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- Aug 19, 2010
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- Kansas City, Mo
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- Jacob
- Truck Year
- 1977/1990/1991
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- C10 longbed/R1500 Burb/R3500 Dually
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- 350/350/454
Below is a detailed write up of installing the Dakota Digital HDX gauge cluster in a 1990 Suburban. The information is based off of what I did to accomplish the install and the things I learned along the way. I'm sure there a few other ways to accomplish this and I'm sure I did some things different than some of you would have done. That's ok
The first thing I did was start under the hood and get that taken care of before doing anything inside of the cabin of the vehicle. We need to replace the coolant temp sensor, oil pressure sensor, tap into the tach wire and some will have to also install a speedo adapter on the side of the transmission.
Coolant Temp Sensor
The Dakota Digital instructions tell you that the best place to install this sensor is on the intake near the thermostat housing. This may work for some earlier model squares but some folks smarter than me pointed out why this was not ideal due to ECM reading from that sensor and that the gauges actually use the sensor that is on the driver side head. With all of these sensors DO NOT FORGET TO USE THREAD SEALANT when installing them.
Oil Pressure Sensor
There are a few choices for the oil pressure sensor. Inline, stock location or at the oil filter adapter. After much internal debate I went with the adapter direction.
Pic of original oil pressure sensor. To use this location at the very least you'll have to remove the distributor cap to get more room to remove the old sensor but most likely have to remove the distributor completely
Here's where I ended up putting my sensor
The first thing I did was start under the hood and get that taken care of before doing anything inside of the cabin of the vehicle. We need to replace the coolant temp sensor, oil pressure sensor, tap into the tach wire and some will have to also install a speedo adapter on the side of the transmission.
Coolant Temp Sensor
The Dakota Digital instructions tell you that the best place to install this sensor is on the intake near the thermostat housing. This may work for some earlier model squares but some folks smarter than me pointed out why this was not ideal due to ECM reading from that sensor and that the gauges actually use the sensor that is on the driver side head. With all of these sensors DO NOT FORGET TO USE THREAD SEALANT when installing them.
You must be registered for see images attach
Oil Pressure Sensor
There are a few choices for the oil pressure sensor. Inline, stock location or at the oil filter adapter. After much internal debate I went with the adapter direction.
Pic of original oil pressure sensor. To use this location at the very least you'll have to remove the distributor cap to get more room to remove the old sensor but most likely have to remove the distributor completely
You must be registered for see images attach
Here's where I ended up putting my sensor
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
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