Ok soI have been online all morning looking at posts about conerting over to raleey pack dash and I cant seem to find much info on 78-80 cutlass. I have 2 cars-a 1980 that I am putting together as a driver and a 1978 parts car. My idea is to make a custom hHurst clone with a 1978 theme. My 80 has the early granny dash and the 78 has the rally dash. What exactly has to be done to install the rally pack in my 80? The best info I am finding online is for the 81-88 models which neither of my clusters are. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

I had one of those 78's with the rally pac. Far as I know, it's not just a plug and play transfer. You're going to need to transfer the electrical harness from the 78 to the 80. 78-80 should use the same dash pads though.

Your project is totally do-able and a great idea. If you don't hear anything back on this site I'd be surprised. Do you have the Chassis Service Manual for the car?

 

I do not but have alldata. I was just checking to see if someone has done this specific swap before. I have 2 cars so I should have everything I need.

 

If you use the 'search' feature of this site you'll find stuff on this topic. For example: https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...onversion.html

 

I don't believe there are any electrical differences in the 78-80 vs 81-88 clusters.

It's the gauge faces that are all that's really different I believe.

Personally ... I prefer the later cluster.

The early ones look somewhat bland & dated ... even by 78-80 standards.

The later ones also have a higher temp & oil pressure reading as well IIRC.

Here's a link to the tech section of the Olds G-Body mail list :

http://tech.oldsgmail.com

Chapter 6 has the write up on the swap which includes the differences in the connectors & which need to be re-pinned.

 

I saw that but it didn't tell what exact wiring needs to be switched...etc...

 

What I was trying to say in my post is there are differences between the stock gage and rallye pac connections (not plug and play), which is borne out in this quote from your reference BTW, That source guide you posted is one of the best resources I've seen on this topic.

 

I saw this too but the cluster is a 81-88 and has 2 connectors on where mine only has one because my neither my car nor the donor car have computers in them.

 

Ignore plug #1. Scroll about 1/2 way down on the oldsgmail site under rally pack swap, there are the instructions for the wiring swap. BTW, 78-80 clusters are different from 81-88. It won't fit correctly in the dash pod. I tried to install 1 in my 78 salon, and it doesn't fit correctly. Pull the 1 that's in your 78, and compare the backs. You'll see what I mean.

 

Good thing my car is a 80 and the donor is a 78. I have been reading through it.

 

Which is pretty much the same thing I implied as well ... below.



I was unaware one of the plugs was missing on the older cars.

I thought the only difference would have been the speedo having the provision for attaching the VSS plug.

Didn't know an entire connector was omitted.

I was also unaware that the backsides were different.

Different locator pin(s) placement ?.

I'm surprised all the years that article has been up .....

No one has added/updated that info.

 

Ok so what I got from reading that article was that all the color codes are the same but the pin positions are different right? So I can either move the pins around or just swap the connector for the cluster since I have both cars?