Cornfed's 89 Comanche

[CornFed]

Yall ever just browse Amazon and go man wouldn't those look cool. I'm not seriously considering buy them. They're led headlights that also have any imaginable color you could want.

[Canine Cheese]

@CornFed  I am making trips to the junkyard and will pull and help ship or I can give you the contact info to the junkyard and you can call them.  They will ship I already confirmed.  I'm not selling just like to pass along the passion

[CornFed]

3 minutes ago, Canine Cheese said:

@CornFed  I am making trips to the junkyard and will pull and help ship or I can give you the contact info to the junkyard and you can call them.  They will ship I already confirmed.  I'm not selling just like to pass along the passion

Yeah pass along the Junkyards info if you don't mind. I'll give them a holler and see what they'd charge to pull and ship. I do appreciate the help.

[Canine Cheese]

@CornFed

They have a wood grained dash from a wagoneer.  (I think?)

Horseshoe auto wrecking

360.674.2515

Bremerton wa.  

 

[CornFed]

5 minutes ago, Canine Cheese said:

They have a wood grained dash from a wagoneer.  (I think?)

 

Yeah but isn't that just the black plastic dash replacement?

[Canine Cheese]

no the whole instrument panel is woodgrained.  not sure I thought i saw someone mention looking for one.  I forgot to take a picture

 

[CornFed]

22 minutes ago, Canine Cheese said:

no the whole instrument panel is woodgrained.  not sure I thought i saw someone mention looking for one.  I forgot to take a picture

 

Yeah i remember someone asking that too. If I remember right it was in other cool stuff. I don't remember who.

[CornFed]

Good grief it's been longer than I've aimed for it to be since my last update. So I've noticed a problem with my Just Empty Every Pocket. I'm spending all my money on small projects and most of what I've done you could argue isn't even necessary. The problem this presents is I'm not saving money for new leaf springs lift kits or the 4x4 swap and new tires. Now that doesn't mean much of anything to me because I'm stupid. I just hope someone else listens to my advice there.

 

So I'm gonna start a very long and detailed post that was easy enough to do and it's the cluster swap for the 2.5l which has been covered In great detail before so if you want to pass on reading this one. 

 

So I as a lot of us do had dummy lights in my 2.5l and it's something I can't stand because I like being able to see if my vehicle is acting a little off. So I seen a nice cluster set in very good condition on ebay and ordered it. In preparation for it to come in I also went to the local o'reillys and ordered a coolant temp sensor (TS199) and oil pressure sensor (PS155). Once they came in I parked the truck in the garage overnight and waited for morning. 

 

So morning came and I pulled of my dash bezel. It's a easy enough job a few screws and a very tender touch with a non tilting steering colum. I slide the bottom out first then the top in baby steps and it should gently slide out. Another tip I picked up on the forum was to use a peice of wax paper to prevent it from scratching the steering colum. 

 

 You'll need to remove the switch panels, clock and, the 12v plug panel as well. Top of the clock panel has a hidden screw to loosen not remove and it'll easily slide down out of there. Six screw hold in the gauge cluster once removed carefully slide the cluster out. You'll need to reach in with your right hand and unclip the speedometer cable. It's easy to do as it only takes one hand to do. The cable will slide off freely when uncliped. Now you'll have more room to maneuver to unhook the electrical plugs. I find a small screwdriver to gently pry on the clips works best. They'll pop loose there's a total of two one is behind the computer panel and one is in the center of the cluster. Then the cluster comes out free.

 

Now for me personally with my cluster pulled out I took the time to swap my leds over from one to the other. The dummy cluster was on the bottom and the new to me cluster was on top. Those are almost all 194 bulbs. I prefer blue but to each there own.

 

Now on to the important stuff. You'll probably want to calibrate your tachometer and reset you odometer to the original miles on your truck. So I'll walk you through that too. There's only four screws holding on the faceplate of the dash and a little rubber cap for the trip reset. I reached in behind the reset switch and held it while gently pulling on the rubber cap it came off beautifully. Next remove the screws and the faceplate comes off in your hands.

 

Now I'm writing this up in the order I done it in. To remove the speedo there's two screws on the back where the cable hooks in and one on the front right corner of the gauge faceplate. It'll slide out freely once unscrewed never force anything in a 32 year old truck.

 

Now comes for the single most difficult part of the whole dang swap. You have to remove a little cooper colored c clip on the left side of the odometer when looking at the face plate. I used a set of small hook screwdrivers and a lot of patience this took longer than any other single project. DO NOT LOSE THE CLIP. I put it into a sandwich bag so it wouldn't get lost.

 

This may not be legal to do so do this at your own risk. However as far as I know of if your doing it set to original miles of the truck it is in and not changing it for resale purposes its legal to do.

 

Now you just roll the odometer to your mileage. In my experience I went right to left and rolled it one at a time while looking at the faceplate. You do this by sliding everything on the left over to the left. Roll the daily where you need then go left one by one. I included everything even down to the 10th of mile. Next then I simply took a pair of needle nose pliers and reinstalled the c clip. Then just put the speedo back in like it came out. 

 

The tach isn't necessary yet however I knew mine would need calibrated from the 6cyl to the 4cyl. There's a total of five screws holding in the tach remove those and it falls out. Those screws pitcured below please note that photo is uploading upside-down. 

 

The empty housing once it's removed. That photo was accidentally a vertical picture and I apologize. You can also see my leds installed.

 

Now I am not a professional. Do not adjust the tach unless you are certain it isn't in calibration for your vehicle. I however had read on the forum here that if you turn this dial all the way to the left it would be for the 4cyl. This did not prove to be true in my experience. If I done it again here's how I would do it. I'd go to my local parts store and have them hook a computer to it and tell me what rpm it's idling at. Then calibrate the tach from there. I however didn't do that because it would make sense. I done the trail and error method. With it all the way to the left I'd have to practically redline the motor to see movement on the tach. So I continually tried it until I got it very close by ear and am happy with it. I turned it all the way to the right and back up by about a 1/4 of a turn. So basically I flipped it from where it was to the opposite side and then down just a fuz more. Please note another vertical picture my phone wasn't cooperating.

 

Now in-between my initial attempt at calibrating the tach and the final version of it. I swapped my sensors over. I didn't want to start the motor until the cluster was in and didn't want to put it in until the sensors where swapped.

 

I started out with the coolant sensor. Simple unplug and unscrewed the old switch sensor and install the new temp sensor. Easy to get to use a deepwell socket and all goes great.

 

Next is the oil switch replacement to an oil pressure sensor I used a adjustable wrench and had about a 1/4 turn each time. Be very careful here according to members here it likes to snap off so I must've gotten lucky. Unscrew the old sensor from the engine block. If you need help finding it look at the top of the motor look just to the right of your distributor. You should see it. Then a 3/4 inch deepwell will install the new one. I had mine unplugged in this photo. Notice the dipstick in the photo as reference point.

 

Now then assuming you have the tach calibrated reinstall the cluster. I did it without putting the faceplate back. I just plugged everything up I didn't even screw it back in. Take it for a test drive make sure all the gauges read right or appear to. Then put the faceplate back on and screw the cluster in. Put the switches clock panel and 12v plug back in. In that order. Or you'll have to remove something to do it. Then just push the dash panel back into place and screw it in and you'll be ready to go.

My lights arent near as bright or as blue as the picture always make them out to be.