Dakota Digital VHX (88-94 gauges)

[D_EATON]

Hey guys just wanted to put a little info out for anyone out there that may be looking at these gauges. Yes I know there are other gauges for our trucks and some people like to make their own cluster and that's all fine by me, the DD VHX system just worked best for me with the colors and what I was looking for but shelling out that amount of money could be used else where for sure.

So anyways here is the instructions that come with the kit.

http://www.dakotadigital.com/PDF/VHX-88C-PU.PDF

http://www.dakotadigital.com/pdf/650314H__VHX_manual_main.pdf

I went ahead and removed the steering colum to do this, 4 bolts on firewall, 1 on steering shaft and a couple plugs on the column and 2 final bolts right under dash. So pulling the old cluster out is pretty easy and straight forward, then you need to cut the plastic behind the cluster so the plug is able to be accessed.

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I pulled the plug down from behind the gauge cluster to under the steering column for easier access but getting the plug down isn't fun.

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once the plug is down and you can access it easy I used this wiring diagram to see what wires I need to remove from plug.

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Mine is an 89 so I referenced the top plug as you see the wires will be in different locations between the different years. I pulled Green wire from B3 for the high beam indicator, light blue wire from A11 for left turn signal, blue wire from A8 for right turn signal, tan wire at A2 for brake signal. Here is where a little fun began, the purple or pink wire it says is for the fuel level in the stock pin that is in the A1 couldn't be used due to the fact it has 12 volts going to it and Dakota Digital dosen't want voltage going to box at that input. On my truck there are three wires leaving my fuel level sensor, purple, black and tan, assuming black is the ground and the purple wire for whatever reason had 12 volts at the plug behind stock cluster which caused the issue. I traced the tan wire up to the firewall where it goes into a plug (in a tight spot and couldn't get a pic) Taped into tan wire and ran the wire thru firewall and under dash to meet other wires.

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(^^ pic was before I fixed the fuel sensor issue)
Made connections to the stock wiring and then ran my wires up under dash and then over top of middle ac duct and then ran wires to glove box because that's where I chose to mount my box.

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[D_EATON]

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Then connect the turn signals, high beam indicator, brake and fuel level sensor into correct holes on control box.

After that I connected the ground wires I need for control box to a solid ground under the dash. Then I hooked up my constant 12 volts and key 12 volts. Red wire on left is my constant 12 volts and red wire on right is my key 12 volts and that is plugged into the electrical box under the dash against the firewall on the driver side.

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I then ran my SW1 & SW2 wires from control box back to gauge cluster along with the supplied CAT5 cable. (you will need longer cat 5 cable if you mount in glove box they only send 3ft cable) then mounted the new cluster into place. I hooked my tach wire up from my msd box and ran to tach port on control box, you could also hook up to the tan wire by the distributor that is connected to the factory harness.

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DD supply's you with new two wire temp sensor and three wire oil pressure sensor and various plugs and couplings to make sure everything connects. They also supply with speed sensor but for me I used the two wire speed sensor that came wit my T56 and wired it into speed negative and speed sender, instructions say 2 wire sensor isn't polarity sensitive.

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Turn the key on and see that all lights up and then turn key off and then follow rest of directions for gauge set up which has step by step directions and easy to follow and navigate thru menu on gauge cluster. So far I love the look of the gauges, my truck isn't running right now but it should be back in action in a little over a month. Will report back then will more info to whether or not they are worth all the money.

 

[IADC43]

That cluster is incredible. Thanks for the write up, hope you keep updating as you go along.

 

[df2x4]

Man, I always figured these were much more plug and play than they appear to be. That's quite a bit of effort on the install. Nice write up though! Thanks for sharing.

 

[///RAGMC]

Nice write up I really want a set.

 

[someotherguy]

Man, I always figured these were much more plug and play than they appear to be. That's quite a bit of effort on the install. Nice write up though! Thanks for sharing.

Probably kinda tricky for them to make them entirely plug-and-play, if you figure, to cover 1988-1994 that would be 3 different wiring setups (although 1988-1990 are very close to 1991, still different enough to be a problem) - and 2 different connector styles, with the 1992-1994 connector being really tricky to make a standalone socket for without some kind of mechanism to clamp the two ends together. Then consider you might be doing this custom dash because you've got an engine swap with totally different types of senders than OEM...you need some flexibility, especially for the $$$ you're laying out on those.

Richard

 

[D_EATON]

That cluster is incredible. Thanks for the write up, hope you keep updating as you go along.

The look is amazing, honestly the pictures don't do it justice. I will continue to update this once my new engine is fired up and truck is driving.

Man, I always figured these were much more plug and play than they appear to be. That's quite a bit of effort on the install. Nice write up though! Thanks for sharing.

Yeah I thought it would be more plug and play but looking back now it really isn't that bad.

Probably kinda tricky for them to make them entirely plug-and-play, if you figure, to cover 1988-1994 that would be 3 different wiring setups (although 1988-1990 are very close to 1991, still different enough to be a problem) - and 2 different connector styles, with the 1992-1994 connector being really tricky to make a standalone socket for without some kind of mechanism to clamp the two ends together. Then consider you might be doing this custom dash because you've got an engine swap with totally different types of senders than OEM...you need some flexibility, especially for the $$$ you're laying out on those.

Richard

Very valid points on the different style connector between the years. I am curious if they could make something work for the guys running LS motors since I guess they use different sensors then the ones used for these trucks.

 

[PumpMan]

Hey There D_EATON,
Did you ever get this truck running? I'm currently installing one in my '90 dually

 

[PumpMan]

Alright, here's my $0.02....

on my '90 K3500 Dually I was able to figure out the following:

-The purple wire on the gauge cluster marked "fuel" on the diagram is definitely the correct wire for the fuel gauge, you can run the ground wire straight to the frame

-The "VSS High In" and "VSS Low In" wires are the speed pickup, they go in the speed sender terminals, autocal works perfectly, I had another truck follow me and tell me when we reached 1 mile.

-Tach is the white wire coming off the coil, works great

-Blinkers and high beam indicators work perfectly, just move the wires to the module

-Check Engine and Parking Brake are constantly on for some reason, I need to troubleshoot.

-Oil pressure isn't working, which is nuts because we installed their sender in parallel to the one on the truck(stock sender shuts off the fuel pump at low oil pressure) with their wire and wired it into the correct terminals . It looks like the sender itself was bad out of the box, going to install a new one tonight.

-We mounted the module onto a strip of 1" steel strap and mounted that to the firewall next to the "Convenience Center" It's going to make changing blower motor relays a real chore if you mount it in the glovebox

 

[someotherguy]

-Oil pressure isn't working, which is nuts because we installed their sender in parallel to the one on the truck(stock sender shuts off the fuel pump at low oil pressure) with their wire and wired it into the correct terminals . It looks like the sender itself was bad out of the box, going to install a new one tonight.

Good info but a common misunderstanding on the OEM oil pressure switch. Its purpose is to enable the fuel pump circuit when oil pressure is present, redundancy in case the fuel pump relay fails, the truck will still start and run after it has cranked enough times to build a few lbs of oil pressure.

I've been mistaken on it in the past and since learned. Anyway all that aside, it's good to leave it in place for that very purpose, even though you also needed the Dakota sender for their gauges.

Richard