Building a 1999-6/2009 79 series cluster with tachometer and subtank from parts (1 Viewer)

[bottombracket]

@coldtaco, @davegonz, and @Mr Cimarron came over today and made me grow a set and just pop the speedo STOP PIN out of the plastic speedometer gauge face.

It’s a little wobbly but nothing a little super glue won’t fix.

One step closer to done.

 

[RHINO]

Yes... My question is is it difficult to pull off the kilometer face and add in the miles per hour face. Given that putting one on top of the other will result in terrible illumination.
I understand the pin is a separate problem.

pulling the face is sooo simple, however the speedo pointer is a different story, as bottombracket said thats the hard part and we have yet to see if he did it well (fingers crossed). if there is any, and i mean ANY bending of that tiny little shaft you get a bouncy speedo needle.

having said that, if your asking about your Troopy, i'm pretty sure you have the metal face, which can be replaced also from Lockwood, or you can find a magnetic overlay, no need to pull the needle for the latter.

 

[woytovich]

magnetic overlay

Oh, THAT'S a cool idea.

 

[bottombracket]

@RHINO now you’re giving me angina.

It’ll still be a while before this thing burns diesel… I suppose my chest pain will continue.

 

[bottombracket]

I made an error above and went back to edit it… It was the stop pin that I removed from the kilometers per hour face. Pulling the speedometer needle off of the gauge, certainly scary, but the needle seems to move smoothly and without wobble….seems is the operative word here.

 

[RHINO]

sorry, i dont mean to give you any kind of 'gina,,,, chances are good you did well since you pried from both sides equally

edit, not sure about your error but i am referring to the needle, not the stop pin.

put a drill motor to the drive input, just a phillips bit will spin it fine, rev'r up and see if that needle is smooth

 

[bottombracket]

Unfortunately it’s electric speedo

 

[RHINO]

Unfortunately it’s electric speedo

sheesh, i actually knew that cause the housing doesnt have the mechanical drive hole

 

[John Young]

I am most impressed, BB! But I have questions....

I assume this is going on your 80-framed, 79 series pickup. Are you an electrical engineer? A genius polymath? Are you contemplating reverse-engineering the 79-series instrument cluster to the point where you can make that tach and all those myriad trouble lights work? I stare at the wiring diagrams for the 80 and just kinda give up after a while, especially when it comes to the ECU. The 75 series wiring diagram is a lot simpler, but I have not looked at the 79. From what I can see of the instrument cluster it looks much more advanced than what I have been dealing with on the 75 series.

All of this hits quite close to home. I've got a petrol 75 troopy and pickup and a 75 diesel, none of which have tachs. I was just talking about this with a friend down in Abu Dhabi. His view is that I should not need to know the RPM. I, on the other hand, struggle some times depending on how noisy the environment is, and I really want to add at least a tachometer onto all three vehicles. Two of them have the sub tank binnacle, one does not, but I could use a binnacle housing to add a digital tach. I'd much rather have the tach next to the speedo and be of a consistent style, just like you have accomplished.

I've never considered trying either to use a cluster that has the tach or adding a tach to a 75 series cluster. I would love it if you would go deep on the electrical engineering aspects of this. I know the 75 is much more primitive, electronics wise, but I'm sure I would learn a lot from you.

Thanks for posting this thread!

 

[bottombracket]

John,

Thank you for those kind words… But I am none of those things. I’m not breaking any new ground here, I’m just assembling a difficult to find gauge cluster using all OEM parts the way they were designed by Toyota.

Toyota seems to have built the electric speedometer 79 series gauge cluster in the old style metal dashboard from August 1999 through June 2009. There are several different iterations and changes between early and late HZJ79, and then VDJ79 from 1/07-6/09, when the old school metal dashboard changed to plastic. The VDJ cluster with tachometer and subtanks is much more common … But it is incompatible with a 1Hx drivetrain. So it’s really hard to find the loaded cluster like this. I searched the world for one for months, then I realized that all of these parts were available, and that I could build one from scratch. That’s what you just read.

Guess what? As soon as I ordered all the parts, I found a used correct cluster in Pakistan. I bought it and checked my work, and it looks like it should when you compare the two. I will be selling that used cluster to a good friend who is building a 79 next.

As to whether or not a 75 cluster with tachometer is available… That’s way out of my league. I have the relative advantage of a slightly newer system (79 series) with lots of residual global parts availability.

 

[RHINO]

Ok BB I have a Q.

You mentioned that hole in the cluster and it seems to NOT have a screw in it, but clearly the screw completes that particular circuit. So, when looking at the complete cluster you bought, was that screw left out also? And what is the circuit that screw completes? Just a dash light for something?

 

[bottombracket]

@RHINO

The screw is indeed left out. I have no idea what circuit it completes/keeps in continuity.

Hole is left blank, I wonder if it is somehow a manufacturing hole for alignment?

 

[c2dfj45]

Careful with that superglue and the plastic....I feel like one time I was doing a Porsche gauge and broke the needle....thought I'd superglue it and well, that made a bit of a mess. Ha. When I worked for a dealer it was very popular to put new gauge faces on Boxster clusters.....for some reason I was the go-to guy to do them. Every one I did was terrifying.

 

[bottombracket]

Gel super glue?

Small blob of epoxy on the back?

 

[c2dfj45]

W

Gel super glue?

Small blob of epoxy on the back?

I try to stay far away from super glue and stuff like that. I would do epoxy if it were me.....maybe even JB Weld...much easier to get exactly where you want it.

Also.....when are you going to do this for let's say......a 2009 and up cluster?? Bonus points if you can add a tach to one

 

[bottombracket]

Luckily those 7/09+ are able to be sourced waaaay more easily.

 

[bottombracket]

The last pieces of the puzzle arrived…the ground strap from tachometer (also the odometer) to circuit trace. Yes, I could’ve made one, but if I am this far in, why not wait and get the correct OEM part?

 

[bottombracket]

I glued the stop pin in place VERY carefully with a single drop of glue.

 

[bottombracket]

And reassembled with new cover screws. Because…shiny.

Done and ready for installation.