I am thinking the next big expense for my elky will be a digital dash. I know everyone has heard of Dakota Digital, and they seem like they offer a great product but I came across another brand and wondered if anyone had ever tried them and if they had any luck? The other brand I found is Nordskog Performance Digital and they are a bit less expensive than Dakota. But like I said earlier, has anyone tried either of these? Are the Dakota's worth the extra $$$?

never heard of them... post a link or a picture of their prodcut?

I don't know if Nordskog has fixed the issue that everyone was having when I was looking at buying. The complaint was that when the tach was hooked up the dash would do crazy things so I went with the D D. It has worked flawless for 10K miles.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/Multi-Gauges/GP_2017512_N_111+1986+200728455+600002117_10101.jc w

a friend told me to check JC Whitney, they are about 1.5 hours away and I could just pick it up if I ordered from them, this was one of the choices. I liked the sound of the easy setup and programming.

I put in the Dakota Digital gauges in my 73 Nova over 10 years ago and have been very happy with them. I've also installed them into a customer's 40's Ford and another customers 66 Impala and they are working just fine.
Something I noticed on the link to the other gauges is that those too also read the fuel level as a percentage (0% empty to 100% full). I've gotten used to mine after a while and on my setup when I get below 10% the gauge display starts flashing. I also think the newer DD gauges also flash on the water temp and oil pressure if they are reading too high on water temp and too low on oil pressure.
One thing to consider is does the other company offer add on gauges. DD I think still offers gauges to monitor other things like current flow for audio systems, amplifier temperature monitoring, and some other things.
On the DD gauges I have I ordered them with red lenses and on mine I could change the lenses to offer some other colors unlike a colored LED style which cannot be easily changed by swapping out a lens.

Jim

With the cost and headache of mounting of all my VDO gauges, I wish I'd have gone digital and been done with it.

I've used DD in a 38 Chevy I built about 10 years ago and was very happy. And as far as I know it is still working great for the current owner.

Never heard of Nordskog. Will be interested in how it works for you if you do go that route. I was thinking of maybe swithing to DD in my Elky sometime in the future.

Can anyone supply a link for the dakota digital guages... I found the Nordskog kit, and it looks very promising.. but If you all say good things about the dakota's I would like to check them out before making the decision...:dontknow:

Here is a link to D D.
http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=results/category_id=59/home_id=59/mode=cat/cat59.htm

You can't buy directly so try here: best price I found.

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1∂=DAK%2DVFD381CMCZ&N=700+115&autoview=sku (http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=DAK%2DVFD381CMCZ&N=700+115&autoview=sku)

Oh and don't get the light dimming kit. You don't really need it. You can set the night brightness through the setup and once you get it where you want it you probably won't change it anyway.
I also have the DD cruise control and it works super and was a quick easy hook up to the dash control box.

Hey thats not too bad eh, I searched on site and found this: http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product/Pr-p_Product.CATENTRY_ID:2017512/c-10101/Nty-1/p-2017512/Ntx-mode+matchallpartial/N-1980+10101+200728455/tf-Browse/s-10101/Ntk-AllTextSearchGroup?Ntt=digital+gauge

I'm definitly purchasing these guages, looks very promising.. A few more functions also..

I have the Nordskog and I wish I hadn't! The money I saved over the Dakota was probably spent trying to fix the tach problem, simply not worth it. Weird stuff... plug in the tach and the speedo goes nuts, turn on the air full blast and the oil pressure and water temp go nuts. Stay away from it, it's not worth the savings. I'm soon switching back to analog.

Wow, thanks for that... Could have spent $550 and been pissed off alot! Why didnt you just call them or send the guages back??? how long ago did you purchase the Nordskog guages??? maybe they could have resolved the problem by now??

I would either go with Dakota digital setup or I would run seperate gauges and they would be autometer analog gauges I just cant imagine going through the trouble of anything else and its just a better piece of mind. Its like running a holley or edlelbrock carb vs. a carb from china.

Can't argue with Reazon!!

just curious how easy it is to install these kits i want one for mine but i also need to upgrade the wire harness also. how hard is it to rewire the car. i have a 68 elcamino pretty much straight forward no power windows cruise or anything like that just ac dont even know if i will hook that up.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/Multi-Gauges/GP_2017512_N_111+1986+200728455+600002117_10101.jc w

a friend told me to check JC Whitney, they are about 1.5 hours away and I could just pick it up if I ordered from them, this was one of the choices. I liked the sound of the easy setup and programming.That is Nordskog! And,yes,I've heard of them.I have a freind that went with them in his 68 Corvette.Never heard of any problems popping up at all

Hey thats not too bad eh, I searched on site and found this: http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product/Pr-p_Product.CATENTRY_ID:2017512/c-10101/Nty-1/p-2017512/Ntx-mode+matchallpartial/N-1980+10101+200728455/tf-Browse/s-10101/Ntk-AllTextSearchGroup?Ntt=digital+gauge

I'm definitly purchasing these guages, looks very promising.. A few more functions also..
These are Nordskogs... Norskog is known for the accuracy and dependability of their individual digital gauges and now they've made it easy to upgrade to an all LED panel! Kit includes everything you need for an easy, direct fit upgrade requiring no cutting, fabrication or major alterations. Can be used with existing electronic cruise control senders or use S013 (universal speedometer sending unit)

Tach causing interferance with the speedo??????

