True Connections

This month we are going to discuss the 1966 and 1967 Chevelle and El Camino instrument clusters. The standard idiot light cluster in 1966-1967 had a sweep style speedometer in the center, a fuel gauge on the left, and a clock or block out plate on the right. The warning lights were grouped in pairs in two small rectangles near the bottom of the cluster. The Super Sport option had actual needle gauges in place of the large fuel gauge and clock on each side. On the left was a fuel and battery gauge cluster and on the right was a temperature and oil pressure cluster. Like the 64-65 gauge clusters, the 1966-1967 factory gauges cannot be dropped into the backing plate of an idiot light cluster, they are simply different shapes. Recently a company has manufactured factory looking gauge clusters that will drop right into your idiot light cluster without modifications to the housing, and fortunately this time it is a reputable company named Shiftworks that makes the clusters here in the USA. We have sold these for several months now and can attest to their quality. There are other repros of these made in Taiwan but we have heard of a few problems with them, along with some cutting involved during the installation.

Although the 1966 and 1967 instrument clusters look the same, and they can interchange, there is one major difference. The high beam indicator in 1966 was lower down in the warning lights of the cluster near the turn signal indicator, where as in 1967 the high beam indicator was a little rectangle cut into the face of the speedometer itself. This made it necessary to also have another hole cut into the metal backing plate to hold the light bulb. All of the other pieces interchanged between the years. If you had a column shift model, the cluster would have the gear indicator numerals printed on the speedometer lens. There would also be a cut out in the gray face plate and a small metal box that houses the indicator needle coming off the steering column. On floor shift models the speedometer lens was plain and the gray face plate was solid. Another item of interest on the speedometer lens was that the horizontal line across the middle and the other lines surrounding the turn indicators and idiot lights were actually chrome plated from the factory. Unfortunately the reproduction lenses are merely painted silver. (**UPDATE** Speedo lenses with the factory type chrome on the lens are now available). The 1967 cluster was also the first year that a speed minder option became available. This was a white needle on the speedometer face that was adjusted by a knob below the dash and set to speed which you did not want to exceed. Once the orange speedometer needle reached the white needle, the buzzer sounded, warning you of your excess.

Due to the limited dash space in the 1966-1967 Chevelles and El Caminos, Chevrolet changed over to externally mounted tachometers. 1966 had what is called a knee knocker tach, since it mounts to the under side of the dash board just to the right of the steering column and people have the tendency to hit it with their knee. This tach had a chromed die cast housing, and a couple different redlines, depending on which engine you had, and is available reproduction. In 1967, the tach was moved to the upper side of the dash board just in front of the instrument cluster. This tach actually blocked the view of the left hand blinker so GM manufactured this tach with a blinker inside of it, hence the name, blinker tach. The 1967 tachometer was made of plastic and also had different redlines. The current reproductions leave much to be desired but another manufacturer will soon produce a much better unit. (**UPDATE** The new 1967 Blinker Tachs have been out for a few years now and are very nice, original looking reproductions). Next months article will be on the 1968 and 1969 instrument clusters.