Progress has been minimal lately.
Had flu like systems on and off for the better part of 2 weeks.
I did get the majority of the Dakota Digital cluster installed.
I started with mounting the controller behind the dash cluster area. Made 2 small brackets to hold it in place. I wanted it at an angle so I could get the wires fed in on both sides. Turned out fine.
The cluster has you use their coolant and oil pressure sensors that are supplied. So I removed the Dakota digital sensor I had setup with the fan controller and replaced it with the new sensor. The fan controller works through the cluster so I don't need both install. I also didn't want to remove the factory oil pressure switch as its wired in through the engine harness I had GMACHINZ build me and the truck doesn't get start if there is no oil pressure.
So I found one of the plugs on the front of the block and was able to remove it to install the oil pressure switch.
I ran the 2 sensor wires through the firewall near the bulkhead fitting. It was an open hole what didn't have any other purpose.. at least that I know of. The rest of the wiring was pretty simple. You need a wire to the coil for the tach. Power and ground and accessory. Then the rest of the wires come off the cluster for the t/s, dimmer, and high beams.
I put the cluster display in with a couple bolts over the weekend so I could play with it. It works pretty slick once you wire in 2 ground switches. (I had 2 small holes in the bottom of the dash near the parking brake handle that I used to mount the 2 switches). These allow you to cycle through both the displays and make adjustments to all the settings, etc. The switches don't have much "feel" to them but they work fine.
I had everything wired up except for the fuel tank level indicator which the cluster let me know right away wasn't connected. I went through all the settings and set everything up the best I could by the instructions.
I wanted to test the other gauges but when I went to start the truck the carb started puking fuel out the vent tube. Soo... after checking the needle and seat I pulled the top plate off to find the float full of fuel. UGH.
I told myself I was not gonna invest any money into this carb as I'm not overly happy with how the truck runs with it anyway. (not necessarily the carbs fault but I don't don't have experience with them) So I talked the wife into let me order fuel injection for it. So I ordered a Holley Sniper EFI kit and a FiTech fuel command that Ill modify to run a full return style setup with to solve all the typical issues with.
Ill update as I get going on installing it once it arrives. I keep going sideways with this build but it'll come around. I need to paint quite a few things and the weather hasn't allowed for that anyway. .. Ill just keep trucking along..