Question?

[mswwot]

The Z7 taco wagon parts car has a gauge panel that looks like a Mustang unit (gauges...not idiot lights)........do I have to take panel and wiring harness to use it in the Fairmont V8 project?

[Chuck W]

Well, I did the same thing HERE (http://www.foureyedpride.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=22294) on my 80 Z-7. You need the whole shunt harness in the engine bay if you want to use the ammeter, but they never work anyway, so to me it wasn't worth it to mess with.
On mine I modifed the cluster to put the battery light in place of the old ammeter. Part of an old Ranger cluster some cutting and some JB weld later it was in place. The wiring diagrams show a 500Ohm (?) resistor across the light itself, so I added that as well. Everything else is just a direct swap, but you'll need the extra connector for the oil press and temp gauge wiring.

[mswwot]

I would assume that I would have use the appropriate sending units but what about the plugin on the back of the panel.......how do you make the connections there?

[Chuck W]

Yes, you need the appropriate senders. Not a big deal. I had a pressure sender and temp sender sitting around, so I just used them.

On the wiring is pretty simple. I went ahead and scanned the pin-outs for a car w/ gauges and one w/out. Look HERE (http://ustio.com/file_dump/chuck/Misc/Z7/gauge%20wiring.jpg)
You can see the one is pretty much the same save for the fact it has the wiring for the alt light. What I did on mine is took the connections for the ammeter (654 & 655) and replaced those with the inputs for the alt warn light from the old cluster (904 & 16). I also install my 500 Ohm resistor across these two wires. Also, you'll notice that 31 is listed in both connectors as the oil pressure feed. On the idiot lught cluster, both sensors join together in the engine bay, so either will trigger the same light. You'll need to separate them in the engine bay and run a new wire into the cabin for the coolant temp (39 on the secondary connector). You will also need to run a wire from neg side of the coil for the tach as well.

Hopefully this will help you. All I did was pour over both wiring diagrams and made things match up.

Chuck

[mswwot]

Thanx......that should do it