# Rally gauge on a 1971 Lemans



## backinhs (Aug 31, 2015)

Hi everyone. Really great forum you have here. I've spent hours perusing the topics over the past week. I just picked up a 1971 Lemans Sport and was wondering if anyone knew if I could install a rally gauge with the temp and oil gauges from a GTO (left in pic) in the spot in the Lemans where the dummy lights are?


----------



## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

The entire gauge cluster will be need to be swapped, as the metal housing and printed circuit board are different between idiot lights and gauges. The sending units are different as well. Both of my '71's and '72 LeMans are factory gauge cars, I've had the blue '71 totally apart, the body on my body dolly, and out of concern over the over 40 year old dash harness, replaced it. 

From pullng and selling gauge clusters over the years, there is a difference in the rally gauge dash harness and the idiot light dash harness. Memory serves right, one can swap two wires and make the standard harness into the rally gauge harness. Might want to see how pliable your wiring harness is. My HO GT-37 had been off the strip since '77, stored with original owners till I managed to buy it nearly a decade later. Even though the molded dash asm was soft, the dash harness had several wires that were dry, and a few wires had been spliced into. Buying a new harness just gave me some peace of mind, as have worked on several friends cars that had shorted wiring and one Chevelle that had a dash fire.


----------



## backinhs (Aug 31, 2015)

Thanks. 

I've seen a few add the tri-gauges to the bottom of the dash and I thought this would be a better and more stock look. Hopefully it wont be too difficult of a project.


----------



## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

It can be done. As Pinion Head said, you'll have to replace the whole cluster, the printed circuit board on the back, swap out the switches (oil and temp) for sending units (temp on the intake coolant crossover, oil on the rear of the filter housing), and possibly the dash side of the wiring harness (check to see if different harnesses are listed for lights vs. gauges). I did this swap on my 69 GTO - no problems.

Bear


----------



## ALKYGTO (Mar 29, 2010)

Ahh, gauges just give you something else to worry about. My 85 Riviera had only a speedometer and a gas gauge, never gave me any problems.....:lol:


----------



## JohnGoat (Aug 21, 2015)

I bought rally gauges from OPGI, comes with instructions on how to wire it in.


----------

