disassembly should not be too bad, the only part that might be difficult is removing the needle and adapting the factory El Camino needle. The line up should not be tough since when you calibrate the autometer speedometers they sit at full scale and then half scale. (120 and 60mph on mine) You can make your printed circuit board work if you can`t get another one. You would have to trace out the circuits that are bad, use a razor blade to scrape off the layer of plastic just after it comes out of the dash connector and just before it goes to the gauge or light. Then you can use small (like 22 gauge) wire to bridge the bad section, solder it in on each side and coat the connection with liquid electrical tape. It is a slow PITA process but if new boards are not available or too expensive it works.

jdperk-86elco

I just drew up the 160 MPH speedo face in CAD and I printed it to scale to see the comparisions. I will have to tweak it a bit, it is just a line drawing with no color yet. The font of the numbers looks to be "Century Gothic" where the letter O is used instead of 0 (zero).

I think mounting the Autometer gauge behind the face plate will be the easy part. Getting it to fit behind the gauge bezel will be the hard part. I will mock up a cylinder of the Autometer gauge and play around to see how much of the plastic back I will have to remove to get the guage to fit.

The gauge should mount to the face plate with the two Autometer screws on each side of the needle. I am concerned about the location of the digital display in relationship to where the PRND21. I am thinking about just using the Autometer needle as long as it is red it shouldn't be that noticable.

The number sweep looks to be 270 degrees from 0 to 160 so it will be easy to generate the 160mph or 120mph.

A few questions:

1. I haven't driven my car yet so with the 4l60e will it be PRND21 or PRND321?

2. Any bugs you are working on?

3. Did you connect your electronic speedo directly to the PCM?

4. What about your Tach is it reading correctly?

5. What model of Autometer speedo did you get?

6. Any plans to add a fuel pressure gauge? If so will a pilar pod for a 1986 MC that Autometer has mount up to the El Camino pilar?

7. Does your car seem reliable with no hickups?

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

1. The 4l60e is P R N OD D 2 1 in drive it acts like a 3spd auto, 2 locks it into second gear only (good for those fast left turns so the 2nd gear shift doesn`t make you go sideways)

2.I have not found any bugs so far, just little things I need to do over again, since it is my only car and I needed it ready to drive to school.

3. I connected the autometer directly to the computer but my autometer accepts square wave signals, I have heard that other models only use sine wave. The computer puts out a 4000ppm square wave.

4. My tach is reading 1/4 the rpm, when I had the computer programmed I asked him to multiply the tach output by 2 and he must have divided by 2. I think it would be easy to correct but I am in school right now so I have not had the time.

5. I used a autometer old tyme model 1788 at least I think I `ll check when i get home.

6. A MC pod will fit the El Camino

7. Perfectly reliable, drive it every day, drove it to the track ran 14.7`s all day and drove it home.

jdperk-86elco

Well I was able to fix the printed circuit for the instrument cluster. Works good. My Service Engine Soon light was on constant and it baffled me for awhile until I discovered the MAP sensor unplugged. I unplugged it to get the vacuum hoses connected and must have overlook it. It took about 4 to 5 engine starts to get the SES light to go out.

I did notice that the SES light doesn't always come on when the key is turned to prestart. I wonder if it my ignition switch is just wore out.

The Tach is reading about 400 rpm or so at idle so I am thinking it is just like yours Gbody.

I was thinking that a 3-1/8 Autometer speedo would slide right in to the face openning and would elliminate a custom gauge. I will keep that as an alternative.

My #8 spark plug wire is rubbing the water temp prob due to it being tight as I moved the coil up 1/2" to clear the A/C box. A new set of LS1 truck wires should solve that issue.

I need that upper radiator support so I can fab up the cooling fan brackets, then rerun the the transmission top cooler lines as it is rubbing the frame and lower radiator hose. That is all I need to get this thing down the road.

I decided to leave the drive shaft with the exposed length of 1-1/4". After I ran the transmission through the gears and filled up the fluid I double checked and it appeared that the exposed yoke is now about 1" showing. I slide the yoke out the the transmission to see how much it is sticking in the transmission and there is plenty. Full droop will not pull it out much as I check that since the car is up and stands.

This thing starts up nicely. I can't wait to drive it finally. I think I will drive it to the exhaust shop with open cat extensions if it isn't too loud on a test run.

I think my column shifter lever is worn also since it seemed difficult trying to count the position of the gear. It seemed to me I couldn't get to 1st but only to the 2nd position when I ran out of column rotation travel. It goes into Park fine though. Just interesting, maybe I just couldn't feel all of the positions properly. This just makes me think I will put it on the floor.

Hey have you heard of www.twistmachine.com? It is paddles behind the steering wheel like Indy cars that allow you to manually shift the forward gears while driving.

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

Where did you wire in the SES light? If you wired it in to the white/green trace wire at the old computer plug you must jump out the SES light driver above the glovebox (in the green plastic box on the dash wiring harness). If you wired directly to the light bulb, or the yellow wire going to the light after the SES lamp driver you should be OK.

jdperk-86elco

I connected the SES light correctly. I jumpered out the wiring to the light driver module. I also verified all wiring with a meter prior to making any modifications. I've seen a lot of cars with the dash wiring a nightmare because someone thought they knew what they were doing and just cut and spliced then scratched their head wondering why everything doesn't work.

