Cluster swap = Success!!!
 

FINALLY!!!! Well, I decided today to stop being such a loser and worrying about everything and to just pop the old cluster out of my 1999 Protege SE (DX) and plug the new one in from a 1999 Protege LX just to see what happens. Everything works perfectly....the tach and everything. I even took her out for a 20 minute cruise so that I could see if it all worked.....it is fun to finally see the RPM's on my car.

All I did was just unscrew 5 screws then pulled out the 3 harnesses (those were PITA), then I hooked up the new cluster and it was all good. I'm not sure why my car was so easy but I have read a million times on other boards how if you have a Protege SE (DX) that the wiring isn't there for the tach. It might be because I made sure when I bought my cluster that it was from a car that was the same manufacturing month as mine (04/99), and that it had no keyless entry, and was a 5 speed. The wiring from the donor cluster was exactly the same as the wiring in my car...the purple and white wire (which is the tach signal) was already there in my car.....so the tach worked right away.

But ya, everything works and the only thing that changed was the milage. I am very pumped to finally have a tach in my car!

Congrats. My last car, which I bought in desperation at the time, did not have a tach either. It drove me freaking crazy not to have one.

where's the tach signal cable? have a cluster from the same year but the tach does not work? I was searching here but I can't find where the wire that carries the signal goes on the cluster?

Got it! found the info on different threads!! any way if you guys have more info let me know!!

Well I though I had it, but i still need more info on where exactly is the diagnostic plug so I can tap the signal?(purple and white wire) I'm unable to locate it, inside the engine bay? I own a 2000 Protege DX 1.6

Yep, did the same a few years back, a tach cluster on my DX. Funny, because the automatics came with a tach.

Finally I got it! it's working like a charm!! I located the diagnostic plug(daaah) run the signal and presto! good to go! what a difference now i can monitor my engine speed! thanks all you guys!!