VicCrownVic's 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis GS

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Didn't think anyone would be doing the reverse of what I did. I was there with an "adapter" setup with mine before I decided to literally cut ends and wire in the early Aero connectors. Needless to say, there isn't really much room behind that cluster for a lot of wires to jammed up in.

It just seems to me that figuring out the top bezel finish is the biggest issue between using the gauges in the different dashboards, despite sharing a similar mounting point. I'd think a '92-'94 MGM dash bezel could fit where your upper wood-grain bezel is, since they were black and I bet you if you removed the plastic backing at the top and just left the metal face, you could bend it up a tad and have it work. Either that or a Dremel and just make the top cutout bigger. Either way, I'm surprised it fits as good as it does in the older dash.

Good job.

VERY interesting swap idea..... always wondered why people didn't do something like this sooner. Guess the wiring and fitment intimidated them. I'm not judging; I'm the same way with the Cougar digidash that's going in this summer!

What year of digidash are you using for your '89? My Sable was weird, it had digidash and a VSS to output speed, but the analog models came with a speedometer cable, making a swap between them very difficult. Was there a digital dash driven by a speedometer cable?

[Hearsesrock427]

What year of digidash are you using for your '89? My Sable was weird, it had digidash and a VSS to output speed, but the analog models came with a speedometer cable, making a swap between them very difficult. Was there a digital dash driven by a speedometer cable?

1986. Never opened it up to see the innards- I wouldn't be surprised if it has a VSS though. Electronic Instrumentation (as it was called in the brochures and order forms) just doesn't seem like something that'd use a speedometer cable.... I only saw a bunch of wires coming out of the back of the digidash. Nothing even resembling a speedometer cable.

[VicCrownVic]

From what I can tell of the 86 Cougar digital cluster it looks like it does not use the mechanical speedometer cable like the 89 MGM/CV uses. I would much rather go from mechanical speedometer cable to electronic speedometer, I think it would be much easier to go that way than it would be to go the other way. Plus last time I had to work with one of those mechanical speedo cables (15+ years ago) it was a pain to get it disconnected from the cluster, although in my mid teens I suppose I just didn't know how to work with it properly.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I don't know how hard it would be to switch from speedo cable to electronic speed input ('90+ models, IIRC). Obviously a change was made, but the question is how deep and complex was the change? Hearse, if you can figure that out, I'd say you'll be reasonably ahead for that swap in your '89, otherwise it wouldn't work since those still have a speedo cable.

[sly]

pretty easy actually. remove old speedo cable, Install VSS for 90+ in trans, run wires to new stuff that needs VSS signal. The rest is fitment and wiring for the swap. You could just use the VSS line that's already in the car since all cars with cruise have a VSS either at the trans or in-line on the cable behind the speedo.

[VicCrownVic]

My 89 MGM uses the mechanical speedo cable and the 91 MGM has an electronic speedometer but they both use the same VSS, the only difference is the 91 has a removable little cap/plug that blocks the port for the speedometer cable. The swap should be a matter of tapping into the already present signal line from the VSS. Looking at VSS available at Autozone for the 86 Cougar it uses the same VSS as my 91 MGM, so all you would need for the swap would be that little cap/plug to block the cable port on the VSS.

Edit: I didn't see Sly's post, but I agree it should be very easy to swap to the electronic speedo and ditch the mechanical speedo cable.

[VicCrownVic]

Didn't think anyone would be doing the reverse of what I did. I was there with an "adapter" setup with mine before I decided to literally cut ends and wire in the early Aero connectors. Needless to say, there isn't really much room behind that cluster for a lot of wires to jammed up in.

It just seems to me that figuring out the top bezel finish is the biggest issue between using the gauges in the different dashboards, despite sharing a similar mounting point. I'd think a '92-'94 MGM dash bezel could fit where your upper wood-grain bezel is, since they were black and I bet you if you removed the plastic backing at the top and just left the metal face, you could bend it up a tad and have it work. Either that or a Dremel and just make the top cutout bigger. Either way, I'm surprised it fits as good as it does in the older dash.

Good job.
...

Thanks for the compliment!

I might recommend making an adapter for the development/testing stage for the ease of swapping back to stock if needed, but once it's all ready to go in permanently doing away with the adapter would be best.

Yeah, getting the bezel to fit is definitely the most challenging part for me, your suggestions are giving me good ideas but I need to get back to the JY and if I can find a newer car and that 91 is still there I'll be doing some test fitting to see if I can come up with something. I'm not sure that I will actually work on this anymore anytime soon though, it might be more like spring before I get to it.