This is an EASY fix

VSS wires (Speed pulse wires) must not be routed anywhere near the tach unless they are sheilded.

Move the tach signal wire so it does not go anywhere even close to the speed wires and the problem will go away.

I had this issue with the DD gages in my 59 at first-----thoroghly reading the instructions is important, but since most of us all have some "Tim Taylor, The Toolman" in us, we tend not to really comprehend and absorb the info:???:.

I had to fix the wiring AFTER I had spent days making an actual wiring harness for the car and taping it all up. Whatta pain.

The tach signal wire has enough energy or noise to penetrate the insulation on the wiring and sends false pulses to the gage control box.

Tach causing interferance with the speedo??????

This is an EASY fix...

Sorry but no it's not. We did all that and then more, even went as far as double shielding all the speedo feed and routing through the floor up into the dash to keep it away from the tach wire. This is a problem many people have had.

Simply not worth the hassle. Dakota comes out cheaper in the long run.

Ok, been a while since I posted this thrad. Since then I did purchse the DD gauges and am trying to wire them now. What is the best place to splice into the turn signal for that feature? I thought I read that it is a blue and light blue wire but when I tried that, it didn't work.

The Nordskogs are junk tried them and spent way too much tring to get them to work. I now have Dakota Digital and there great no problems. do not buy any Nordskogs products they are all leftover stock Nordskog is now out of busness and there is no way to cash in on that lifetime warrenty they have on there products.

sorry Jk. If you get a test light and turn on your turn signals you can find the signal wires in the main plug that went into your old cluster i tapped in to them there.

sorry? No, I did get Dakota Digital gauges. I am just having issues wiring it. The dakota seemed like it was worth the extra money from everyone I talked to. I spent most of the weekend working on them, tried to turn on the gauges, they worked for a while then when I tried my turn signals they didn't show up. I also only heard one click from the flasher so I think my battery was almost dead, wouldn't surprise me beings I had the doors open for a combined time of about 6 hours. So I charged my battery and had a snow day today so I was going to reconnect the battery and try again.

Jk Flash , Hope you figure out the wiring and believe me you will love that Dakota Digital Dash . The few others I have talked to at shows that had the Nordskrog would have preferred the Dakota . Fortunately for me I was able to get 464elky to install mine . He denies it but I `m convinced that boy has a hidden magic wand ! I admire that you can tackle the install . Cleaning contacts and replacing bulbs never seemed to make my dash lights acceptable in my 83 and 87 . He installed the dimmer which I use and love but I can see where others would not need it . It was set up with a feature that you can run it in demonstration mode when parked at a cruise in at night which is cool . I hope to have him add a cruise control feature on mine soon . As SOA-Nova said , the fuel reads in a percentage which at first is a little strange but you soon get used to it . The flashing feature when it gets down to 10 % is nice . Sure glad this was the route I was able to go .

I've installed two of them now and I found almost every thing I needed to connect to at the original dash plug. Your turn signal indicator wires are there as well.

dude.. check this out, so worth it..

http://www.elcaminostore.com/catalogsearch/result/?search_year=1981&q=guage+cluster&x=0&y=0

FYI Nordskog is out of business so if anyone is thinking of buying a used or NOS gauge set be warned that there won't be a warranty or parts available!

I got the turn signals wired up, so far everything is working as designed. Haven't had a chance to start it up yet but got the battery on charger and will try it later. Also, with the gauges, elec fuel pump, MSD ignition, etc. I have been having difficulties with my lights and old voltage gauge. I have a 1 wire 100amp alternator that is about 8-10 years old and when I am idling the gauge read 9 volts, also the lights would dim then brighten when i rev the engine. With all the new electronics I was considering buying a 140 amp alternator. Would this be a good idea?

Dakota

http://elcaminocentral.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=56150&g2_serialNumber=2&g2_GALLERYSID=a4dd0c41eb421fca6db1e5f4dc9e32ed

Has anybody tried this set?
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-800600/

That looks exactly like the Dakota, but in red

Actually I think it might fit with a little work into a 1966 or a Gen 4 non SS dash and look good.I'm not positive about 1966 because I haven't measured that dash in about 40 years.The Gen 4 would take a fill plate I believe.