gauges installed = nice

["Mad Max"]

Folks,

For fun I wanted to show some of the construction and the installed pics of the latest Bomb-fest at our house. It was all worth the custom fab required to do it - took 4 evenings.

Pic is of tripple pod, dual panel, and o/d shift arm switch. The rest (tach and good close-ups) are in my readers rigs, under SamsRams, Diesel. Enjoy!

- S

 

[midwestdually]

looks pretty good... . nice job!

 

[BushWakr - RIP]

Now that is some SWEET work !!!



What year was the shifter from??? How was it to install and plumb the wiring for the OD switch?



I'm really impressed with that setup Sam, it looks darn good. .



Bob.

 

[62MaxWedge]

What is the part number for the shifter and which wire did you have to slice into for the overdrive button?



I really like the setup as well! Whose pod did you use?

 

["Mad Max"]

Thanks fellas - It took a lot of fab work, but these dash's are so simple that it was fun to do.



The o/d switch is Mopar pn# 1-04690522AB ; as best I can tell it's for 94-98 Rams. I believe the levers and steering columns are darned near identical, at least from my 93 and up to 98, even over the transition from 1st gen to 2nd gen. Gotta love Mother Mopar.



The gauge pod is (going off memory) 15002, from Autometer. I think they're a special order part for 2nd gen Rams. There are other triple pods out there but I liked this one best. Since no bolt-in pods really exists for our 1 gen rigs I looked around for any others knowing I'd have to modify it somehow. I trimmed about 3/4 inch off the front of the pod, and made a template out of cardboard that matched the contour of the dash and transferred the template to the pod, and trimmed to fit. I took 1/4 inch bolts (4 of 'em) and epoxy'd them with some good (but very nasty) stuff called Marine Tex to the underside of the pod, drilled 4 matching holes, and one great big one for the pressure and signal feeds up through the dash. Drilling a 1" round hole into the top of a perfectly good dash is a little nerve racking - measure twice and cut once applies here! There is a lot of room behind our dash's, and just enough not to have to cut into the vents or a/c duct work.



On the wiring, credit where credit is due - TDR member Paychk and Paccool showed me the light on the wiring (Thanks Alan and Stan!).



The current od switch is a 6-prong configuration, of which 4 prongs are used. One is the 'trigger' - a 20 gauge wire (orange w/ white stripe), one is ground, and the other two are for the little light that turns on when the o/d is off. The new column lever/switch only has two wires - found out this is because there is no light on the lever to tell you the o/d is off, which I didn't really want anyway. Take one of the two wires from the new lever and tie that into the orange/white wire from the original o/d harness, and take the other new lever wire to a good ground. Also, the original and new switch's only have current going through them when they are pushed. If you release the button the current stops, so apparently the o/d is told what to do by some sort of trigger system; push the button and the o/d will switch either on or off. So, it makes no difference which wire you tie into on the new switch. On the original harness simply leave the feed wires for the original o/d switch in their plug somewhere behind the dash and nothing should ever ground or short out.



I moved the cargo light to the other side of the column between the light switch and power mirror switch. I had to add in three lengths of wire to make the harness reach over - no big deal, but there isn't a lot of clearance there so out came the router drill bit and lots of shavings later I had a new home for the switch. The dash has so much plastic back there that you can safely remove enough for it to fit, just don't go hog wild or it could crack.



Okay, looks like I wrote a book, but this fab stuff is hard to describe. This is what I do for fun and relaxation... and along with a cold one or two that makes for a nice weekend!

Hope all this chicken scratch helps!

Later fellas,

- S