VERY interesting swap idea..... always wondered why people didn't do something like this sooner. Guess the wiring and fitment intimidated them. I'm not judging; I'm the same way with the Cougar digidash that's going in this summer!

I'm no fan of analog gauges, but damn, that's a neat setup. Like your power seat conversions, it looks factory. I really like how the speedometer is right in the center, where your field of vision is by default when driving. It's also a lot higher than the horizontal row of numbers style speedo. Now you don't need to glance so far down to check your speed! Also just fits well with the modern aero style interior the '90 and '91s have.

If you have pinouts and schematics for both vehicles the wiring part is pretty simple (time consuming, but simple).

I wouldn't mind having a digital cluster, but if I come across a Marauder cluster I may swap that in. Weather it's digital or Marauder there is a good chance that I may swap something else in later down the road.

So far every time I have swapped clusters it has taken a few trips past the local speed signs with the radars that show your current speed before I convince myself that it's accurate. This one is just as accurate as the original but for some reason after both swaps I have felt like I'm going faster than it says. Maybe because I'm looking at it too much because it's something new or with this one maybe because the speedo sits higher I'm just seeing more of the road.

[Bobcat]

I wonder if that dash would fit on a 88 and down Vic...

[VicCrownVic]

I wonder if that dash would fit on a 88 and down Vic...

The physical modifications would be extensive compared to swapping it into a 90-91 box. Making it work also would require quite a bit more work than on a 90-91 box. The antislosh module (often an orange module behind the glovebox) would need to be bypassed and the fuel sending unit would not work with this fuel gauge.
I'm not saying it can't be done but I would rather not try it.

If anyone would like to swap this cluster to a box, even an 89- box (if you feel brave enough/have that kind of time), I would be willing to help on such a project.

I still need to tackle some fitment issues, the bezel required some modification and I'm not completely satisfied even though it doesn't look too bad in the pictures. I have some ideas that I've been kicking around but it's going to be at least a few weeks before I can play with it some more.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I still need to tackle some fitment issues, the bezel required some modification and I'm not completely satisfied even though it doesn't look too bad in the pictures. I have some ideas that I've been kicking around but it's going to be at least a few weeks before I can play with it some more.

Welcome to the party. I've got a trim piece I've been planning on using for the top, I just haven't tried cutting it down and installing it. It's some woodgrain piece from the dash of a late '80s Park Avenue. I guess that's the only issue when trying to use something not correct for the car...

At least stuff learned here can improve the outlook for future mods, and that's the important thing.

[VicCrownVic]

From eye level half the height of the tick marks are blocked and that's after completely doing away with the upper portion of the bezel. I'll have to remember to get a picture with the camera at eye level some time.

I did a test fit of a bezel from a 92 MGM (with AOD, not that it matters) in the 91 MGM at the yard yesterday. The 92 top doesn't cover as much as the 91 does, but for the reason stated above I would still need to cut the top off anyway. I did take the 92 bezel since I was short on time and a few modifications would be required to make it work. Nothing major required but I just didn't have the time to go back over to the 92 to grab what I needed and swap it into the 91.

[VicCrownVic]

Since my last update I haven't done much with the car besides daily drive it.
I did get some cheap whitewall tires within the past couple of months, but I don't seem to have pictures of the new tires.

Yesterday I replaced my driver door window switch panel with one I scored at the JY. Now I have words and the switches aren't falling in (the rear screw hole was completely gone on my original panel).
Before and After:


Hopefully when I have a week off at the end of this month/beginning of next month I'll be able to get some little things done that I've been wanting to do for a while now. I have some other little odds and ends that I've picked up at the JY but haven't gotten around to swapping any of the stuff out.


Also there is a typo in my previous post, I *didn't* take the 92 bezel. I think my best bet would be to relocate the mounting holes on the cluster so that it will drop within the dash, but I'm not planning on messing with it anymore for a while. At least not until I get some of the other stuff done that I've been putting off.

[87gtVIC]

Nice switch panel. Trick for the falling in switches due to stripped out/crumpled plastic is to install threaded studs with epoxy. Then you just use some nuts to hole the switches in place.

[VicCrownVic]

I tried to epoxy the half of the screw hole that broke off and it worked for a while before it broke again. The stud method definitely seems like it would work better.

[DerekTheGreat]

Perhaps I could convince you to help with a 3G alternator swap someday?? WHere are pics of the older boxes???