'88 cluster in '82

1982 244GL diesel, formerly D24/BW55 powered now B230f+t/M46 with LH2.2.

Problem: I dunno how fast I'm going.

Solution: I dunno..

I plan on swapping in my 1988 axle so my thought was to use the 1988 gauge cluster and wire up the speedo connector but unsurprisingly there's wiring differences between a 1982 diesel and a 1988 gas. If I just plop the '88 cluster in it doesn't power on at all. Not sure how to make that work.. I believe it would take some pretty serious hacking of the harness inside the dash.

Alternatively a pre-1986 overdrive unit would work to use the original cable drive speedo but I've never seen any pre-86 in a junkyard around here. Maybe someone would be willing to ship one?

Or. Has anyone ever swapped an electric speedo into a mechanical speedo cluster? Just by looking at the backs of the clusters it doesn't really look like it'd fit.

For making the cluster wiring compatible. You can get a pin extractor tool and remove the pins in the large round and half circle black connectors. You are going to want to wire in the overdrive light anyway. Dave Barton has the pins available.

Easy to get the axle swapped since that is a bolt in and adding wiring. Overdrive swap is also pretty straight forward but a bit more messy. So I guess your path is decided by what parts you find.