Aftermarket tach in non-tach car

[downinit25i]

Do you guys know of any good packages out there to add a tach to the cluster of a Monte that came with only the face plate? I see some original tachs and sensors on ebay, but you never really know what you're getting. Has anybody found a good tach that can fit in the dash, preferably something with an inductive pickup too.

 

[86Cutlass383SR]

Yeah, a guy named Jeff Davidson did it years ago. Here's a pic to show what he used and how it looks. Not sure what kind of pickup it uses, though. Look at the second pic down.

http://jeffd.50megs.com/tach_pictures.htm

 

[downinit25i]

Thanks, I took a quick look and found the gauge but only in pedestal mount form. It looks like they may have discontinued the dash mount version a while ago. Wiring is power, ground, and one wire to the negative terminal of the coil. I'm going to see if I can find one of these in a parts store to get a look at it, maybe I can just get it out of the mount and make it work.

 

[86Cutlass383SR]

I, too, noticed it was pedestal mount. I also noticed it was a 3 3/4" tach so any tach that size could also be done that way. Since most tachs are 3 3/8" I'd say it wouldn't be too difficult to adapt the same way.

Good luck and happy hunting.

 

[downinit25i]

I saw a guy on ebay selling 3-3/8" Autometer 2300 Dash Mounts for $40 plus $10 shipping. I have another question about the wiring scheme. There are a couple of plugs on the side of the distributor looks like C- GRD B+, then under that TACH and BAT. Sounds like I would just need to splice my sensor wire into the wire plugged into the C- slot?

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k180/downinit25i/IMG_5881.jpg

I suppose I could just go with a used tach, but then I have to get the wire with a plug and tach filter, correct? Those actually aren't cheap. What does the filter do?

 

[foxtrot]

AS far as the connections: +12v, gnd, and tach. The tach wire can be connected/spliced to the tach wire on the dist that feeds back to the ECM.. I've never filtered any tach that I've coneected oveer the years -- a filter could just be a basic cap/ind filter..

 

[86Cutlass383SR]

The tach filter was on the cars than came factory with tachs. Just as foxtrot_lima_bravo said, hook the signal wire right to the *tach* position on the HEI cap. 12v, ground, and light would be the other 3 wires. You can use either a female spade terminal to hook up the tach wire or go to a salvage yard and grab any GM connector with enough wire to splice into. It will be a white wire.