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So sqc151 is helping me build my 93 legacy i bought from him and im looking to find a company that makes a speedometer will work with the 04 forester xt harness im using. if anyone knows of a company that makes one please let me know

The North American first gen Legacy speedo is cable driven. Are you wanting to change that so it's driven electronically, or am I missing something?

yes. thats exactly what i want to do just need something to tell me how fast i am going. its gonna become a track car after this summer

You could put in an aftermarket VSS or GPS speedometer from SpeedHut, AutoMeter, etc.
Or you could mod the dash and repin the harness to fit in a newer Legacy, Impreza, Forester gauge cluster with a VSS speedometer.

well im using the bulk harness out of a 04 forester xt but i'm chopping up the dash to make it custom since the forester dash is a tad bit wider then the legacy. thank you for the help guys i appreciate it

You can just put the cable in the transmission, or are you not wanting to do that?

If you wanted to make the speedo cable electronic you'd need to get an overseas electronic speedo cable/gauge cluster.

Check out this thread for more info.

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=50076

would i need the cable if i get the gps speedometer? http://www.speedhut.com/gauge/GR4-GPS-0 ... high-beam) was looking at this one.

Whatever ecu you run will need a speed signal, which the GPS speedo won't provide to my knowledge. Maybe you could look and see what the Vanagon guys do when they swap in subie engines? I know there has been modern engine swaps like the ej255 etc running successfully.

why is that mike?

trippywhitekid wrote:why is that mike?

The ecu's rely on the VSS from the trans to function properly. In case of the 1st gen American legacys, the speedo cable's mechanical movement is translated into a digital signal at the speedometer, which is then sent to the ecu (Talking about on the manual trans cars).

The implication of not running a VSS signal to the ecu on the older legacys is the car will be in a kind of limp mode.

I'm not as familiar with the newer stuff, but I know that in other swaps, people have to get a VSS to the ecu to make it happy. If you're running a standalone, that may be a different story. But my buddy with an eg33 swapped GC running a Hydra, had to go out of his way to get a vss signal to it. I'll ask him what he used.

even if its a manual? and sounds good if you want to pm if its easier thats fine

You need VSS to the ECU, yes. I assumed that since you are using an 04 FXT harness, you'd also be using the 04 FXT ECU and speed sensor. In that case, the speedometer can be completely standalone and not tied into the ECU's systems at all, which is why I suggested a GPS speedometer for ease of installation.

If you want to use the cable speedometer in your transmission, then the cluster provides the VSS output to the ECU. I'm not sure if a Gen1 Legacy VSS signal is compatible with an 04 FXT ECU.

mike-tracy wrote:

trippywhitekid wrote:why is that mike?

The ecu's rely on the VSS from the trans to function properly. In case of the 1st gen American legacys, the speedo cable's mechanical movement is translated into a digital signal at the speedometer, which is then sent to the ecu (Talking about on the manual trans cars).

The implication of not running a VSS signal to the ecu on the older legacys is the car will be in a kind of limp mode.

I'm not as familiar with the newer stuff, but I know that in other swaps, people have to get a VSS to the ecu to make it happy. If you're running a standalone, that may be a different story. But my buddy with an eg33 swapped GC running a Hydra, had to go out of his way to get a vss signal to it. I'll ask him what he used.

sorry just re-read this and answered my own question i asked to you. since i need a vss for the ecu im going to have to get the car tuned anyway would i be able to get rid of that issue then or would i still need them?

You absolutely still do need the VSS for the ECU. The ECU uses the VSS table to compute all sorts of fueling and idle control values.