I'm looking at putting gauges into my '83 98, the ones that mount in that cluster below the speedometer. I was wondering if anyone has done this before or knows what's involved. If necessary I can get the harness as well. I'm hoping the plugs are under there but I doubt it's that easy.

 

My 78 did not have the plugs under it. I'm sure there's a "factory style" way of doing it, but I ran the wires directly to the correct sensor. I sourced an 72 Cutlass as my sensor car.

 

I had them, I took them out.

The water gauge was never right, the oil and volt gauges worked fine. If you can get a set with the factory plugs, you can wire all the igntion to the area around the clock since the ingtion wire goes there and isn't hooked up to anything. The lighting can also go to the clock light wire. all the sending unit wires, can be ran thru the firewall by removing one bolt from the plate around the brake pedal. 3 wires fit thru there no problem.

Everything has to be grounded. The bolt in the bottom corner of the dash works well.

Fuse everything with an inline fuse holder. For factory gauges, use a 20 amp fuse (factory size)

 

I have that gauge cluster here if you haven't sourced one yet.

 

j, if at3reg98 already has one i could also use one for a 78 delta that i am gathering parts for. i thought the dash bezels were the same pretty much from 77-85 but i just remembered about the wiper switch hole and im not sure what year they moved it to the turn signal stalk. any help appreciated

 

I had 2 sets of gauges. One came with the car but not hooked up, the other I pulled out of a 1982 olds 98 in the yard. Wiper Switch was in the dash

 

thanks redog for the 411. too bad there's slim pickins in my local yards as i do not mind buying just the parts from others, but it's nicer when you can go to town on the car and pull everything in one shot harnesses and all. im trying to add the factory options that mine does not have. had clock delete but i found a guy in conn. that is parting 3 80-83 98s so i bought a roller clock and tilt column from him . wiring was there but the plug setup was a little different. keeps perfect time which surprised me! btw this delta is getting what fits from an immaculate mohogany 76 regency interior(dying the other panels to match) and its 455 along with a resto when time permits. the motor is a beast i have a great video of it absolutely destroying the tires in it's final blaze of glory, i should put it up!

 

I have a set now but haven't tried to install them yet. I have several of the normal (non gauge) speedo bezels if anyone is interested.

 

1981 was the last year for the dash mounted wiper control.

Also of note ...

1980+ cars have a tan/light woodgrain "pinstripe" of sorts on the edges of the dash panels that the 77-79 cars did not.

FWIW ...

Using a 1980+ center panel (a/c-radio) in a 77-79 car looks just fine.
(been there did that 25+ years ago)

However ...

The 1980+ LH panel (cluster) while still using a 77-79 center panel ... would look pretty hokey IMHO.

 

thanks packrat, i appreciate the info. that's the great thing about this site, at least i know now to look for both bezels for it to look correct. or worst case i have a killer airbrush guy to make it all uniform and just clear them. would have sucked to get it all done then notice!

 

The center piece with the stripe looks just fine combined with the LH piece w/o the stripe.

25+ years ago at the time .....

It was my father's 79 D88 I did that in.

He never he noticed the stripe on the newer piece vs the older one.

The original center piece's chrome was wearing off of it in places.

The rumor has it a much younger person that was often a passenger at the time ... was a bit too ambitious in trying to keep the nicotine film off of the chrome & was ignorant to the fact of just how easily that chrome would start to rub off.

Word has it that person is much older & at least somewhat more wiser these days.

 

nice story packrat, cool how cars and music can bring you right back to where you were at the time.. in 1989 i bought my very first car which was a 78 delta royale 4 door, faded silver with red velour. rod knockin 350 for $50.00 ! my friend happened across a man pulling the radiator from a 71 cutlass getting ready to scrap it.. it ran good so my friend payed the guy $50 for it and after terrorizing the neighborhood for a week with the 350 2bbl (man that car killed one tire all the way down the street!)we pulled it swapped the 4 barrel intake and carb from mine (never ran strong after that it seemed to saturate with fuel) my car was nicknamed the hotel for obvious reasons! where else can a 16 year old find a little privacy!? so this new delta is going to be a rolling tribute and a time machine all at the same time.. by the way love the usage of aluminum foil brother

 

to be clear we pulled the motor from the 71 and put it in my delta with the carb and intake from the delta and junked the cutlass as it was really rotted . it ran so strong with the 2 barrel that i still kick myself in the *** for not just leaving it alone and installing it as is.