I did do a search on this topic, but I wanted to be clear on this. I am running a Year One reproduction in dash tach. I have used both MSD with a Tach Adapter, And now I use a regular HEI from the Tach output terminal. At idle the tach seems to read fine. Above 3,000 it goes crazy. Sometimes it bounces around, and other times it will just stay at 3000 even though I am actually reving much higher. It is useless!! Has anyone had any success making these (p.o.s.) reproduction tachs work? I am quite dissatisfied and really want to know what RPM I am actually shifting at. Thanks!!
How long have you had it? I dont have a repro tach from year one, but I have bought many other parts from them that are not what they say they are. If I were you if it has not been long since you bought it I would return it without a shadow of a doubt.
Andrew, I feel your pain. I put a Year One tach in a couple cars and to me they aren't that great.I also have a GSX hood tach from them and its a POS too.They seem to bounce the needle around and I found out they aren't accurate at all.One was between 200 and 500 prms off when compared to an Autometer one.And another read up to 400 rpms low.The hood tach I have will be just an ornamental one as I DO NOT trust it.I am putting it on my 70 Skylark project just as a ornament.Too bad,because that POS is a $240 bad investment.Glad I traded for it.At least the light works in it though. Pat
Every time I read one of these testomonials about repro tachs, it makes me want to keep the Autometer tach I installed 4 years ago. My original tach started to jump around, and then it died altogether. I really would like to have the original tach in the dash, but haven't seen a repro that is worth anything. They all seem to waver somewhat, and don't seem to be very reliable. The Autometer is dead nuts accurate, and smooth, and it don't look half bad!
Dash Tachometers Well guess I got lucky on mine. I have a reproduction Tachometer in my 72 and works just like the factory one and very steady and accurate. The only thing I don't care for is the back lighting, the black dial is almost dead on but the edge of the face doesn't curve around enough and allows to much light threw, this makes the tach brighter the the other factory gauges. Notice the blue edge when viewed from the side, AL.
Dash Tachometer Hi Bill!!! It came from Year One and I've no real problem with it other than the back lighting. Scott sent me a O.E.M. one to replace the one that is in there now. AL.
Thanks for the helpful posts! I have had the tach for years. The supply to year one was sporadic, so I bought one years before I actually used it. Larry - I have seen your set up before on other threads, and I it certainly a NICE job! The real thing is that I want to try some type of adapter or signal conditioner before calling it quits. Al - what kind of ignition are you running? Any chance that you are using a tack filter or signal conditioner of any type?
Is your tach on the right side of the speedometer? I thought from the factory that they came on the left side?
Tachometers Andrew, I'm running a factory points and ignition system. I did hear it was needed to run an buffer of some sort when using a non point set up or you will burn up you tach. AL
I would be interested to hear from the other folks on here to decide what side the tach came from the factory on. Mine is on the left side, and who knows maybe mine is not right. If you find out anymore information let me know and I will get things changed around the right way if need be. Thanks.
Rick is right.Tach goes on the right.The gauges or idiot lights go on the left along with the gas gauge as a 1 piece unit.Sounds like someone was messing in your cluster if your is on the left. Pat :beer
You know either I was really tired or drank too much because I went out to my garage and looked at it and the tach was on the right side. Wow sorry for the confusion, guess I need to pull it together, it has been about 4 years since I have driven the car.
My 72GS has a clock in the right position (which doesn't work). The hood tach seems to work okay, but I don't know whether it's a repro or not. Can you tell by looking at them? It says BUICK on it.
Wow, looks like you have a 24 hour clock in your dash. They don't repop those!! That's worth a few $$$. That would be a good candidate for a quartz conversion. You can do it yourself for about $70 and it'll work great after that forever.
any feedback how you tell an original one from a repro? I'm guessing it's in the yellow/red lines. Phil, thanks for the suggestion. I've been thinking that it would be nice to make the clock work again.
Has anyone thought about gutting a good autometer gauge and attaching the movements to the factory gauge needles so it looks factory but is just as accurate as the aftermarket stuff. Alternately what about using it to add factory looking gauges to something that never had it like a 65 Riv.
I thought this might be a good place to add this on but have any of you folks ever decided to put an aftermarket tach on the A-Pillar? Since there have been problems with YO tachs I figured that this might not be a bad place to put a better aftermarket tach. Of course I would not be using the original A-Pillar pieces to put holes in, what do you guys think, or if someone has done this can you post some pics?
