It took me about 1 1/2 hrs to do the job, the biggest pain in the *** was the h/l switch removal,it will be the first thing you want to remove ,turn it all the way to the right so h/l's are in the on position pull out until you here a click then look at the **** you will see a slot insert a small screwdriver and pry it off slowly(it will come off)to get the complete switch out I dropped the lwr steering column trim panel(below the steering wheel) to do this you will have to pull off the upper trim panel fist (the small one above the column )it just pulls off as it is clipped in ,once this is off then remove the screws on the lower one and unclip it ,now look up at the h/l switch you will see a white body and what appears to be a black pin within the body on the bottom push this to the side and hold it while pulling on the body and it will come out,I know there is another way by turning the **** 180 degrees but for me it did not work ,this is why I wasted so much time trying to figure it out ,once this is out then remove all the screws holding the upper inst.cluster surround panel and pull it out (make sure to unclip the h/l switch ,it has 2 red tabs that need to be pulled out first then unplug the 3 plugs .Now you can access the inst. cluster ,there are 4 screws holding it in just remove them pull the cluster out being carefull not to scratch it or the upper column cover ,you do not need to remove it all the way just enough to unplug the large white ctr plug ,this plug contains all the nec. wires that you will need to install your tach and make it work ...
The wires that you will want to use are as follows : looking at the plug with the clip end down you will see 16 small holes (called pins) they are starting from the left #1 to the r/side #16 (AS PER FORD FACTORY MANUAL) for your; - ground you can use pin #1 or pin # 15 both wires going into the plug are black use a 2 wire splice connector and tap into 1 of them
-for your dash lights use pin#2 lt blue w/ red stripe this is the factory illumination feed
-for your power use pin #11 red w/ yellow stripe factory power ignition (hot in start or run)
-and for tach wire use pin# 12 white w/ pink stripe ,factory tach signal wire
thats it now your mainly done now just reassemble everything and mount the tach where you want and your finished .
I used the autometer 2 5/8 mini sport comp tach and mounted it on the r/side of my upper column cover so it would not block the view of the other factory gauges and lights .I have read the other posts in the past and they were not all that clear so I hope this helps some of you that are will to attempt this
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1998 ford f150 xl ,4x4 s/b,355's ,5 spd ,hidden hitch ,bed matt ,chrome pkg (tow vehicle)

1986 mustang gt ,cover car super ford may/2000 and to featured in the spring in 5.0
magazine ,svo r302-331 ci ,procharger d2 race kit (26 lbs boost @ 7500 ) way too much to list ,just your everyday 8 sec. capable street car (towed vehicle)

 

Good info. Thanks for taking the time to put this up for the rest of us.

 

Thanks for the post.