# Cluster swap, "search" not much help...



## Sentra E (Oct 16, 2007)

I have a 1992 Sentra E, which of course came without the tach cluster. I was in a junkyard and found a cluster from a '91 Sentra that does have the tach, and is overall a nicer looking cluster with the round fuel and temp gauge and what not. I, like many others obviously, want to swap this cluster into my car. I tried simply pugging it into my car, but the only thing that worked was the digital clock, and that turned on and off with the headlights.  There was also one empty slot on the back of the cluster, which my car has no plug to plug into it. 

I have done a search for cluster swap, but haven't found much that really helps me since most of what I see are people talking about the '93-'94 cars with digital clusters. My car, and the tach cluster I have, are both the '91-'92 style that have a speedometer cable, so I don't know how much, if any, of the information for the later cars applies to my car. 

I simply want to know which wires need to go where in order to make the cluster work correctly. I understand that I will have to run another wire in order to make the tach work, which will not be a problem since I currently have an aftermarket tach in the car, which I will get rid of if I can get the much nicer looking factory setup working. I just read through a bunch of threads, none of which really help at all. 

As for the mileage, I plan to just reuse my speedometer in the new cluster, since it is just a few screws to swap it out. My car has 220,000 miles and was just emissions tested, so obviously if I show up next year with only 170,000 showing like the donor car had on it, they are going to slap it with odometer fraud.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## joeli16 (Nov 19, 2004)

You need to follow the back of the cluster to switch around places of all the wires(There are initials saying what the wires for at the back of the cluster).I am doing a digital NX1600 cluster swap in my 92 XE,but got stuck,so I have to get the old cluster wire harness to match up the wire colors and start over.The digital cluster flashes when it's in on position...

You can also follow the FSM wire diagram.I guess you can still download the FSM from the sticky thread in this forum.


----------



## OneViaVision (Apr 2, 2003)

I am not sure about the cluster swap, but here is a good resource for other write ups for your car: Nissan Mods


----------



## Sentra E (Oct 16, 2007)

Ok, so I tried switching the wires one by one following the initials on the back of the cluster. That worked great... uh, _not_.  Now it's all screwed up, fuel and temp gauges do nothing, the check engine light is the high beam light, the high beam light just turns on and off with the key for some reason. Now I have no idea what wires went where originally. My turn signals don't work at all, nor does the parking brake light. I just looked through those manuals, and see nothing about the wiring for the gauge cluster. Any idea how to figure out which wires go where?


----------



## joeli16 (Nov 19, 2004)

You have to download the Factory Service Manual.They have all the wire diagrams.
The black harness for the digital gauge you have to follow the diagram because there isn't any initials there.


----------



## Sentra E (Oct 16, 2007)

The only thing digital about my gauges is the little clock below the tach. I downloaded the service manuals here: http://www.nissanforums.com/b13-91-94-chassis/97788-b13-n14-factory-service-manual-volume-4.html

Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but I didn't see anything about the gauge cluster wiring. I think I'm going to go to the junkyard tomorrow and cut the harness out of a car that has the tach. Then maybe I can just match up each wire by color and hash marks and solder them together. I do appreciate your help.


----------



## Sentra E (Oct 16, 2007)

Sentra E said:


> maybe I can just match up each wire by color and hash marks and solder them together.


Boy, isn't that joke on me? I really like how there is like six yellow wires with a green stripe on them. :thumbdwn:

Hey guys, if you decide to try and put a tach cluster in your car, don't be a dumb azz like me and not mark the wires prior to switching them around. :balls:


----------



## Sentra E (Oct 16, 2007)

Ok, well, I hate to reply three times in a row, but I'm making some progress now. Instead of trying to resplice the wires, I just took the plugs I cut off a junkyard car this morning and plugged them into the back of my old cluster. While there are a few duplicate colored wires, for the most part this allows me to see where each wire was originally and cross reference it to the same colored wires on the plugs in my dash. This is working pretty well, so far I have all the dummy lights working. Check engine, door ajar, high beams, emergency brake, oil pressure, and seat belt dummy lights are all working great. The back light also works good now. 

