Hi All, My car has a Year One hood tach installed. THe tach ONLY works if I have the parking/headlights turned on. It works fine if the lights are on and the internal gauge light also works. I emailed tech support at Year ONe and they said they have offered many different brand of hood tachs and don;t have instructions. Their suggestion was to simply test the wire and find one that is HOT when the ignition is turned on with the lights off. Change those 2 wires and you should fine. So, I took a 3 foot piece of triple wire and stripped both ends. Then I tested and marks the HOT with ignition key on wire. Then I tried swapping the other wires. Each time NO JOY, except once the car would not start so that must have grounded the ignition. Anyhow, I can't seem to figure this out. Has anyone else had this problem? If so I'd love some advice on a solution. H E L P ! ! ! ! Thanks
Hi All, I thought I would have already had some of you enlighten me on this project as I am sure some of you have done this before :Brow: Still looking for some help in figuring this out. It seems like it should be simple but maybe I am too close to see what I need to be doing.... H E L P ! ! ! THanks
It sounds like someone goofed on the soldering inside the tach, and its pulling its juice through your illumination wire, not your hot wire. Tachometer disassemly would be required to correct this problem if that is the case.
on the repo tachs the illumanation circuit is the power supply for the tach,unlike the originals. you have the hook up the illumanation wire from the tach under the dash to key on hot. dont not just jumper it in, otherwise the parking lights will be on all the time with the key on also. cut the wire and connect your key on hot wire to the side of the wire that leads out to the tach. tape off the other side of the wire,and tape it out of the way.
Rick, I used a test light and I can identify the 3 wires at the connector as follows: - 1 hot with ignition ON - 1 hot with Lights ON - one is Ground/Dist. (I think) So, do you mean that I can simply use the HOT with Ignition ON wire connected to the wire that is currently connected via the Lights ON HOT wire? Will the Tach internal lights still work this way? Also, "If" I understand what you are suggesting then I will really only use 2 wires to the tach, one HOT Ignition ON, the other is ground/dist wire? Is that correct? I'll give it a try in the morning and post back the results. THanks!!!!!
Removed Hood Tach today in order to finally track down the problem. The Tach is a Year One reproduction. The tach ONLY works if the parking/headlights are turned on. This indicates that 12V power is required to operated the tach as well as the light in the tach. Lights on and it works fine. I remove the tach and notice the problem. There are 3 wires from the TACH connection wiring harness as well as the + and - wires from the 2 light bulbs. The issue is that the + wire from the tach is getting its power from the light switch. I think OK simple fix. Locate a + power wire under the hood that is only ON when the ignition is turned on. I locate one that is running through the firewall at the same location as the tach wires. I use a jumper wire to connect this wire to the + power wire from the tach harness. Engine stops running.....hmmmm. So I connect the jumper wire directly to the + side of the battery and it works perfectly. So, something is causing the engine to quite when using the power wire I located under the hood, but the tach works fine if the power wire is connected directly to the battery. What is the solution to this delima? I prefer to only have the tach connected to power when the ignition is ON. I thought I read somewhere that someone mentioned needing a diode or some other inline thingy from Radio Shack to fix this type of problem. I've searched but cannot locate that post. Can someone help me fix this problem? Thanks!!!!!!!
Hi Rob, My hood tach is from OPG - probably the same one that Year One sells. When the shop installed it for me it would only work with the headlights on. I told them I wanted the tach to work when the ignition was on (not just when the headlights were on) so they switched a connection and the tach worked, but the light in the tach stayed on even when the ignition was turned off! The solution was to put in a relay so that the tach came on as soon as the ignition was on and the hood tach light was then seperately controlled by the headlights.
Get the 12 v from a source sucha s courtesy lights, or dash lights that only light up when the Headlights are on. The + can be attached to even the windshield wiper source, any that is connected to a constant current, hmmm It would be different though cause it's hood mounted My 2 cents
Any chance you know which relay and where it is in the wiring? I want to the tach to function whenever the engine is running (obviously) but I also want the tach light to work correctly with the other dash/parking/head lights as it should. Sounds like you dealt with this same situation.A ny chance you have some pics of the connection and wiring required to make your tach and light function correctly? Thanks!
>>Hi Rob, I just tried doing a search for my old post when I had the hood tach installed but I cannot find it. I'll have to take a look under the hood this week and can take a pic - I don't remember all the connections off hand as it was installed a while ago.
Chris, Appreciate you taking a look and a couple of pics. I had to remove the hood tach in order to get at the wiring for trouble shooting but you may be able to simply get a pic if the underhood insulation is removed. Thanks, Rob
I don't understand why the tach will not work when I connect the jumper wire to the HOT wire (with ignition ON) that I located under the hood. When I connect this wire via a jumper the engine will quit. o No: If I take the same jumper wire and connect direct to the + side of the battery the tach works fine. What am I missing????????
Anyone know what I can do here? I'd like to get the tach remounted and take the car out but I want to fix this correctly first. Seems that someone has had to do the same thing with a repo tach and has the proven solution. Appreciate the help!
Well, I ran a test lead to the + side of the coil and the tach works fine. So I guess I'll run a wire from the coil to the power lead wire on the tach and call it done.....
Can anyone give me a link to buy one of the rep tachs from year oen i cant find it on there site at all thanks:beers2:
Sorry for the long delay in posting; I don't get over here much. I can't post links yet; so you'll have to figure out the www and com thing your self. Year One is yearone Hood tach is $335 Poston Buick has some for $235 that look the same. postonbuick Let me know how you come out. Thanks, Joe
Poston is gone; at least last I checked. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o> </o> I never could get a good picture of what Year One had. <o></o> <o> </o> Finally got one off eBay from seller mattfact <o></o> <o> </o> I had them build one with the Buick face; and 6 cylinder tachometer inside. They never fussed a bit. I dont have the receipt; but I think the total was around $235. Works right; and looks pretty cool. <o></o>
