I have searched and searched with no luck on this, so I will just ask. I have an 83 280ZX Turbo and it had the digital speedometer set. The guy that had the car prior to me getting wired the alternator up backwards. I was wondering why the battery was always going dead, found a melted connector behind the battery in the fender. Fixed the problem and it blew a 80AMP fuse under the hood. Long story short, the alternator was wired backward.

Somehow during the whole process my instrument cluster got fried. Has anyone been able to put a custom set of gauges in, instead of going back with stock? I'm thinking it can be done, just a little unsure on the check engine lights and stuff.

 

WTF? How do you wire an alternator backwards???

Anyway... the easiest thing to do would be to swap in analog gauges. Lots of threads on that...

https://www.zdriver.com/forums/showt...digital+analog

https://www.zdriver.com/forums/showt...ghlight=analog

https://www.zdriver.com/forums/showt...ghlight=analog

https://www.zdriver.com/forums/showt...ghlight=analog

https://www.zdriver.com/forums/showt...ghlight=analog

https://www.zdriver.com/forums/showt...ghlight=analog

I've also attached a pic of a custom gauge dash:

 

hey, wait a minute, how the heck do you get the datsun cable to hook up to an after market speedo?? ive been pondering this for a while now

 

I accidentally set a big speaker on my friends 300zx dash above the voltmeter, and it read backwards ever since then. oops.

 

The dude had the battery ground side lead wired to the hot side of the alternator and the hot line wired to the ground = direct short. It had melted a plastic connector in two. What's bad is I had already pulled the dash out and had the wiring harness torn apart behind the fuse panel.... Traced one of the larger white power wires through the firewall and down to the alternator and there she was. Oh and thanks for the info.

I've pulled all the guts out of my digital cluster and left the dummy light connectors on the back with the circuit sheet thingy. I'm gonna try the aftermarket gauges in the panel I made. If it works, I will do a write-up on it. I really don't think it will be that hard, but we will see.

 

Changed my mind. After totaling up the costs of new instruments, I've decided to just get a factory analog cluster. Got some on ebay for $50.00. Anyone know where I can get a 83 280zx Turbo dash harness for an analog instrument cluster?

 

ebay... the junk yard... www.car-parts.com

 

Found a guy here in the Marketplace section that is hooking me up. This is a great site!!!