How's it going everyone.... so I'm doing what most people I've talked to about this has said is just not worth the work, swapping out not only the dash in my 93, but the entire steering column as well. I'm gonna be posting pics of my progress and all that, but the main reason I'm posting on this is because if there is ANYONE out there that has done a swap to this extent PLEASE speak up and let me know of any pitfalls you've had. I'm a metal fabricator by trade, so the bracketry and structural mods aren't a problem, the problem is wiring everything up and everything actually working like it's supposed to. So anyway, lets get this started with my progress so far....
Another little difference that has to be handled is adding the bracket on the passenger side for the dash to mount up to (since the newer dash doesn't use the outermost upper screw mounts) This was the easiest, just remember to get ALL of the spot welds and All of each one. I found it much easier to drill out the center with a 3/16 then hit it with a step drill til I got it all, hence the rather large holes in the new bracket.
Now obviously if you have the skill, time, and tools, you could weld these bracket in as they came out, but as you can see I opted to just rivet them back in; a lot more practical for my needs. So that's where I'm at so far. tomorrow I should have the steering column mounted and have something of the wiring started. Now lets just hope I don't ruin this whole thing by burning out the harness. BTW, if anyone out there has a cheat guide to the wiring of this swap (like old color to new color kinda dumbed down version) that would make this go SOOO much smoother. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for lookin.....
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so this is what I started with after the dash is removed, a big nasty mess of wires and a column bracket that absolutely will not work with the newer column since it mounts with 4 points and that older one mounts with 2 points. So the remedy is to remove the bracket from a newer truck (like the truck you got the dash from as in my case) and swap them out
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The trick is to drill out ALL of the spot welds (the newer one has welds only in the top of the two arms that extend up and two in the master cylinder mounting plate area, while the older ones have two more fun little spots one the underside in the narrow little tunnel)
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Another little difference that has to be handled is adding the bracket on the passenger side for the dash to mount up to (since the newer dash doesn't use the outermost upper screw mounts) This was the easiest, just remember to get ALL of the spot welds and All of each one. I found it much easier to drill out the center with a 3/16 then hit it with a step drill til I got it all, hence the rather large holes in the new bracket.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
Now obviously if you have the skill, time, and tools, you could weld these bracket in as they came out, but as you can see I opted to just rivet them back in; a lot more practical for my needs. So that's where I'm at so far. tomorrow I should have the steering column mounted and have something of the wiring started. Now lets just hope I don't ruin this whole thing by burning out the harness. BTW, if anyone out there has a cheat guide to the wiring of this swap (like old color to new color kinda dumbed down version) that would make this go SOOO much smoother. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for lookin.....
