Tachometer

[Dusty]

People can you tell me where to attach the signal wire from a tachometer on a my A. I attached it to the point side of the coil and I think I just recked my second tach

thanks
dusty

[Jim/GA]

Are you setup positive or negative ground?

Which coil post did you connect to?

[CarlG]

On most electronic tachs you have to set it for 4-cylinder as well, Usually a jumper or switch to set for 4, 6 or 8 cyl.

My set up is 12v neg ground, and I have the signal wire on the output side (RH) of the coil.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Jim/TX

Are you setup positive or negative ground?

Which coil post did you connect to?

12 volt negitive ground, I connected the signal wire from the tach to the coil post that feeds the distributer.

thanks
dusty

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by CarlG

On most electronic tachs you have to set it for 4-cylinder as well, Usually a jumper or switch to set for 4, 6 or 8 cyl.

My set up is 12v neg ground, and I have the signal wire on the output side (RH) of the coil.

I set the tach to 4 cyclinder and attached it to the coil side that feeds the distrubuter. This would be the left hand side while sitting in the car.

thanks
dusty

[CarlG]

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On mine, Left hand side is "power in" (has a voltage resistor on it), Right hand side is feeding the distributor. This is with an OEM distributor, (not electronic), and the coil mounted with the connections on the bottom.

[Jim/GA]

Forget "right or left" side of coil. These wires can be hooked up on either side of the coil, and the coil can go in either way (with (+) post on left or right).

Connecting to the side that connects to the points is correct. The coil should have a little (-) sign next to that post, because your car is negative ground (if it's wired correctly). That's all that matters.

I don't know why it is frying your tachs.

Do you have electronic ignition?

Are you using a 12 volt coil? (internal ballast) or an external ballast?

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Jim/TX

Forget "right or left" side of coil. These wires can be hooked up on either side of the coil, and the coil can go in either way (with (+) post on left or right).

Connecting to the side that connects to the points is correct. The coil should have a little (-) sign next to that post, because your car is negative ground (if it's wired correctly). That's all that matters.

I don't know why it is frying your tachs.

Do you have electronic ignition?

Are you using a 12 volt coil? (internal ballast) or an external ballast?

Well I guess I fried the filter and the tach I assume the coil is 6 volts because it does have the resistor. is this why I toasting the tach?

thanks
dusty

[Jim/GA]

No, a resistor is good to have (if it's in the right place). This may be one of those cases where you really need to take some voltage readings at various spots to understand what is going on.

You do not normally want the tach hooked up to the side of the coil that has the ballast resistor feeding into it. (That's assuming your car is wired properly.) That should be the power feed to the coil (to the (+) post on a negative ground car). And then the points connect to the (-) terminal of the coil to make and break the ground connection.

Is your key switch connected to the power feed side of the coil or to the wire that runs from the coil to the points?

[CarlG]

Where are you getting your power (12v+) for your tach?

IF - your car is wired stock, and you are trying to power your tach from the ignition switch, there's a good possibility that it will indeed fry anything you put on there. You need a clean power source. Initially, I just ran a wire from the fuse block on the starter, thru a toggle switch, then to the tach. That worked till I had the chance to re-wire things so that the ignition switch was switching clean power.

[PC/SR]

Not to be argumentative, but how are you sure you "fried" the tach? Maybe it was just hooked up wrong and did not work?

[Dusty]

The key switch is attached to the power side of the resistor, that is the only switch 12 volt power source I have, the tach also needs a constant 12 volt power source and I have many of those. The tach signal wire was hooked to the point side of the coil. Negative wire from tach was hooked to the body,I have a negative ground car.Yes the tach is fried because it would swing to full when first turned on and reset to zero and now it just sits at 1000 rpm on or off.

[sturgis 39]

I wish somebody made a six volt four cylinder tachometer that looked like the old Sun tachometers. I have a small tachometer that is six volts that I bought from Berts that works great but does not look period correct.

I have an old Stewart Warner mechanical drive tachometer but do not have a way to drive it off of the crank shaft. If somebody has a way to drive a mechanical tachometer on a Model "A" engine, I would be Interested in some information or pictures.

[CarlG]

Originally Posted by sturgis 39

...I have an old Stewart Warner mechanical drive tachometer but do not have a way to drive it off of the crank shaft. If somebody has a way to drive a mechanical tachometer on a Model "A" engine, I would be Interested in some information or pictures.

Check out Bill Stipe's web page. It says "Coming Soon" a distributor with a tach drive

http://www.stipemachine.com/index_files/page0017.htm

[sturgis 39]

Originally Posted by CarlG

Check out Bill Stipe's web page. It says "Coming Soon" a distributor with a tach drive

http://www.stipemachine.com/index_files/page0017.htm

I clicked on the link but I could not get an link on the site. Nothing was click-able. I wanted to see what it looked like.

I went Google and found the site. Nothing was click able on the site. Looks like some good stuff but can not get a picture or information.

[Dusty]

I smell a slight hijack

[V4F]

curious : what kind of tach ?

[CarlG]

Originally Posted by sturgis 39

... Nothing was click able on the site. Looks like some good stuff but can not get a picture or information.

Slowly scrol down on the buttons till the arrow changes to a hand with a finger, right toward the bottom of the button.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by steve norcal

curious : what kind of tach ?

Glow Shift, it was the most reasonble tach I could find that would fit in the 2 1/16 inch opening of the gauge bracket. I did go to Auto Zone and bought a tach that I will mount on the steer wheel column and it works perfectly.

For what ever reason the Glow Shift gauge is not compatable. So the lesson is going cheap will always cost you more Someone suggested here that I fill the vacant hole in the dual mount bracket( I have a water temp gauge on the other side) with an hour meter and thought hey that's a good idea and I found a round one and it was cheap

dusty

[James Rogers]

Originally Posted by Dusty

I set the tach to 4 cyclinder and attached it to the coil side that feeds the distrubuter. This would be the left hand side while sitting in the car.

thanks
dusty

Are you using a pop out ignition or a simple on/off switch?

[CarlG]

Originally Posted by Dusty

... Someone suggested here that I fill the vacant hole in the dual mount bracket( I have a water temp gauge on the other side) with an hour meter ...

I put a clock in mine -- just another suggestion.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by James Rogers

Are you using a pop out ignition or a simple on/off switch?

Simple on and off.

thanks
dusty

[Merc Cruzer]

Dusty:

Take this for what it is worth...I have a 6 volt POS ground system in my 53' Merc...I installed (temporally) a no name tach to check shift points and speed at different rpm's...it does have a switch for 4,6 & 8 cyl...voltage didn’t matter.

4 wire tach:

Black = hot (-) when swich is on
Red = ground (-)
Green = (+) side of coil
White = heat light switch


2 wire tach:

No switch for no. of cyl's - 8 cyl tach from an old Jeep
one lead to (-) side of coil
other lead to (+) batt (w/ switch - I did hook it up hot to the battery the first time and found that when you turn off the ign switch the motor jsut kept running)