Installing Rallye Dash in a '74 duster issues
I wanna talk about the 150 speedo. As in what's the point of it? The 120 already has the graduations pretty small, so going an exact speed with the factory cable usually doing it's little dance is always tricky. The 150 makes this even trickier. Once you are in top gear, you can use the tack as a speedo. Besides, it is way cooler to say you buried the tach in top gear than to say you buried the speedo. I mean 3.55s can hit 160 at redline. I took my 150 out, and replaced it with the 120, for more accuracy. I hate speeding tickets.See up here they cost us points on our licensees, and if you get more than 5 of those blasted points, they start to cost money,a lot of money.So I save my score-card for real offenses like imprudents,lol. Yeah, I've had few of those..... Anyway that's my take on the 150 speedo.
While I'm here, I might as well talk about putting a tach in that center spot. I think it's a waste of real estate. The tach is too small and the graduations are too close together, and the factory one is extremely slow. Furthermore, it is in a bad spot. You have to take your eyes off the road to see it, and at 65 mph you are already traveling at 95 ft per second. Do you think it's a good idea to be trying to focus on that lying pos at 95fps? Well I didn't.I installed an 8000rpm, 270*, 4incher onto a bracket that I fabbed to wrap around the dashcap. When I need the tach,I slide it over to front and center. The rest of the time it is off to the right someplace. And as to that vacated center hole, I installed a factory vacuum gauge there. It may not be dead-nuts accurate, but hey who cares; it is still a very useful tool,on account of it's all relative.If it's 5% off in one place, it will be 5% off everywhere. And the 5% is very small, being less than 1 inch at 15 inches.
Yeah so that's my nickel's worth.
I like the key on the dash, but when I really nail a shift, I usually have to go looking in the back seat for my keys! I always hated looking for that column switch in the later As, especially in the dark.
Those factory gauges are notoriously slow to respond.Mine are still in there, cuz I built a reliable engine, and a reliable cooling system. So I never really look at them, and they do look nice. But the factory lighting is so poor that you can hardly see them in the dark.But the only one I need to see is the SpeedO, and I put some really bright bulbs in there,lol; Cuz, you know, I doubt the cop who pulls me over for running 5 kliks over, is gonna buy my story about me not seeing the needles on this old heap!,lol.
OK so I'm over a dime by now,TTYL