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EZ Tachometer Install
Keeping your revs in check
Dan Burrill / autoMedia.com
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It's interesting to see how things come full circle. Back in the 1960s and '70s, very few, if any, cars came from the factory with a tach. Only the dragsters and serious quarter-mile racers invested in a tach. It was considered "cool" to mount your accessory tachometer on the dash so everyone could see it. Or you could mount it on the steering column so you could see it (without the glare).
Types of Tachs
Tachometers on the newer cars have become very common, and for good reason. Being aware of the engine rpm (revolutions per minute) can help you maximize not only power, but also gas mileage. It can even save your engine by preventing lugging or over-revving.
There are a number of companies that make aftermarket tachometers for automobiles. And they are designed for many specific applications like drag racing, stock car racing, and road racing. The tachometers that are designed for drag racing, for example, have a built-in recorder that can replay the tach after the race, so you can see what the engine did during the few high-speed seconds on the track. This is a valuable learning tool for an aspiring drag racer, or one who wants to perfect his craft.
Some of the tachometers used in NASCAR have an over-rev lock. If the driver over-revs the engine and the tach hits the magic preset number, the needle locks and won't come back to zero until it is reset. This tool is designed to prevent damage to the engine by too-high rpm, and it also lets the crew know what happened on the racetrack.
What we are using here today is a street tach that could be used for daily driving and an occasional run down the quarter-mile. A tachometer is a good thing to have because it can help you determine your ideal shift points (with both a stick and an automatic transmission). It really tells you what your engine is doing in a lot of ways.
Copyright autoMedia.com 2000-2008
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Here we have a 4-wire tach that has a switch in the back so it can be used with 4-, 6- or 8-cylinder engines. Most tachometers, like this one, come pre-wired and have a mount and a hose-type clamp for mounting it to the steering column. This is a fairly simple installation.
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Place the tach on the column where you want it and wrap the hose-type clamp around the column and the tach mount. Tighten with a flat-bladed screwdriver.
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The four wires are two red and two black. The red wire marked "trigger" goes through the firewall and is connected to the coil wire that goes to the distributor. The second red wire is the "hot" lead and is wired into the ignition wire where it goes into the fuse box, so that when the ignition is ON, the tach is ON, too.
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For a professional look, cover the first six inches of wire coming out of the tach with black electrical tape. This is so that when it is installed in the car, the red wires won't show and the wires will "disappear" when tucked up under the dash.
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And there you have it. By following the car manufacturer's recommendations and the engine builder's advice, with your new tach you can maximize performance, economy and engine life. And it still looks cool on your steering column.
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