gauge cluster madness....help me!

[bicanek]

I just got a gauge cluster out of a 1990 UK S13 with a CA18 in it. Its cool because it has a 150mph speedo, and not cool because it doesn't work. The speedo and the tach don't work but the rest of the cluster is fine... I tried taking out the speedo and tach and putting them in my own cluster, but that didn't help. I have a 92 240sx with a 97 180sx SR20 in it. Is this a wiring issue or do I just have a completely broken cluster?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[KiDyNomiTe]

Well I have a CA18 Tach on my SOHC cluster right now. It's DuffMans, well it didnt work with his DOHC cluster, so maybe CA18 stuff won't work with SR20 or DOHC KAs. As you know SOHC clusters won't work with SR20s. So I would assume its an interchangability(sp?) issue.

So I guess before you make it an issue of is it broken or not, give it to an SOHCer and see if it works.

[DuffMan]

The CA18 tach wont work on an SR plug and play.

I have a couple theories on how to make it work, but havent tested them out yet.

One is to reverse the polarity of the + and - going to the tach, and run the TAM signal to the CAS.

If that doesnt work, I was going to try to have the cas signal activate a transistor that would drive the tach. Its also possible to have the ground for all the ignitors drive a transistor, but that would probably require even more work, so thats my last resort.

Dont know why your speedo isnt working.