How To Tell Early Versus Later R32 Instrument Cluster?

[GSX-R35]

Hello all. New here but been lurking for a bit. I'm from the US and just picked up a Nismo R32 now that our wonderful government has deemed them acceptable lol.

Anyway, my car is a solid runner but needs some aesthetic TLC and being a Nismo I'd like to add whatever Nismo parts I can scrounge up. I'd like to get a Nismo cluster to replace the one in the car which has a Tomei speedo but a frankly horrid faux CF wrap on the bezel. Ugh. I read here that the clusters differ for early model R32s (pre-August 1991 I believe) versus later ones. I've seen some clusters on eBay so is there a way to be tell from photos whether a cluster is early or late? We don't have much of a Skyline scene here in the US yet since they haven't been legal so I was you hoping you knowledgeable people could shed some light on this for me. I tried a search but didn't find anything that helped.

Also, is the speedo the only thing different or is the whole cluster changed on early versus later cars?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[GH05T]

stock early models had blue dials but as for the nismo guages, mines an 89 and they look like this if that helps at all.

[blur]

If your buying a whole cluster, the circuit board on the back of the housing on the later models is blue versus a yellowish colour board on an early model. Theres a difference with the reed switch that sends a signal back to the ecu its a different shape and doesn't fit into the cluster housing. I have modified an early to fit a late, it involved some cutting of the plastic and I wouldn't recommend it but the customer had to have it as a part of a matching veilside dash kit.

[slowridn73]

If you have a legal car in the U.S. Then it's an early model. The clusters didn't change until the 91 model year.

[GSX-R35]

stock early models had blue dials but as for the nismo guages, mines an 89 and they look like this if that helps at all.

Thanks for the reply. I guess the Nismo speedo looks the same from the front regardless of year.

If your buying a whole cluster, the circuit board on the back of the housing on the later models is blue versus a yellowish colour board on an early model. Theres a difference with the reed switch that sends a signal back to the ecu its a different shape and doesn't fit into the cluster housing. I have modified an early to fit a late, it involved some cutting of the plastic and I wouldn't recommend it but the customer had to have it as a part of a matching veilside dash kit.

That's exactly the kind of info I needed. Thanks a lot! Now that you've told me that I realized all the Nismo clusters I've seen on eBay were early models with the yellow circuit board so I didn't notice there was a different color board on the later clusters until I checked photos of other ones and sure enough some were blue while others were yellow. Really appreciate the help - now I can buy without worrying about accidentally getting the wrong one for my car.

If you have a legal car in the U.S. Then it's an early model. The clusters didn't change until the 91 model year.

Thanks but I know for sure my car needs an early model cluster - it's a Nismo, hence a 1990 car. What I needed to know was how to tell if a replacement cluster I was considering buying was early versus late so I didn't accidentally get the wrong one for my car. Got my answer above so again, thanks a lot for your help gents!

[slowridn73]

Also the early nismo speedo will have 582 in the part number, the later speedo will have 583.