I have a 89 formula that I am putting a 6spd in. The factory speedo is cable driven and the tranny is electronic. Do they make an adapter to make this work? I know in the camaro clusters they switched to electronic speedometers in 91 is the the same on the firebirds and if so any reason why I couldn't swap out the cluster?

 

yep they switched to electronic clusters in the firebird as well at the 91 model year if my memory is correct.Head down the the local pick-a-part and ****** one out and see what you get.

 

Actually, I've read that the Firebirds got the electronic speedo a couple years earlier than the Camaros - your '89 (unless it was made with the "base" model gauge cluster) should have the electronic unit...

Do a search on TGO for T-56, the swap has been covered in some detail. Good luck!

 

There is kits to convert to cable driven Speedo also.. just another option..

Check out Jagsthatrun.com or other Transmission vendors and sponoser.

 

My 88 was a base model and had an electric speedo.

PM'd you a link.

 

Thanks for the info guys. It helped me clear up the confusion.

 

my 89 formula didnt convert over, check out hawks third gen...

 

My 87 is electronic, and Im pretty sure my 86 is as well...

I thought they stopped doing mech. in 85 or so...

J.

 

my 87 T/A is electronic i thought cables were gone in 83-4? you learn something new everyday! you have to believe in something ill believe ill have another beer

 

All birds 86+ Have an electronic VSS. all camaro's 90+ have an electric VSS. my '89 didnt have an electric VSS, had it been electric, my 4th gen dash swap would have been a hell of alot easier

 

to be a bit more precise: All Firbirds after September 1986 -> Productionstart of Modelyear 1987

 

My 87 is mech. speedo, I have a T-56 also and I just said screw the speedo and mounted a gps unit in my dash.

 

Your sig tells me your car is NOT a Firebird.
And a GPS unit will become very inacurate on winding roads, downhill and anything else that is not a straigt line. Just do a dounat and you'l see.

 

never ever saw a 86-up bird with a cable speedo. only camaros. perhaps yours was messed with befor you got the car

 

all firebirds and trans ams from 1987 and up have electric speedo, camaro from 90 and up there is a unit that cost 300 dollars to convert the electric pulse out of the t-56 to mechanical cable driven and even if you do switch gauge clusters to an electric or even the digital stock ones that you could opt for when buying the car originally you would need a dakota digital sgi-5 box to convert the pulse rate down to a level that a stock electric speedo will understand.. trust me i have a t-56 in my 87 GTA and if you dont use the sgi-5 box ($120 when i bought it years ago) you will be going about 5 mph and the speedo will say your doing 80. i have lots of info on my dip switch settings and how to wire it up as well if you need anything..

 

also i forgot to mention in the ecm i had to burn a chip with a setting that let the ecm know you had a mechanical speedo so it wasnt looking for a pulse from the tranny as well. it may just have been a '730 ecm upgrade issue or the t-56 retrofit issue. either way i could burn my own chips and did that for some reason that i cant remember exactly now but i know it kept the car from stalling when you push in the clutch. i also switched from an auto to a stick as well and had to download a 1991 vette binary file for my ecm cuz that is the only year they ran a 730 ecm with a t-56 on an l98 5.7 tpi block.. i had a lot of stuff going on back then i guess but i am letting you know it might be something you have to deal with