El camino hybrid, didn't think of this

[just plain john]

I'm going to swap a Regal dash into my hybrid El Camino, but I just realized something. The wiper controls in the elky are on the dash, while the Regal uses the controls on the turn signal. I know several people have done this same project complete with a dash swap. One of you guys please post up and tell me what you did to resolve this. Thanks.

 

[Grumpy]

just swap the Buick column in to plug it in and your done

 

[just plain john]

Good idea Dan, but I don't have the Regal column. I'll look for one, but I was hoping not to reinvent the wheel. The elco column has cruise control on the stalk, I wonder if I could fish the wiring in place for the regal turn signal stalk? I've never opened up a steering column before.

 

[TURBOELKY]

dont do it!......El Camino's with Buick dash boards look wrong....I had a we-4 donor, swapped complete dash wiring inside and out, from tank to fuse block, steering column and EVERYTHING that had to do with the Buick. I later swapped out the analog cluster and wiring, to a digital dash and wiring from an 87 t type. I Like the digital better, but for some reason, the speedo and something else went really dim when I use the lights....

 

[just plain john]

You're kidding, right? I think I can learn to live with however it looks. Candidly, I'd just as soon not do the swap, but it's the easiest way I can think of to get everything to work. The elky's ALDL port has half the number of connections that the Buick, there's no SES light, and who knows what I haven't discovered yet. I might go ahead and start looking for another column, unless someone can clue me in about the washer switch problem.

 

[TurboDave]

I Like the digital better, but for some reason, the speedo and something else went really dim when I use the lights....

That's supposed to happen. You don't want that bright speedo display (normal for daylight ops) blinding you at night when the lights are turned on.

 

[Roc87]

dont do it!......El Camino's with Buick dash boards look wrong....

Hey, I take offense:frown: . I'll have to get some pix up tomorrow.. but no one has said that my '84 GN dash looks out of place in the elky, But - It doesn't have any stock gauges and it doesn't say regal on the passenger side either.

As for the OP, I installed an '84 Grand Prix column so I could get the wipers on the stalk, the elky didn't even have delay wipers, so in addition to new wiring for the grand prix column, I had to find a delay wiper motor.

 

[TURBOELKY]

That's supposed to happen. You don't want that bright speedo display (normal for daylight ops) blinding you at night when the lights are turned on.

they use to dim a little, now they dim to where you can hardly see them at all! something happened. When I get the car running again (some day ), I will look into it more.

Hey, I take offense:frown: . I'll have to get some pix up tomorrow.. but no one has said that my '84 GN dash looks out of place in the elky, But - It doesn't have any stock gauges and it doesn't say regal on the passenger side either.
read below reply, I was just messin around!
As for the OP, I installed an '84 Grand Prix column so I could get the wipers on the stalk, the elky didn't even have delay wipers, so in addition to new wiring for the grand prix column, I had to find a delay wiper motor.

You're kidding, right? I think I can learn to live with however it looks. Candidly, I'd just as soon not do the swap, but it's the easiest way I can think of to get everything to work. The elky's ALDL port has half the number of connections that the Buick, there's no SES light, and who knows what I haven't discovered yet. I might go ahead and start looking for another column, unless someone can clue me in about the washer switch problem.

I was kidding, just trying to harass you a little bit. The dash boards are actually nicer than the original's in the elky's. The original dash's have the tendency to crack all over the place....although I had a mint one and console in there before the gn dash. I only did the dash swap to make things easier.

 

[Roc87]

ah, sorry, it's been a long week, lol

The stock dash being prone to cracking is the main reason I changed mine out, it had a ton of cracks, none of the gauges worked, and it was a brownish/tan - eww.

 

[TURBOELKY]

sounds like mine. Original color was tan inside, two tone burgundy tan outside. My dash look'd like a dog chewed on it!! and was so dry, you could spill a beer on it, and it would soak it up easily.....and more crack than a fat girl.

 

[just plain john]

Hey, I take offense:frown: . I'll have to get some pix up tomorrow.. but no one has said that my '84 GN dash looks out of place in the elky, But - It doesn't have any stock gauges and it doesn't say regal on the passenger side either.

As for the OP, I installed an '84 Grand Prix column so I could get the wipers on the stalk, the elky didn't even have delay wipers, so in addition to new wiring for the grand prix column, I had to find a delay wiper motor.

Damn, something else I didn't think of. Y'all didn't take any pics during the install did you? Does anyone have any tips they want to share? This is uncharted territory for me.

 

[TURBOELKY]

the elky dash wiring comes out a little different than the gn dash. The elky wiring is basically black taped to a conduit behind the dash, just unwind that stuff, you'll see. The gn dash has a series of 7mm screws (I believe thats the size) that screws the whole harness to the dash. I first assemble the wiring to the gn dash when I'm installing them, it makes it easier. On the firewall, there are metal tabs that act as nuts, they slide over holes on the firewall under the window, like the ones that are on your core support under the hood. You'll need to move them over from their original spots, but there are aready places for them. Do a dry run to see where they go before you get the wiring attatched. Make sure you have the steering column dropped down, and the bracket between it, and the dash mount above the column. The rest will fall in place.

 

[TURBOELKY]

if you run into trouble, or have a question, call me. eight one eight, eight zero eight-two six three four.

 

[Roc87]

Sorry, I didn't take many pictures once I had the elky dash out. For the most part I used all the elky wiring and added what I needed for the autometer gauges and a painless wiring fuse box for 7 more circuits (mostly for the TPI). I picked up 2 or 3 wiper motors from the junkyards out of different G-bodies and non of the wiring looked close. I ended up getting an '84 GN wiper motor and it was the closest. All wires matched up to the '81 elky wiring, but there were two extra wires needed for the delay, but those were the same color at the wiper motor and from the '84 Grand prix column. Mostly all I lack is finding the HVAC tube from a '84 Regal to run from the main box to the drivers vent and to wire up a cruise control.

 

[just plain john]

Thanks for the replies. I'm a short time away from beginning, and right now I'm trying to plumb the fuel system. I just got the rear back today after powdercoating the housing, but bushing for the rear housing cratered when I was putting it in. The rear has to happen first before I do anything else because I can't move the car until it's in. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions and you'll be hearing from me turboelky. Roc87, what about the VSS? Did you omit it? I thought it was necessary to the ECM for various functions.

 

[Roc87]

I have an L98 drivetrain from an '88 Trans am, it has the electric speed sensor in the tailshaft of the 700 and I have that hooked directly to the speedometer, and then from there to the ecm. It has been a real PITA, I don't remember what happened to the transams speed buffer, but right now the ecm "sees" 3x what the actual speed is right now (The speedo is programmable and it's dead on according to a GPS). I've sent the chip to be reburned for that issue three times and it still isn't right. See that toggle switch next to the dimmer switch? Thats pretty much my torque converter lock up :frown: Without it, the tcc won't lock up until 65mph. If you're going to keep the stock gauges I think caspers makes a VSS that goes inline with the speedo cable. Just take things one at a time and try to get a wiring diagram for each part that you are going to add.

 

[just plain john]

In a perfect world, the factory VSS will work with the factory dash and/or engine harness so no Caspers unit is necessary. In the real world, we'll have to wait and see. I should have had a simpler first project I suppose.