Hi All,

I have a 2 gauge cluster in my clubman so have picked up a 2" tacho to install.

I have wired it all up and its working fine and to test where I would like it I have temporarily placed it on the steering column in front of the clubman gauges while I work out the best way to attach it there.

I have done a bit of searching but havent seen anything specific yet. Has anyone attached a small tacho to their steering column and if so what did you use to secure it?

And before anyone mentions it, I am already using insulation tape! albeit temporarily

I have a mate who has roundies where the speedos are in the middle. He from momory uses two bent pieces of metal bar about 10mm in diameter that is bolted to where the steering coloumn bolts to the dash, and then angled upwards towards the steering wheel where it bolts onto a tacho pod.

If you have a clubby wouldnt you be better off getting a mini s cluster or if your real keen and got a few bucks a gt cluster? That way it wont be in the rd of the other clocks

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Hose clamp.

Don't laugh, that works pretty well.

Mine is a 4" ex-MG tacho, and I've bent up a ~50mm length of aluminium bar into a _,--,_ shaped bracket, screwed at each end to the column shroud. The tacho is then hose-clamped to this bracket.

Works really well, and (since my tacho looks pretty good naked) looks fine.

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

if a hose clip was good enough to hold on the morris 1100 exhaust...

That is an awesome idea

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speed costs....how fast do you want to go...

I probably will get one at some point, but picked up the 2" tacho for $30 and have a few things to do in front of picking up a new cluster so am looking for the best solution till then.

This is few a pics of it at the moment, insulation tape and all.

i have something like this

http://www.shopsaas.com/html/gauges_cup ... front.html


may cost as much as your gauge though... i think i found mine in the eternal box of spares.. you never know what you'll find in there

Quick question:

My tacho needle jumps around quite a bit.

I have heard putting an inline resistor fixes the problem but is there an even simpler solution I may be missing?

I have a tacho the same as this, can you tell me how the wiring goes? Cheers.

Sure, I'll give it a go..

There are two types of tachs which look like mine: RVI (current sensing) and RVC (voltage sensing). You can tell which you have as it's fine-printed on the tacho face.

If you have an RVC, this wires up just like any other modern tach. Switched, fused +12V power, ground, and the sense wire from the coil -ve terminal (plus lighting if you have it). This tach detects the voltage change at the coil when the points open.

The older RVI type is a little more complex, but still not rocket surgery. Rather than detecting the voltage change when the points open, this tach measures the current drawn by the coil when it charges after the points close.

Before the tach is installed, your coil is wired up as follows:

Ign-switch --> fuse panel --> coil +ve

With the tach installed, this is modified as:

Ign-switch --> fuse panel --> tach-input --> tach-output --> coil +ve

The RVI-type tach has four connections: +12V power, Ground, Sense-in and Sense-out. You basically run two wires (not including the ground wire) from the tach to the fuse block -- one connected to +12V power-in and Sense-in on the tach, and the other to Sense-out. At the fuse block, you disconnect the coil, attach that wire to the sense-out lead from the tach, and plug the +12V/sense-in wire to the terminal from which you took the coil power line.

What this does is route the power feed to the coil through the tachometer first, so it can measure the current drawn by the coil when it charges.

On mine, the sense terminals were a male and female bullet -- I don't remember which was which, but it won't hurt if you get them backwards; you'll know if it's wrong because the tachometer will try and read backwards

(Since I installed it, mine has been converted with electronic guts as the germanium transistor in mine expired of old age, and it was just easier to replace the guts than try to fix it).

Hope that helps, if I can help explain it a bit more clearly let me know

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

Thanks for that. Mine is RVI it has 3 connections together 1 spade and 1 female and 1 male bullet and then has one globe (connect to light switch I guess) and 1 that looks like it is a light that illuminates when you switch the ignition on.

The male & female bullets are the sense in/out, and the spade is +12V in. Ground is attached to the tach body, then you hook the globe up to your instrument lighting circuit.

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges