Yes, that is where I mounted mine.

 

I put the control box on the transmission tunnel, just below where I mounted the LS ECU. Its easy to access and doesn't look too bad IMHO.

 

still pretty intimidated to take on this project ….

 

Why remove something that works well and install something complicated and undependable in its place.. Those warning lights alert you fastest. I have a set of mechanical gauges mounted in the glovebox to take a closer look when needed which is very rarely...

There's a saying in the electric field when I worked at Westinghouse, the more components, the less dependable..

 

I also put mine on top of the glove box.
Don't be intimidated Pat, just take your time and do one wire at a time, you'll be fine.

 

I’ve “mounted” mine for the third time and am finally satisfied. I’ve hard-mounted it twice behind and under the dash until I decided that actually mounting it wasn’t working for me. I’m always tinkering and adding sensors or changing something and contorting myself to get to it was too much work.

The third and final time I redid all of the wiring so that it’s about a foot longer than necessary. I used 3/4” foam pipe insulation that you’d wrap around a home water pipe and cut two pieces long enough to grab each side of the controller. I loosely placed zip ties around them to keep them in place. My controller can now hang down to the floor by my parking brake pedal. I give it one “roll” then tuck it up into the dash opening above the parking brake release. Now if I want to mess with it I can just pull it down, do my thing, then wrap & roll it right back up into its resting place.

 

Using velcro I mounted mine to the heater box on the passenger side. It's high enough that DW should not kick it and low enough that I can still see it and if needed peel it off the velcro to work on it.

 

I have mine above the ashtray behind the dash. But I like the idea 4xx had with a drop down as that would make it easier to access.

 

I mounted mine on top of my glove box as well. It really is not that difficult of a project.

 

My main DD control box sits more or less on top of the radio. Its sub-module for the gear shift indicator for my 4L60E sits to the right of the ash tray. My Gen 3 PCM sits on top of the glove box.

Rick

 

so you guys obviously know you stuff so I have a question.

My car currently has a mechanical speedometer. DD sends a setup that goes into the side of the tranny where the speedometer gear is and then you plug into that to convert from mechanical to electric ( I am sure you guys know this already) it has 3 wires red, white and black.. I can see where they would plug into the control box.

My TKO 600 has a fixture to plug a 2 wire electric speedo fitting into and that gets wired into the DD control box. I got a pigtail with fitting to plug into the speed sensor from Silver Sport and it has a yellow and a black wire.

TKO manual says it has a sensor that is a std two wire GM sine wave output.

When I I look at the DD manual it says " for two wire speed sensors such as a cable driven pulse generator ( is that what I have??) the polarity of the wires does not matter. Connect one wire to the SPD -ground and the other to the SPD SND terminal. The speed sensor ground wire should be brought back to the control box to ensure a proper signal is received. Twisting the ground and signal wires around each other provides an additional level of interference protection."

Don't think I am following that...this is why I hate anything electrical...ugh.

 

Just think of all two-wire speed sensors as nothing more than an on/off switch that turns on and off as it rotates. Your control box just counts the number of times it does so per second and converts that to a speed reading.

 

I also have a TKO 600 in my 70. I used the two wire setup for my DD and it works great I twisted the two wires together like they recommended.

 

So Jim obviously I need to lengthen the wires so I will just use butt connectors and heat shrink and lengthen to what I need..I would then twist the wires together and end up only plugging one wire in to the control box? if so which port do I use? thanks so much!!!

 

Thanks so much Jim. I called them the other day and the guy i talked to did not seem to be very helpful. Maybe he was just having a bad day. 🙂

I think i am more concerned about getting the old stuff out and programming the DD than the install. Dropping the dash seems like it could be a pita.

 

Here is a trick since you just need room to pull and replace the gauge cluster and then do some wiring splices.

Go to the hardware store and get a bunch of bolts the same size as the bolts holding the dash in, but about 6-8” long.

Then when you unbolt the dash, put the long bolts in one at a time. Then just carefully slide the dash towards you on the bolts. Reach behind, do what you need to do, then slide it back, and replace the long bolts with the factory bolts.

 

+1 to Tom's comment. Love my DD gauges. And there was no way I was going to leave a sweep gauge dash and a bunch of warning lights with a bad printed circuit in there after restoring everything else on my El Camino.

Rick

 

Progress being made