Dash Upgrade

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Scuby

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in a similar boat as steven. color coding not making much sense. however I'm getting there.

What is very frustrating is that after reading through over 50 pages of various forums and the supposed big one on FSC is that I can't find ANYTHING ANYWHERE actually documenting the HVAC swap from 88-94 to the later style. I see a TON of people asking and a TON of people claiming they got it done. But no explanation. Lame.
 

VenomousSVT

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in a similar boat as steven. color coding not making much sense. however I'm getting there.

What is very frustrating is that after reading through over 50 pages of various forums and the supposed big one on FSC is that I can't find ANYTHING ANYWHERE actually documenting the HVAC swap from 88-94 to the later style. I see a TON of people asking and a TON of people claiming they got it done. But no explanation. Lame.
ditto.. if i knew the HVAC swap I would do it tomorrow
 

98chevy2500SS

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@Major-Tom, that Suburban will have an airbag on the passenger side though, the junk yard gets about $40-$50 for a dash without the airbag. Just saying that incase you don't want the airbag sitting there. :)

I would assume you just about need the hold wiring harness, or maybe they are the same? I could be wrong, but I would think you would need the whole wiring harness, again, bought for $40-$50 including the whole dash assembly. :)
 

VenomousSVT

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Can you just use some plastic weld **** on it and then sand it down and repaint it?
my new dash (well the 98 dash I replaced my 91 dash with) had a small 1/2" crack in the usual spot in the middle top. Thats grown in the last year to about a 2" crack. I dont want to pull it back out but I want to figure out a way to stop the cracking. Ive considered getting the dash topper from LMC and gluing it on. Figured IF i decide to go that route I would plastic weld the crack and try to reinforce it before gluing the new dash top over it to help keep it stronger. I've seen these dash tops fit good and fit bad, I think most of it is in the installation and I'm good but far from a professional.
 

rockusaf

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in a similar boat as steven. color coding not making much sense. however I'm getting there.

What is very frustrating is that after reading through over 50 pages of various forums and the supposed big one on FSC is that I can't find ANYTHING ANYWHERE actually documenting the HVAC swap from 88-94 to the later style. I see a TON of people asking and a TON of people claiming they got it done. But no explanation. Lame.

I swapped from 1991 to 1998, if you have questions I can try to answer but I did a complete dash and underhood harness swap while I was doing the LS swap. For HVAC if you get the complete harness out of the donor it takes a little careful cutting to get the resister in but it covers the old stock hole and the relays are completely different as well but I read a lot on the swap before I tried it and was a bit apprehensive about it because of the lack of info but it really wasn't that hard. Really was pretty much plug and play for me. I don't have AC working yet but it hasn't been that hot so not a priority yet.

Rock
 

Scuby

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I swapped from 1991 to 1998, if you have questions I can try to answer but I did a complete dash and underhood harness swap while I was doing the LS swap. For HVAC if you get the complete harness out of the donor it takes a little careful cutting to get the resister in but it covers the old stock hole and the relays are completely different as well but I read a lot on the swap before I tried it and was a bit apprehensive about it because of the lack of info but it really wasn't that hard. Really was pretty much plug and play for me. I don't have AC working yet but it hasn't been that hot so not a priority yet.

Rock
Rock,

Thanks for the offer. I'll take you up on it. In the meantime I've gotten myself a complete heatercore/ac box from a newer donor including harness to bypass the wiring issues. Maybe you can help me with getting the power locks working and the speedo. My donor dash is a 98 Suburban. What's the deal with DRAC? My old gauges were internal, now it's external? Also I the 95+ has a central door lock relay under dash is that right?

thanks
 

VenomousSVT

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Rock,

Thanks for the offer. I'll take you up on it. In the meantime I've gotten myself a complete heatercore/ac box from a newer donor including harness to bypass the wiring issues. Maybe you can help me with getting the power locks working and the speedo. My donor dash is a 98 Suburban. What's the deal with DRAC? My old gauges were internal, now it's external? Also I the 95+ has a central door lock relay under dash is that right?

thanks
If you're swapping a 91 you'll need the drac out of a 92 truck to wire to the gauges. I never could come across one, so mine didn't work for years.... then I did an LS swap and it wired right up to my 80e


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Scuby

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If you're swapping a 91 you'll need the drac out of a 92 truck to wire to the gauges. I never could come across one, so mine didn't work for years.... then I did an LS swap and it wired right up to my 80e


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What does the DRAC look like? I've got a full dash out of a 96/97 Suburban, including it's heater box. So I can not have to rewire the HVAC. Just replace the heater box and dash that go together. I got a guage cluster out of a 96 Tahoe that I wanna use. So I need the DRAC to convert my ECU speedo signal to something the cluster gets?

By 92 you mean 92 and up right, not specifically a 92 DRAC module?

Also, any help on the locks. At the moment I can't get my 90 locks to trigger with the 95+ switches. Pre 95 is ground trigger and after is 12v trigger or other way around? If I'm lucky my 95+ donor dash should have a different relay for the power door locks right? Did the pre 95 even use a relay?

I really wanna get my interior finished. I've not been driving my truck because of it. Sucks.
 

VenomousSVT

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What does the DRAC look like? I've got a full dash out of a 96/97 Suburban, including it's heater box. So I can not have to rewire the HVAC. Just replace the heater box and dash that go together. I got a guage cluster out of a 96 Tahoe that I wanna use. So I need the DRAC to convert my ECU speedo signal to something the cluster gets?

By 92 you mean 92 and up right, not specifically a 92 DRAC module?

Also, any help on the locks. At the moment I can't get my 90 locks to trigger with the 95+ switches. Pre 95 is ground trigger and after is 12v trigger or other way around? If I'm lucky my 95+ donor dash should have a different relay for the power door locks right? Did the pre 95 even use a relay?

I really wanna get my interior finished. I've not been driving my truck because of it. Sucks.
In the trucks I believe it's 92-95 maybe. When did they swap from 700r4? When they went 4l60 in the trucks the tach got the signal directly from the trans/ecu.

As for switches, I wish I could tell you 100% how to fix it. I had a guy that worked for me wife mine and fix them. However I can point you in the right direction. He got a 451m which is a viper door relay and wired that in to reverse the trigger. It literally took him 10 minutes to do it. I rode around for 7 months with the factory 91 switched hanging out the damn door because I wasn't smart enough to figure it out. Lol.


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