But, I'm not quite out of the woods yet. I don't know what wires exactly I shorted, but while I was moving some wires around, I heard the distinct sound of a wire sparking. The dome then shut off. So now, my dome light, turn signals, and the little buzzer that buzzes when you put the key in or turn the head lights on seems to be dead. I checked the fuses, and found a 15 amp fuse to be blown. Looking at the diagram, it says this is the air bag fuse??? This car does not have air bags! I replaced the fuse, and that did not help. The dome light and everything still will not come back on. I believe this circuit must also supply power to the fuel gauge, as it is not moving even though I've triple checked the wiring to it is correct. The car had just over a quarter tank of gas the last time I shut it off with the old cluster, and so far the fuel gauge in the new cluster is just sitting a 3/4. Any thoughts?


----------



## joeli16 (Nov 19, 2004)

I am sure there are diagrams for the cluster,in FSM volume 2,around page 1100.
Because the first swap didn't do by me,but my mechanic did,so now the wire got messed up and I have no idea which one is which.That's why I have to match the color.

I suppose you have to change the temp sender and fuel sender into the newer 93-94 year.91-92 sender won't work in the digital gauge.Also you need the NX 1600 speed sensor too if you want a correct speed reading.


----------



## Sentra E (Oct 16, 2007)

I believe you are mistaken. My gauges are not digital and I don't know what a NX 1600 is. I am swapping a factory tach cluster from a '92 Sentra XE into a '92 Sentra E which originally did not have the tach cluster. The speedometer just plugs right into the cable like the old one, that's the easy part. Right now I just need to figure out why the circuit that powers the dome light is dead.


----------



## joeli16 (Nov 19, 2004)

This may help you:
http://www.nissanforums.com/b13-91-94-chassis/7064-instructions-cluster-removal-swap.html


----------



## Sentra E (Oct 16, 2007)

BINGO!! Dude I wish I could reach through the screen and shake your hand right now. I searched and searched and never did find that. I had an after market tach in my car prior, and figured I could just run the factory tach off the same wire which I had ran out to the negative side of the coil. That post specifically says not to do that. Looks like I will have to go the junkyard and get another tach tomorrow. I now have everything but the fuel gauge and tach working. So I think I'll get a spare fuel gauge and another tach and try them. I'm pretty sure I burned this tach up having it hooked directly to the coil.

But THANKS! You have no idea how much I appreciate it. I probably would have chased this around until I just gave up and put the old cluster back in.


----------



## joeli16 (Nov 19, 2004)

Great!Glad that I can help.


----------



## Sentra E (Oct 16, 2007)

Ok, so I went to the junk yard this morning and got another tach. I found on this site where you hook the signal wire for the tach to a blue wire with black stripe at the ECU. I pulled the plug loose from the ECU and found there was only one blue wire with black stripe. I just stuck the end of the wire for my tach into the connector for that wire at the ECU plug to test to see if it would work before splicing it permanently. The tach now at least does _something_, but it's still not working right. Here is a video I uploaded to You Tube to show what it's doing:

YouTube - Trouble shooting Sentra tach cluster install

Do I have the wrong wire or what?


----------



## jakehale (Aug 8, 2004)

Sentra E... I did this swap awhile back here is the thread. i spliced the tach wire NOT INTO THE ECU, but into a plug behind the "cubby" on the center console. on the right hand side. there used to be a picture in that thread showing the exact spot..


----------



## Sentra E (Oct 16, 2007)

Wow, reading that thread was like you were describing exactly what I'm going through. LOL!

I have my whole center stack apart right now. I found the connector on the right side with a blue/black wire. Every thing I see says that wire should terminate at that plug, but mine doesn't? It goes in the bottom, comes out the top and keeps on going off into the harness somewhere. I'm pretty sure I've done burned up another tach though. I tried running the tach off that wire and it did nothing. I pulled the clear face off the cluster, and the needle has some resistance to it, where as it used to move very freely. I'm going to head back to the junk yard tomorrow and see about locating another tach and giving it one more try. On an up note, I do have my temp gauge working now. Still fighting the fuel gauge.


