changing gauges

[hotrod ford]

i'm getting ready to change from my 71 gauge to a f600. the f600 has 8 terminals to use and the 71 has 11 wires. i have traced each wire to see what gauge they go to on each one. my question is, how do i change the pin on the 71 cannon plug to fit the 68 cannon plug that i have left ove from another truck? the pins on the 71 are bigger and will not fit in the holes of the 68!

[MotorDog]

First of all, it sounds like you are making some un-necessary work for yourself. Also, I am not understanding what it is you're saying about a '68 plug.... Are you trying to use a '68 plug spliced on your truck's harness with the idea of plugging it into the F-600 Cluster? If so, that won't work. Tell me what it is you are actually doing. I have done many of these and they are really very simple, but I guess that is just one person's opinion, (mine). There is a very easy method without any dark secrets and is simple. Can you post pics? If so, post a picture of the back of the f-600 and its plug, and one of the wiring inside the dash hole in your truck....with the plug if it is still there. When I look at this, I will explain what you have and what you need to do to make it work. Whole install is less than an hour............. When done, it will look and work like this one:

[hotrod ford]

alright, here are the pics of what i have:

this is the one of the f600 plug
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x115 ... 1256165714

this is the female plug i want to add to the 71 harness so it can plug into the f600 gauge
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x115 ... 1256165775

and this is the 71 harness plug
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x115 ... 1256165821

i hope this can help

[MotorDog]

OK, then, HotrodFord,

Take the female plug you have there with the 12 prong holes and check its fit to the plug on the back of your F-600 cluster. It appears to be the right one and should fit perfectly. If that fits, you are almost half done! If it connects, then take a look at the wires that are coming out of the plug. Hopefully, they will be an inch or two long and even longer than that is better! Check the color of all the wires that are coming from the cluster to the male plug and see that the colors match in their respective places where they are coming out of the back of the female plug. Like black to black, white with blue stripe to white with blue stripe, etc. Now, you have to make a decision here. If you think you might sometime sell the truck and want to put in the old original cluster, I recommend a certain procedure to save the original plug on the end of the wiring harness in the truck wiring. If you feel as if you will never ever have a need to put in the old cluster ever again, then you can take a short cut, but even at that I would recommend you do this in a way a "new owner" could easily change it back to original. If you look at the colors of the wires on the cluster, you will find that the same color wires will be present in your truck's dash area with the exception of the fact there will be a purple wire which will be by itself going into the back of the original cluster plug. Don't worry about that for the moment as it is the only one that is different color.

There is several ways to make splices in wires. You can buy those red colored plastic splices that slide over a wire and have a blind hole right next to it that allows you to slide a wire into the connector and then squeeze down a little metal slider that cuts into the insulation of both wires and makes a "splice" connection. I recommend you get enough of these to handle the number of splices you will be making. There is a little plastic tab that will wrap half way around the red colored connector and "lock" the metal slider so it can't be pulled out or work itself out from vibration or accidentally touch something and become a short. That will make a splice easily. You can install these behind the original plug using the same color wire from the cluster plug and this will leave the original plug in place inside the dash. Take a strip of black electrical tape after the splices are done and cover the contacts on the original plug so there is no possibility something could touch it and create a short. Once you have spliced all of the wires to their matching colors behind the original plug, you will end up with that purple wire. It is the wire that makes your amp meter work. You will want to connect that purple wire from your truck's harness to the solid black wire coming from your cluster plug. When this is finished, attach your speedo cable and put a 3/8 inch piece of hose on the back of the vacuum gauge and run it out through the firewall through some hole you find available. I have had to drill a hole in some as there wasn't any I could use. Connect the vacuum hose to an open port on the vacuum tree if you have power brakes, or take a plug out of the intake manifold and screw in a fitting that will accept your hose. See what you have to connect the vacuum. You will see an easy way to connect it, I'm sure. If not, a little imagination and you will be in business. Place your cluster in place leaving the screws out until you turn on the truck and check your gauges. I have accidentally had a wire splice not make contact and had to re-do one before. Good Luck! These are really worth this little trouble and I know you will like it! Hope this helps you. Attach the cluster with its screws when you are sure everything is working.

If you run into any problems, let me know and we can work through them.

[aramil]

motor dog that is a good write up,i think it should be added to the tech articles that way its easier to find for people that want to do this mod in the future. i feel like i can do it now from reading your post... now i need money and an f-600 cluster

[fordman]

i am unsure how to attack your plug wire terminal end problem correctly. the easiest way would go get the other end of the plug from where ever you can get it at. another idea that may or may not work would be to drill out the smaller wire plug so it could accept larger female terminal ends. but then you have to find the terminal ends. i was able to find some pretty close terminal ends. i got them at radio shack they were in a package with some two and four plastic coupler things. about the size of the 67-69 tss plugs coming out of the column. one ohter way to do it is to cut both ends off of the wiring harness and the cluster. go get a whole new plug even if it was larger with the matching terminal ends and put it together that way. all you would have to do is figure out which wires go where then. if you get the plug thing figured out let me know and i can try to help with the wiring back to the correct connectors. i have a f500 cluster here i can compare and work along with you on the procedure.

[MotorDog]

The reason for a plug is simply to allow for a means to "un-plug" the cluster assembly in order to facilitate its removal for whatever purpose from the truck. The actual plug can be of any type, color, arrangement, etc. The biggest point here is to make sure the most vital part of this is understood. Here it is: "The color coding on the F-600 Cluster's wires exactly matches the color coding on the harness wiring in the 67 to 72 trucks. Given this, if you wanted to, you could cut off the large plugs and install single wire male/female plugs and have each wire capable of being unplugged separately here again for the convenience of removal of the cluster from the truck. If you didn't ever want to remove it again, simply solder each of the proper wires together, insulate the connection and it would be "hard wired" but very tough to remove. This last option is NOT a good one! The big point is, the color coding of the wiring one the bumps is the same.....no matter what type or size of plug is used. The large plugs are used to connect directly to the plastic printed circuit board on the back of the original cluster. The wire colors are all the same except for the famous purple wire. However you decide to physically connect your trucks cluster harness to the F-600 cluster with whatever type of connector you decide to use is only to connect like color coded wires to like color coded wires. Black to black, orange to orange, etc. is the only requirement.

The original plug on the back of the F-600 cluster was only to facilitate being able to "unplug and remove" the cluster from the truck. I always recommend when you find one of these clusters to get both plug ends by cutting off the harness wires as far back behind the plug as possible. Then if you don't want to ever put the original Cluster back into the truck, cut off the big plug and "hard wire" the ends of the wires you just cut to get both plug ends. You will have both ends of the plug and it can be unplugged if necessary. The Result you want is to simply be able to attach the harness wires to the matching cluster wires. When that's done, you're off and running!

[hotrod ford]

i'm finding it is not that easy since the color of the wires don't match each other. since the pins on the 71 wire harness are different than the ones of a 67-69 it is also difficult to make the change. i will be going to the parts store and get male and female plugs and do each wire.

[hotrod ford]

well, i put connections on each wire and hooked them together and the gauge works like a charm. next thing to do is connect the vacum up. i have a factory tach for it as well and well install it later down the road.