thedave360 Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 After my gauges crapped out, I decided to try to go with mechanical gauges. They all seem pretty strait forward except the speedometer. I need a cable to go from the gauge to the trans (or t-case). Is there somewhere on the trans or t-case to connect a cable like this? Could I just replace the electrical connection? Any Ideas?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Do you know why your gauges died? You could probably adapt a earlier model speedo cable by swapping the plug that goes into the t-case with the older mechanical version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geonovast Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Yup, 84-90 XJs and 86-90 MJs used a cable driven speedometer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeepcoMJ Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 going from electrical to cable is not a very good idea. it's not as accurate, and it's EXTREMELY easy to melt speedo cables. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedave360 Posted March 28, 2009 Author Share Posted March 28, 2009 I'm not too sure why my gauges died. I traded the idiot lights for an XJ's real gauges, they worked for 2 days, and died. going from electrical to cable is not a very good idea. it's not as accurate, and it's EXTREMELY easy to melt speedo cables. Any other time I would agree with you, but I'd rather have mechanical gauges and fix them one by one when they go wrong, than find a whole new gauge cluster in the salvage yard and pray it works for more than a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Did you swap the oil pressure and temperature sending units on the engine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geonovast Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 The only mechanical gauge on any cluster is going to be the Speedo, so if they all went dead it's probably some other cause. Fixing that is going to be a lot better than trying to wire up a Renix cluster in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddzz1 Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Did you try putting the old cluster back in and see if it works? Then you'll atleast know if its a problem with the cluster or maybe wiring. It could also be that the plugs werent in all the way and came loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 I'm not too sure why my gauges died. I traded the idiot lights for an XJ's real gauges, they worked for 2 days, and died. going from electrical to cable is not a very good idea. it's not as accurate, and it's EXTREMELY easy to melt speedo cables. Any other time I would agree with you, but I'd rather have mechanical gauges and fix them one by one when they go wrong, than find a whole new gauge cluster in the salvage yard and pray it works for more than a week. Yeah, but ... ... If you change to an older cluster with a mechanical speedometer, the ONLY gauge you have that will be mechanical will be the speedometer. All the others will still be electronic. Plus, the fuel gauge will read backwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue XJ Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 From his original post, I think he is replacing them all with mechanical gauges, which would have to be aftermarket. An aftermarket speedo can be connected by using the cable driven setup from an older XJ/MJ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedave360 Posted March 29, 2009 Author Share Posted March 29, 2009 Did you swap the oil pressure and temperature sending units on the engine? Yes, I swapped them with the ones that came out of the XJ that I got the gauges out of. It worked for about 3 days then kaput :dunno: From his original post, I think he is replacing them all with mechanical gauges, which would have to be aftermarket. An aftermarket speedo can be connected by using the cable driven setup from an older XJ/MJ. Yes! Thats pretty much what I'm doing. So all I need to do is get a Mechanical Speedo with cable out of an old (84-90) XJ...right? The cable should go where the electronic speed sensor goes...if I understand correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Yes! Thats pretty much what I'm doing. So all I need to do is get a Mechanical Speedo with cable out of an old (84-90) XJ...right? The cable should go where the electronic speed sensor goes...if I understand correctly. That is correct. Keep in mind that there were two types of mechanical speedo, with different cable ends at the speedo head. The one from 84 thru 86 (maybe 87 or mid-87) has a metal clip that retains the cable at the speedo. The 88+ (or mid-87+) uses a nylon pinch fitting to retain the cable at the speedo head. Where are you putting your other gauges, what do they look like, and where's the tach? If you-re going all aftermarket, I have an unused "new old stock" Stewart-Warner mechanical speedo you might be interested in. It's your basic dial, white numbers on a black face, 140 MPH. I bought it years ago for the race car I never built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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