----------



## ReidB (Mar 13, 2008)

*Spring Rate*

i did the swap last sat night...started at 12 at night...finished at 3...very easy swap everything works just fine...including the tach...only proplem is that the new cluster is 47000 miles less than what it really is...doesnt matter than much since it helps me when time comes to sell it.


----------



## jakehale (Aug 8, 2004)

changing the odometer is an somewhat easy task, once you look at the mechanisim you can see it is pretty simple to change. I did mine when i did my swap so that the new cluster read what the old one did.


----------



## ReidB (Mar 13, 2008)

I didn’t want to tear into the cluster since it was hard to find and if I messed it up I would be screwed.

I first tried to get the odo. reading the same as the old one was used my drill...I found out the fastest the drill can go is 70mph 

Does all it take to change the Odo. reading is to just unscrew the back and play around with the gearing for the odo?


----------



## i r teh noobz (Apr 26, 2007)

A friend of mine suggested using a dremel on the odometer gears, since they spin faster than most drills. Just don't go too fast or you may break the gears.


----------



## ReidB (Mar 13, 2008)

How much faster? My drill does 70 mph (on the Speedo). If a dremel does twice that, let’s say 140mph (8400 rpm) it will still take a long time to get the correct odo reading.

My odo is off by 47000 miles. Divide that by 140 that give you something around 335.71 (375.71 hours of going 140mph to go a distance of 47000 miles). Divide that by 24 and it would take 2 weeks of constant dremel action.

Im not shooting down or disprove your friend’s idea. I would much rather spend and hour or so to tear into the odo and change the odo reading by hand. But I would like to be reassured im not going to destroy it by doing so.


----------



## i r teh noobz (Apr 26, 2007)

I'm not sure how much faster it will turn, but my two speed, battery powered dremel will do 10,000 RPM (I think the plug-in ones do up to 50k). All my friend told me is that a friend of his hooked up a dremel up to his older Dodge Stealth and rolled the odometer back before he sold it (not that either of us agrees with that sort of thing). I think the Sentra odometer has an anti-rollback feature that pops up as some silver strips between the numbers, but if you're going forward, you should be alright. 

In short, the fastest way would be to swap odometers, but the safest way is to use a power tool and take your time.


----------



## jakehale (Aug 8, 2004)

ReidB said:


> I didn’t want to tear into the cluster since it was hard to find and if I messed it up I would be screwed.
> 
> I first tried to get the odo. reading the same as the old one was used my drill...I found out the fastest the drill can go is 70mph
> 
> Does all it take to change the Odo. reading is to just unscrew the back and play around with the gearing for the odo?


On my first swap (basic E to GXE cluster with tach) I just took the whole speedo out and swapped it into the new one, basically keeping my original everything (dial and odomenter, along with the miles) like 3 or 4 screws. nothing to it.
when i attempting my NX swap, i just took the pin out of the dials, spun them to what was on mine, put the pin back in and all worked well. It was really a simple task.

Keep in mind, i have a '94 so i dont have a cable driven speedo but i am sure it dont matter.


----------



## Sentra E (Oct 16, 2007)

I gave up and put my old cluster back in. I don't know what the problem was, but I lost count of how many times I checked the wiring to the fuel and temp gauge, everything was dead on like it should be, I tested the gauges themselves and they worked fine, but it would not work correctly. This is my economy beater, and I just don't have the patience to screw with it anymore, so I swapped the wires back and my original cluster still works fine.


----------



## jakehale (Aug 8, 2004)

The only thing i can think of that would make it not work is the doner cluster was not the right one.... My first attempt was that case... I have four plugs on the back of mine and the doner had 3,,, didnt think it would make a difference,, it did....
Not saying it is your problem, just was mine...


----------

