Electronic speedometer in the stock cluster, can it be done?

[destrux]

My speedometer cable is broken, I hit a tree limb on the road and it pushed the sheathing up against my downpipe, which cooked the grease and seized the cable and well... *snap*.

My cable is sort of in the way of my downpipe anyway, so I was thinking about doing a conversion to an electronic speedometer. I have a VSS from a newer model A340E soarer trans, I'm pretty sure it will fit into my W58. The signal from that would go to my JZZ30 Soarer ECU and then supply a signal to the gauge. The only issue is I don't know if there's an electronic speedometer head that will fit into the stock cluster. I don't want to use an autometer speedometer or something. I'd like to keep the stock gauge faces.

Does anyone know if the gauge stepper unit from a MKIV or a newer toyota has the same sweep and will bolt into our cluster?

 

[destrux]

I found out that people have swapped the MKIV speedometer in there, and Marlin Crawler makes a sensor that fits onto the trans for the VSS signal since the A340 sensor I had doesn't fit (although I swear I had one at the shop that did fit... from some sort of toyota, possibly from one of the trucks).

Driving without the speedometer cable really sucks though. The car constantly idles low and stalls. What a pain.

 

[te72]

I found out that people have swapped the MKIV speedometer in there, and Marlin Crawler makes a sensor that fits onto the trans for the VSS signal since the A340 sensor I had doesn't fit (although I swear I had one at the shop that did fit... from some sort of toyota, possibly from one of the trucks).

Driving without the speedometer cable really sucks though. The car constantly idles low and stalls. What a pain.

Sounds like you figured out your answer already. I gotta ask though, why (more "how", really) is your speedometer causing your car to idle low and stall? I haven't had a working speedometer in two years now, and can't say I've ever had this problem.

 

[mkiii222]

Agreed. Mine's been at 0 for 3 weeks now and it didn't change anything other than not seeing gas mileage on my super computer. Hopefully I'll actually have time to take things apart this weekend and find out what part snapped.

 

[Poodles]

Speed sensor in the cluster is used by the ECU for quite a few things (cruise control for starters).

I imagine anything is really possible with enough time/money/skill. Making custom guage faces isn't that hard (it's just seriously tedious) so fitting the guage in the cluster would be the hard part (as long as getting the speed sensor signal to the ECU that it wants)

 

[destrux]

I was digging at the junkyard and found a 91' Landcruiser has a speed sensor that threads on between the speedometer cable and the speedometer drive on the transmission. It's a 3 wire sensor just like the MKIV speedometer uses. I bought it. I also found a brand new OEM speedometer cable in a 1990 Supra (for $6), so for now my car is fixed with that.

I still want to do a gauge upgrade though, the stock tach is slow (and off by 250rpm on mine) and the speedometer is off because my trans isn't matched to the rear end.

I'll figure something out.