I have a full manual on the Elco including wiring diagram which has made this mod pretty easy.

jdperk-86elco

Gbody

Check out the website below, it has 140mph speedometers for Elcos and also just the sticker.

http://www.dixiemontecarlodepot.com/...ctions/s6.html

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

Cool, too bad they do not have black 120mph decals, I kind of like the way the 140mph decal looks so mabey I will have a 120mph decal made with that design. I have not heard of the twist machine paddles brand before but I have heard of that system sounds like a good compromise between manual and auto. You might want to check your column shifter geometry, when I first bolted up my floor shifter I could not get 1st gear, I had to move the cable mount point up to get the correct geometry. I still have not hooked up my column indicator because it hits my exhaust.

jdperk-86elco

You lost me there. I am using the column shifter so I have rods down to the transmission and not a cable. I don't understand your statement "I still have not hooked up my column indicator because it hits my exhaust" isn't the indicator in the dash? (re-reading I caught that you have a floor shifter.)

When I installed the shifter linkage I ensured the trany was in Park and the shifter on the column was also in park and I locked it down. During the linkage travel the linkage is rubbing the cat extension. I will run a new cat and so the muffler shop should make it clear. Maybe I will work on the adjustment of the linkage as it appears that I am running out of column rotation travel to get it into the last gear or 1st. I am expecting PRN(D)D21 am I correct?

I decided to order a 120MPH Autometer speedo to get the 3-1/8" version to help fit it in the dash area. I figure I probably don't want to go faster than 120mph in an El Camino anyway. I think I am going to order the "Designer Black" number 1488, as I read in my AutoMeter catalog.

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

I meant that the linkage that goes to my column hits my cat extension, which is why I have not hooked it up. I was also thinking that you were running out of travel on your column shifter. The geometry I was refering to is the geometry between the connection of the shifter rod and the column, if you move the connection of the shifter rod out further from the center of the steering column there will be more shifter travel at the transmission. The same goes for moving the connection of the shifter rod closer to the center of the Z bar that goes to the transmission. You might be able to get away with using the adjusting screw especially if there is extra travel at the other end of the range.

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

This is the speedometer I am using, the good news is it has a mechanical odometer, the bad news is it does not have a trip odometer but I can`t complain for the price.http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Autom...QQcmdZViewItem

jdperk-86elco

I just purchased the 1488 Designer Black speedo today. It should be in the store I bought it from about 5pm tomorrow. I got the 120mph version that is 3-1/8" to help squeeze it in the back section of the dash.

This Saturday I will fab up my cooling fan bracket, transmission dip stick bracket, and new tranny cooling line to the radiator and I should be ready to drive it down the street.

jdperk-86elco

I got the Autometer speedometer today and I already disassembled it. This looks like it will be easier than I thought. My only issue is the needle. The Autometer needle connects to a small shaft where my factory gauge is a larger shaft.

I think I am going to cut down the Autometer needle and glue it to the factory needle so it will go back on the gauge and also I will use my factory needle.

I will snap some pictures before I put it all together.

jdperk-86elco

I just finished up the speedometer face plate graffic. I matched the font and colors as best I could. I also copied 4 each faces on a page just incase I mess up cutting it out I will have spares. I saved it in different formats and I plan on taking it to Kinkos to print. I am hoping my color choices print properly.

I have the stock face plate drilled and cut to accept the autometer gauge as well as the needle modified. All I need is the face plate to put it together. I plan on using the gauge plastic cover to cover the electronics in the back but I will have to shorten it about 1/2" or so.

Then the next challenge will be to relief cut the dash to fit the back section in the dash using the face plate factory mounts to hold it in place. Then three wire hookup and a drive calibration should finish it up nicely.

The programs I used to make the face plate graffics are AutoCAD to get it sized to scale and to increment the scale properly. I used calipers to get the dimensions of placement of holes and such. I then saved it as a .dxf file to import it to the graffic program.

I then imported it into a graphic program called FreeHand 10 by Macromedia to apply the solid color. I was then able to export it into different formats for the printers.

I will snap some pictures before I bolt it together.

jdperk-86elco

No speedometer, No accurate tach, and no exhaust. It was loud with just the cat extensions. Transmission shifts ok but I couldn't tell at what rpm for obvious reasons. The shifter linkage rubs the cat extension right at the overdrive position so I can't tell if it is in overdrive or slipping into drive. The exhaust shop should fix this with a new exhaust. I had to play with the adjustment to fine tune the shifter linkage to get all positions from Park to first.

I tightened a few fittings after starting. Just when I was happy with the finally results It sprung a leak and it appeared to be the heater core, just great. After it heated up it seemed like it sealed itself. So it looks like I will have to change the heater core soon, but I assume it was leaking way before now.

If I had a complaint it would be the high pitched wine of the Walbro pump.

So exhaust shop Monday and speedometer completion this week.

I will post pictures of the speedomod soon.

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

Congrats!!! Bet that first test drive felt great.

jdperk-86elco

Felt great. Kinda wondering if it was going to have problems and leave me standed but I was just overly concerned. I got on it alittle bit but not alot as it was loud, also I think the lack of back pressure made it seem not as responsive then again I was looking for signs of issues. Now I need some funds for EFILive so I can reprogram the PCM to get the tach and speedometer set, plus tune it a little.

It was 1:30pm so I whipped into Wendy's with open cats and went inside for lunch. She started right up as I continued on my way.

Hey GBody, I have been very successful in creating my speedometer face and would be happy to make one for you if you need one still. I have my speedometer all ready to go together just need to decide which glue to use to adhere the face with. I will take pictures and post tomorrow night as I put it together.