Here is a pic of the back of the cluster with wires coming out of the blue thing. I thought something was suppose to be on those wires, or do i have to take the one off of my old cluster and put it on there?

those wires run into the main wiring harness for the car... if you are swapping to a different cluster then you will most likely have to do some soldering and connect those wires into your car.... ( for 95-99)

if you are switching to a cluster that was already in your car before,replacing a broken cluster or you have a 00- ( digital odometer) then you can just unplug that blue plug from that cluster and use the plug thats already on your car



that looks like a 95-99 cluster tho so good luck with the wiring... buy a haynes manual..they have a wiring diagram for the instrument cluster in the back of it

yeah that's from a 97 going into a 98 cavalier. So should those wires of been cut like that, or should have the harness come with it without those wires there?

What if i went to a junk yard and found one with a tach in it, instead of wiring all that up, could i just pull the blue looking thing from that car and plug it in?

no...the wires are correct the way they are

you have no tach on your car...and the cluster your putting in does have a tach...you will have to do some splicing and wiring.....it is not plug and play

so your saying that i can't go to a junk yard and find a car with a tach in it, but just take the blue piece with the wires coming out and plug it into the one that is sitting right here with a tach?

when i found a z24 gauge cluster to swap into my base model 97, it was in the same exact condition as the one that you have pictured. all i did was unplug those two connectors that have the cut wires, place the cluster in the car, and connect the harnesses that were attached to my original cluster to the new cluster. no splicing needed when i did it. only thing i had to do was swap my odometer into the new cluster.

and your tach worked perfectly?

I thought you had to get the tach wire working? What info you have on that?

my tach works fine, no problems at all

i have no idea what you mean when you say "get the tach wire working." my cluster was plug and play. i didn't have to splice anything.

alias1429 wrote:my tach works fine, no problems at all

i have no idea what you mean when you say "get the tach wire working." my cluster was plug and play. i didn't have to splice anything.

did mine in a 99 cav, absolutely plug and play. hell i didn't even bother mutilating the donor cars wiring when i did mine, i just unplugged it.



from the archives

maybe you can... i didnt know that... i know you cant for sunfire clusters

Does the cluster have to be the same year?

I have a 97 base model, does the Z24 have to be a 97? or a 95-99?

does it matter if the Z24 is a stick and my car is auto?

Getting the cluster from the same year helps and the only difference between an auto v.s. a manual cluster is the PRND321 on the cluster. If your cluster has the mechanical odometer then your new cluster needs to have a mechanical odometer and just swap odometers. Its not hard at all to do.

Put a '95 cluster in a '99, and my fuel gauge doesn't work. Don't know if it's a cluster issue or not, but I guess it's something to keep in mind. I thought GM changed the OHMS on sending units from 0-90 to something else in the late '90s, but I'm not sure.

Any luck on the gas gauge. I got the same year cluster and cavy as you and have the same problem except my high beam light is reversed also. I know thats something as simple as changing the control wires around in the connector but I'm lost on the gas gauge. It may or may not aslo be the same problem with changing the wiring of the connector around. All I've been able to find so far is that according to the wiring diagram in the back of my manual the sending unit wire is purple. I'm just going to go off the trip meter for now as my gas gauge.

People can't learn common sense. You're born with it. Either you have it or you just don't!

I believe the fuel level sending unit change was in 99, actually. The 99 is kind of like a crossover year. They started making a few changes, but then in 2000, they made the real changes, and swapped the whole system.

There are no wires that you need to mess with if you are swapping out clusters from similar year same vehicles (Cavalier->Cavalier). The only reason for doing any splicing for a cluster swap is if you are changing from Sunfire->Cavalier, or the reverse, because the plugs are different.

ohvrolla, are you sure the cluster was a 95, and not a 96? The 95 does not have the theft system that the 96-99's have. I've swapped later clusters into 95's before, but AFAIK, you can't use a 95 in any other year. It does not have the theft system in it.

the 95 cluster I installed does have the theft system on it. It sucked doing the whole 30 min wait before i could get in and go. If the sending units changed in the 99 then would I be better off changing the sending unit when i do my fuel pump since its starting to get louder of would it be better to get abandon the 95 cluster?

People can't learn common sense. You're born with it. Either you have it or you just don't!

If you're already doing your fuel pump, then I'd just get the new sender.

That's odd about the 95 having the theft system.

In the 99 Cavys the sending unit is different so the clusters arent interchangable. What about in the Sunfires?

People can't learn common sense. You're born with it. Either you have it or you just don't!

i have a basic 97 cavi cluster without a tach. im trying to put the cluster out of my 97 z24 in but the car wont start. what can i do?

http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=45&i=25036&t=25036&p=1

Check out #8