hockeyhead019

Hey everybody,

Did some quick digging and I saw that a lot of people have asked about going to a purely analog dash like a Camaro's or a Firebirds. Not my question lol.

Has anybody completed a transfer of the later C4 gauge cluster into an earlier C4 to get rid of the Atari dash? If so what's involved?

Cheers

bogus

lots. it's a wiring nightmare...

and I mean a lot of wiring.

you would be better off going with analogue gauges.

BOOT77

Can't stand the gauges myself, but my budget is for other things and I may someday make a dash up with other gauges. There is a kit from some dude with all autometer an bezel but it's like $800, idk if he doesn't something for the wiring I can't remember.

hockeyhead019

hmm was hoping it would be a one for one (or close to it at least) swap, clearly not haha o well I'll note that in my search for a vette. Thanks for the info guys!

hcbph

Not analog but here's another option if you don't like the oem dash: http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.c...rod/prd190.htm

Not cheap but it's an option.

HlhnEast

A member (Redrose maybe?) here used the gauges from a mid 80's Firebird dash to configure a new analog one. The up side was since they were from a same time period GM car there was minor issues figuring out how to make em work with the existing Vette wiring. Looked pretty good. Out lay was less than $200 IIRC.

Just another option if you have some electrical skills. Batee.com has info on the connector pin out values.

Good luck!

hockeyhead019

This is great information. I'm pretty good with electrical things since it's pretty much what I do for a living lol. Thanks for the info!

v8vette84

I modified a 97' LT1 Z28 cluster to fit in the space left by the Atari cluster. I hated the atari dash so I replaced it. The wiring really wasn't bad. You just have to make sure you find the pinout from the C4 side and the Z28 side. I love my gauges as they don't look totally out of place. The plates that you have to fill up with gauges look too "race-car" to me. I actaully bought the plate from vetteaid but didn't like it so I sold it. I wanted a factory style cluster. Here's a link to my thread about my custom cluster.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...e-cluster.html

I know it's not a late C4 cluster but it gives you an idea. Also the late C4 cluster is very round and would probably not fit in the square space left by the atari cluster.

Also I just realized that the third gen trans am gauges are also in this thread posted by another member. He used 3rd gen trans am gauges and make a custom plate to hold them.

hockeyhead019

Thanks for the reply! That is exactly what I would be looking for. Nice and simple, yet not that race car look with tons of dead space that some aftermarket dashes have.

Were you able to keep mpg display and things like that or were they shot once you went to the Z28 dash? Sorry not familiar with what the Z28 cluster can display.

-=Jeff=-

You will lose the mpg, DTE, etc.. whether early or late. I know on the late cars it is done in the CCM and then translated on the LCD panel..

Early cars I think data is sent VIA serial and translated but not 100% certain..

v8vette84

Yea like Jeff said you will loose those pieces of data. I never missed mine as the cluster never worked correctly from the beginning. I actaully sold it to a guy who refurbishes them. I got like $100-200 out of it if I remeber correctly. It basically paid for my cluster swap. The MPG thing is cool and all but for my car that has heads/cam/ etc I didn't care to have it. (Even though my MPG is still pretty good calculating it the old fashioned way). You have to take the good with the bad I guess. Analog gauges or the atarti dash with the MPG display.

My BIGGEST gripe with the atari dash was the slow response and limited RPM. I like to see my gauges change almost instantly not smoothly like the atari dash does. Maybe its just as fast but to me it seemed slow. Plus I just like the look of analog gauges WAY better.